A Kenyan girl, Catherine Wambui, left Kenya in 2020 for greener pastures not knowing her quest would see her being locked up in a maximum security prison thousands of miles away from home.
Speaking to Kenyans.co.ke, Wambui stated that she bade her motherland goodbye in 2020 after securing a two-year contract as a house manager in Iraq.
After fulfilling her contract in 2022, she explained to her boss that she wanted to come back to Kenya as previously agreed.
The boss forced her to extend the contract which she refused explaining that she was not in a good mental space to spend two more years in the Arabic country.
“I had packed and prepared everything and he even took me shopping but when it came time to leave, he was advised by one of his friends to make me extend the contract,” she recalled when her troubles began.
After refusing to extend the contract, the employer told her she would then be required to pay for her own ticket to Kenya.
This was impossible because not only did she not have enough money for the ticket, but the boss also took custody of her passport.
“I stayed in my room for two weeks then one day I took off and went to the Iraq immigration department since we do not have a Kenyan embassy there,” she explained.
Instead of the immigration department deporting her to Kenya, they handed her over to the Iraqi police after taking her details.
“The police took me to hospital for medical tests and told me I would go home within three days once my boss surrenders the passport,” she told Kenyans.co.ke.
To her shock, she was shocked when she was shepherded into a vehicle without being told where she was being taken.
Wambui explained that she started having premonitions she was being taken to prison when she saw the vehicle approaching a building surrounded by barbed wire.
“I was scared when we entered the sealed building and I saw people in cages. They then started shouting that a newcomer had arrived,” she recounted her first moment in the maximum security prison.
“The prison was traumatising as it was a common space for everyone. We were in the same room with murderers and drug dealers serving life sentences.”
She explained that the prison management did not care and the place was so congested that sometimes they were forced to sleep in a sitting position.
One cube was used to house over 100 inmates and detainees and only one toilet.
Her saving grace happened towards the month of Ramadhan in 2023 when the prison started releasing some of her detainees.
Having secured her freedom, Wambui called her parents back home who made a wire money transfer to pay for her plane ticket.
Worryingly, Wambui revealed to Kenyans.co.ke that there are other Kenyans held in the Basra prison who may not be lucky enough to secure freedom despite having not committed any crime in the foreign country.
On July 10, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi told Senate that Kenya only had 150 of its citizens in Iraq. The Prime Cabinet Secretary did not indicate how many Kenyans were being illegally detained in Iraqi prisons after refusing to engage in forced labour.
