Kiambu Senator Karungo wa Thang’wa has vowed to take action in the Senate after discovering the plight of homeless Kenyans stranded in Saudi Arabia.
The Senator took to his social media on Thursday, November 13, to highlight the struggles of mothers and children, who were rendered homeless for years. According to the legislator, the mothers and their children are stranded due to bureaucratic delays.
Thang'wa revealed he had come across a Kenyan mother from Vihiga County who was living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with her eight-year-old. The woman was reportedly stranded in the Middle East for years due to administrative delays at the Kenyan Embassy.
“Her situation is heartbreaking. She either leaves without her daughter or remains stranded indefinitely in Saudi Arabia,” Senator wa Thang’wa said.
According to the Senator, part of the reason some of the Kenyan women were unable to return to their home country was because they gave birth to children in the Middle East - a situation which prompts DNA testing before the children can be cleared to return home.
In the case of the Vihiga woman, samples of her and her child were purportedly taken three years ago by officials who travelled from Kenya through the embassy; however, no results have ever been made public.
“How many more mothers must wait? How many children must grow up stateless, homeless, and forgotten while offices trade silence and bureaucracy?” Thang'wa posed.
While calling for answers from the Kenyan government and the embassy in Riyadh, the Senator also urged Kenyans facing similar struggles in Saudi Arabia to reach out to him directly, as he vowed to raise the issue on the floor of the Senate.
At the start of the year, an investigation by The Guardian revealed that a number of Kenyan women who went to Saudi Arabia for domestic manager jobs ended up being unable to leave the country after giving birth.
According to the report, children who were born during relationships with fellow migrant workers remained unregistered since Saudi Arabian laws criminalised sex before marriage.
Children born outside marriage in the country end up being denied legal documentation, preventing them from being given exit visas since they are classified as "stateless".
Meanwhile, the Central Organisation of Trade Unions (Kenya), COTU, has warned Kenyans against travelling for jobs abroad without registering with the embassies of the countries where they are going to work.
