The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a land of opportunity and misery in equal measure for Kenyans seeking greener pastures abroad.
Ismail Waigwa, 35, a father of four living in Mombasa, vividly recalls the torture he underwent in a detention camp for 10 months in that foreign land.
Last year, Waigwa, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Mt Kenya University, left the country with four other Kenyans after securing a sales job from a travel agent who was his neighbour.
With the promise of a well-paying job to better his life and that of his family, Waigwa took the flight to Saudi Arabia.
“I left the country knowing I was going to work for Gulf Catering Company. But once I got there, they offered me another contract to sign with an agency known as Mueen. That’s when my troubles began,” Waigwa said.
He refused to sign the new contract, insisting on working for Gulf Catering Company, as agreed before leaving Kenya.
His queries on the new arrangement put him on the wrong side of the management. They tolerated him for about three months before they kicked him out of their premises.
Without an option, Waigwa did not see how he would survive in that second-largest Arab country on his own. So he decided to head to his new workstation.
Little did he know that the journey he had embarked on would lead him to a detention centre for the next 10 months, he says.
“Getting to Mueen, I thought that we would come to an understanding, but instead, they took me to a detention centre. Apparently, the previous management had called to inform them that I was a troublemaker,” Waigwa says.
THINGS CHANGED FAST
At the detention centre, Waigwa was denied freedom of movement.
“Even going outside to see the sun was prohibited. I had to seek permission to go out and I would even be escorted to get some personal shopping,” he narrates.
Food was an issue. They received one meal a day. It could be little and sometimes it could come already spoiled, meaning they would go without food that day.
Getting medical attention was another nightmare. A doctor was only allowed at the detention centre once every two months.
“Whenever one of us fell sick, there was no one to attend to us. A doctor would come to the detention after two months and in most cases, he would only bring painkillers with him. Our health status remained in the hands of God,” Waigwa says.
He says he was the only African at the detention centre, most of the people he was with inside were Indians and Nepalese, thus making communication difficult for him.
After spending four months in the dentition centre, he crafted a plan to run away and seek help from the Kenyan Embassy in Riyadh.
“One day, I sought permission to go out for prayers. On our way to the mosque, I managed to escape from the officer who was escorting me and boarded a taxi heading toward the embassy,” he says.
He adds, “I had no money with me, so on getting to the Embassy I had to ask for assistance from people who were around there.”
Waigwa says he managed to get an audience with the Kenyan ambassador to Riyadh, Peter Ogego, who assured him the Embassy would help to take up the issue with the Saudi Arabia Labour Court.
His mother in Kenya took a Sh250,000 loan and sent it to him to help him settle the legal fees required to take the matter to court and also use part of the money to look for a place to stay as the matter was heard and determined.
The Labour Court ruled in his favour, ordering his former employer, Gulf Catering Company, to immediately pay him his dues and return his passport.
“When I went to the offices after the court ruling, the management denied me access and I was served from the counter. They offered me a one-month salary and to pay my air ticket back home,” Waigwa says.
The Kenyan migrant worker totally refused the offer and decided to wait for the final court appearance within a week’s time if the matter was not settled.
Two days later, Waigwa was arrested by police and taken straight to Tarhil Jail in Riyadh because his residence identity card had expired and the company reported that he ran away.
While in prison he missed the court session that could have changed things for him.
Waigwa explains that he underwent a lot of torture and was tormented while in prison, adding that the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia abandoned him.
It took the efforts of his family in Kenya who rung a human rights organisation, Haki Africa, that stepped in the matter and managed to secure his release.
It is now two months since he returned to Kenya, and he says he has been surviving on help from friends and relatives.
He is still hopeful he will be paid the Sh500,000 owed to him by the previous employer and also get back his passport, which is still being held in Saudi Arabia.
“I have so many debts in Kenya. The lender who gave my mother the Sh250,000 while I was in Saudi Arabia has threatened to take us to court for delay in paying back. I have rent arrears and school fees to pay,” Waigwa says.
Waigwa vows that he will never go back to Saudi Arabia and cautions Kenyas wishing to travel to Middle East countries to prepare for the worst experience.
We ate and slept on the floor without a mattress or beddings. We had the same meals every day. Even when you fall sick, no medication came on time
SWALEH’S BITTER ENDING
For Saggaf Swaleh, 35, his story is bittersweet. He had a smooth ride for close to eight years as a driver before things went haywire for him.
“My misfortunes began in December 2020, when I got into an accident with the truck I was driving,” he says.
Swaleh had worked since 2012 for Admass International Company in Riyadh. The company is part of the Motor Vehicle and Motor Vehicle Parts Supplies Merchant Wholesalers Industry.
On December 31, 2020, he received a distress call from a Kenyan woman he had known while working there to go pick her up and take her to the Kenyan embassy as she had run away from her abusive employer.
While on the road, the employer’s sons started chasing them on the road, trying to block them from getting to the embassy. While at it, they hit his truck, which veered off the road before overturning and rolling.
The female passenger unfortunately lost her life.
“I was taken to hospital because I sustained some injuries. Though the traffic officers saw everything that happened and even had video evidence, they changed their statement and I was arrested after two days and taken straight to jail for careless driving and causing death,” Swaleh said.
He says he was confined in a 40ft by 40ft room together with 250 other detainees, making life very difficult because there was not enough space.
They ate the same meals every day: kuboos (an Arabian bread) for breakfast and rice for lunch and supper.
He said he spent six months there without a single official from the Kenyan Embassy coming to check on how they were faring at the centre.
“We ate and slept on the floor without a mattress or beddings. We had the same meals every day. Even when you fall sick, no medication came on time,” Swaleh recounts.
It was through a Ugandan human rights group, Voice of the Voiceless, whose officials who had come to check on one of their citizens that he asked for help.
The rights group referred his matter to Haki Africa since they could not take up the matter because he was not a Ugandan citizen.
Two months later, he was released and deported back to Kenya on August 31 after serving a jail term from January 2, 2021.
Swaleh says by the time he was leaving the prison, there were some 30 Kenyan men in the male prison and about 150 Kenyan women in the female prison, serving different sentences.
He says things changed and strict rules and severe punishment were introduced for African immigrants working in the country ever since King Salman bin Abdulaziz acceded to the throne in 2015 after the death of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz on January 23, 2015.
“I have experienced life under the two rulers. Things were fine during the times of the late king, but ever since King Salman took over the throne, he introduced stringent measures to all foreign immigrants, especially Africans,” Swaleh says.
He says he does not wish to go back there again. His focus now is to look for a job and take care of his three-year-old son.
He warned Kenyans wishing to go work in the country to be ready for anything because life might not be as easy as they think.
“Omba sana usijipate kwenye makosa, bro. Utajuta maze (Pray so hard you don’t get in trouble, brother. You will regret it),” Swaleh says.
