Autopsy results revealed that a Kenyan woman who had gone to Saudi Arabia in search of greener pastures was hit several times on the head before she died.
The autopsy conducted earlier in the week at a hospital in Nairobi revealed that Maximilla Muhadia had serious head injuries.
Her family members had tried in vain to repatriate her body for almost three months after they received the news of her demise on June 2.
"Her eyes, nose and mouth were mutilated and it was not easy to identify my daughter. It is only after I saw a denture space in her teeth that I was convinced," Violet Kasika, her mother stated.
In their quest to have their daughter's body ferried back, they pleaded with the government to help them, indicating that their daughter had been tortured before her demise.
They narrated that on May 15, 2021, she made a distress call to her home, claiming that she was receiving death threats. However, her phone would go off until June, when they were told of her death.
"She was tortured because she had been hit on the head several times with a blunt object. The attack distorted her face and we have been told she bled to death," Kasika added.
On Thursday, Members of parliament demanded action from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection due to the increased cases of mistreatment of domestic workers in the Middle East.
“We have visited what are considered successful agencies, but we have found out that there are agents out there who are not complying with the rules. Therefore, some of them are the cause of what is being witnessed by domestic workers,” National Assembly's Labour and Social Welfare committee chairman, Kabinga Wachira stated.
Some of the legislators blamed the authorities for laxity when Kenyan workers reported cases of assault by their employers.
The committee directed the two ministries to streamline the rules governing recruitment agencies to ensure that Kenyan domestic workers in the Middle East are protected.
