A family in Gogo-Katuma village in Homa Bay is seeking help to bring back their 39-year-old daughter who is stuck in Saudi Arabia.
Irene Atieno has been stranded in the Asian country since mid-last year.
Atieno is currently bedridden and lives with another Kenyan woman in Saudi Arabia after she left her employer’s house due to her illness.
The family is now in distress that their daughter may die in Saudi Arabia.
Her father Justus Odira said his daughter went to Asia in 2021 for work.
She was married in Kanyamkago in Migori county and had two children before her husband died.
Atieno traveled back to the country early last year where she narrated her ordeal to her family.
“My daughter got an opportunity to travel to the Middle East to work as a house help. Before she fell sick she would complain of being overworked,” Odira said.
Speaking to journalists at their home in Gogo-Katuma, Homa Town constituency, Odira said they advised their daughter not to return to the foreign country after hearing her frustrations.
Atieno decided to leave home for the second time in June last year to go back to the same employer in Asia but she lost communication with her family afterwards.
Odira said he was informed that his daughter had been sick and admitted in hospital.
“We’ve not yet established what happened to her. As a family we’re not getting clear information about her situation,” the father said.
It is reported that Atieno cannot walk and must use some wheelchairs to move around. The family has unsuccessfully tried to bring back their daughter.
The family is appealing to the government to intervene by helping them to bring their daughter back to Kenya.
They want their daughter to be given medical attention in Kenya and not in a foreign country.
“My daughter’s travel documents have also been withheld by her employer. We appeal for urgent intervention to save the life of my daughter,” Odira said.
Her mother Joyce Akoth said her family has tried in vain to seek help from the Kenya Embassy in Saudi Arabia.
“We’re drained emotionally due to frustrations we’re undergoing,” Akoth said.
