Somalilandsun – Her story is as startling and gut-wrenching as any that comes from Saudi Arabia. Joyce Nyawira’s story paints a picture of the untold suffering Kenyan women undergo in this Arabian nation, fuelled by the greed of local agents and their brokers
Nyawira left Nairobi in mid June with the promise from her agent (whose contact we have) that she would be serving a royal family in Riyadh, but she ended up working for a peasant farmer family in the north east oasis town of Sakaka, more than 1,200 kilometres from the capital. Her job? To wait on a family of 18! She had to wash dishes, clothes and clean 18 rooms, including seven toilets and bathrooms every day. She would also feed about 100 chickens and go to the ‘shamba’ in the evenings after the scorching heat of the desert subsides. “That notwithstanding, I was denied food and eventually I was so ruthlessly assaulted that I almost died,” she told The Nairobian. Before the beating, Nyawira was locked in an open-air chicken shed in the harsh desert heat and chilly nights for three days without food. Her crime was stumbling upon bloody clothes in a dustbin in the compound.
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