Up For Sale: Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery illustrates the atrocity of Kafala, a middle-eastern systemic racist legal framework that warrants oppression of migrant workers.
It authorises human rights abuses, including confiscation of passports and endurance of long working hours. It restricts mobility, hinders vacations, confines external communication, promotes inordinate poor accommodation and enhances gender discrimination.
In late December 2019, Sophia Achieng’, a student at the Kenya Institute of Management, worked as a waitress at Mr Yao restaurant in Westlands, Nairobi. A trafficking agency that scouts for workers in Saudi Arabia, situated along Ngong’ Road, recruited her.
Her flight from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport aboard an Air Arabia plane, landed in King Abdulaziz International Airport in the port city of Jeddah. Achieng’ instantly noticed the locals’ unquenchable thirst for racism. Black people, including her, queued at segregated sections.
An Air Arabia operative promptly confiscated her passport and she never saw it for the rest of her Saudi excursion. She requested her luggage and was concurrently met by demeaning stares that smeared at her presence and earned gratification from the mistreatment of black people. They covered their noses when she approached them and applied deodorant on their hands to detest her.
She began noticing a disparaging word used to describe black people, himaar (donkey). She was also disrespectfully laughed at and told to yallah (hurry up and leave), when she requested evidence about her promised white-collar vocation.
After a three-day confinement, on a floor mattress, surviving on juice and biscuits, Achieng’ was led to a taxi, driven to a terminus where she boarded a bus at 1pm. She endured a starving 14-hour bus ride to the south-western hilly city of Abha.
A young bearded man received her and drove her to a palatial estate commandeered by Amira, the driver’s tyrannical mother. Amira lived with numerous members of her extended family. Achieng’ was tasked to clean the 30-bedroom residence, clothes and kitchenware.
At 10am daily, she prepared breakfast for Amira’s husband and each individual in the house, depending on the time they awoke. She made lunch for the entire family at midday, and prepared supper. Every hour of the day and night, she brewed gahwa (coffee) for the family that stayed up late into the night, which they had with local bread, Bushra.
Achieng’ only slept for a maximum of four hours daily, in a tiny, uncomfortable, makeshift bed with a thin mattress in a small storeroom. Every night, she’d be awakened by the naked sight of Amira’s son Muhammed, who would attempt to rape her but she would consistently fight him off.
She would be beaten and spat on daily, and an elaborate compilation of derogatory expletives were directed at her. Including “dirty black whore,” kaffir (unbeliever), shagallah (maid) and abeed (slave), by Amira and her children. Whenever she took a break to rest, Amira would physically assault her.
Achieng’ avoided eating leftover food she was instructed to take, and survived on sugarless green tea, dates and apples. She had a chest complication, which worsened. She developed ulcers, haemorrhoids and chronic gastritis. She informed Amira of her illness, but she blatantly refused to hospitalise her.
In the brink of despair, Achieng’ began recording videos and audios of her mistreatment and continuously sent them to her sister, Mary, in Nairobi. After a month, she escaped and trekked for an hour.
Every motorist who stopped by her demanded sex in exchange for a lift—she declined. She arrived at a police station in Abha, and was met with insults, mockery and laughter when she reported.
She was sexually assaulted repeatedly by the police officers who exploited her desperation by groping her breasts and rear. It dawned on her that due to Kafala, her human rights were immaterial. They phoned her employer, Amira, who drove her back to her residence.
Upon her return, she was reprimanded and viciously battered by an indignant Amira, together with one of her sons and her daughters. She was flogged with the intention of confiscating her phone and eliminating its evidence. Achieng’ managed to free herself from the assault and ran up a staircase.
Amira dragged her back and she fell, grievously injuring her back. She freed herself, hid in the toilet for respite, skipped work and contemplated suicide.
On February 14, 2020, Achieng’s mother began paying her trafficking agency Sh350,000, in instalments as compensation for her daughter’s return. This culminated in Achieng’s release to a safe house in Jeddah, dominated by hundreds of rescued trafficked women.
She awaited the revocation of her Iqama, the Saudi Arabian residential permit. Immediately before the Saudi Covid-19 lockdown in late February 2020, Achieng’ travelled back to Nairobi, without compensation, but happy to be alive.
Jeff Anthony is a novelist, a Big Brother Africa 2, Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff’s Fitness Centre; @jeffbigbrother
