A family in Kisumu is in a double tragedy grief after the death of two kins within a span of one week, this is after their daughter died abroad and a grandmother, her namesake, too passed away upon receiving the news of her kin’s death.
Mary Awonda, a 30 year old lady, had traveled to Qatar to seek greener pastures only for her family to receive the news of her death less than a week after her arrival.
According to the family, they were informed that their daughter, a graduate in Hotel Management who had upon invitation of a friend died as a result of electrocution even before receiving her first salary in the Gulf nation.
"According to the postmortem report we received, it stated that she died of electrocution only as the final result and not the procedure followed in arriving at that," Joshua Otieno, a brother to the deceased, told the media.
Mary, a mother of two, had reportedly left the country on July 4, 2024 to seek work as a domestic worker in a private home.
"The work that she got is one that she had been asking for from friends as a domestic worker and when she got the offer, the salary was enticing and she said she could not turn it down," her mother, Grace Awuonda, recounted.
The grandmother, upon receiving information of the death, reportedly suffered a heart attack and died as a result.
"When Mary died, there is a grandmother whom she was named after and when she got the tragic news she had a heart attack and died and as we speak we have two burials," Pamela Alago, an aunt, revealed.
Awuonda's body was flown to Kenya on August 19, 2024, but the family has been unable to raise funds for an independent post examination to verify the death of Mary.
They are now facing an uphill task of resting two members of the family hoping that justice will be served at the end.
Many Kenyans have been moving to the Gulf nations in search of jobs majorly as domestic workers following the surge in unemployment opportunities locally. However, recent reports suggest an increase in the number of deaths and injuries under mysterious circumstances in the host countries.
Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi revealed before the Senate plenary on July 10, 2024, that at least 316 Kenyans have died working in the Gulf States since 2022.
"The records we have show that the total number of Kenyans who have lost their lives in the Gulf region is 316," he noted.
The countries include Saudi Arabia with 166 deaths, Qatar (58), United Arab Emirates (UAE) (51), Iraq (25), Bahrain (10), and Kuwait (6) while Oman and Iran recorded zero deaths.
