The story of how a Kenyan woman working in the Middle East as a house help was tortured by her employer has sparked an online storm.
The incident which was first highlighted by Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko involves one Mary Kibwana who was reportedly set on fire by her employer and left to die.
Ms Kibwana was attending her normal duties in her employer's house when the boss ignited a gas cylinder causing an inferno which severely burnt her.
“My clothes and lower body immediately caught fire before it spread to my chest. I managed to run to the bathroom where I passed out,” Ms Kibwana stated.
The 31-year-old regained consciousness only to find her employer kicking her while hurling insults at her. She was miraculously rescued by a neighbour who heard her screams and alerted police who immediately rushed her to a hospital.
While she was in hospital for six weeks, her employer confiscated her phone and refused to contact her family to inform them on what their kin was going through.
“I would cry every day, begging the doctors and the nurses to send me home but nobody listened. I begged to be allowed to speak to the Kenyan embassy but the people in the hospital ignored me. It was after they realised that I was not getting better that my employers finally made arrangements for me to come to Nairobi,” Ms Kibwana narrated.
The mother of four was jetted to Nairobi on Sunday where she was received by her family. The woman was in a horrifying condition having sustained burns on her chest, stomach, thighs and legs.
She was taken to the Kenyatta National Hospital by the Sonko Rescue Team where she is recuperating. Doctors at the facility indicated that Ms Kibwana sustained 47 percent burns.
In her hospital bed, she stated that: “My female boss and her daughter would often beat me for the most trivial of reasons. They would also give me bad food. I had no breaks from work and I would toil from 6am daily to late in the night. They took my passport away the day I arrived and I had no access to a calendar so I never knew what day it was, let alone the time”.
Kenyans on social media heavily condemned the incident with some stating that the Government ought to establish laws that inhibit transfer of labour to the Middle East countries.
Sonko also stated that he would try to hold talks with the Foreign Affairs Minister regarding the issue and if he failed, he would mobilise Kenyans to hold demonstrations against Embassies of the Middle East countries.
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