At least 274 Kenyan workers, mostly women, have died in Saudi Arabia over the past five years, despite working in non-hazardous jobs, according to a New York Times report published on Sunday.
Uganda has also seen a significant number of worker deaths in the Gulf kingdom, though its government does not disclose official figures.
Each year, thousands of Ugandan and Kenyan women migrate to Saudi Arabia for domestic jobs as housekeepers and nannies. However, many return with harrowing accounts of unpaid wages, detention, beatings, starvation, and sexual assault. Others return in coffins.
Autopsies of those who died often revealed evidence of trauma, including burns and electric shocks, yet Saudi authorities consistently ruled the deaths as “natural causes.”
In 2022, Kenyan housekeeper Eunice Achieng called home, saying her employer had threatened to kill her and dispose of her body in a water tank. She was later found dead inside a rooftop water tank—Saudi police ruled it a “natural death.”
Ugandan worker Aisha Meeme suffered a similar fate. A Saudi autopsy found extensive bruising, three broken ribs, and severe electrocution burns on her ears, hands, and feet. Yet, Saudi authorities still classified her death as “natural causes.”
Systemic Abuse and a Blind Eye
Faridah Nassanga, a Ugandan housekeeper in Saudi Arabia, was raped and abused by her employer’s husband. When she became pregnant, her employers immediately put her on a flight back to Uganda. She is now seeking compensation.
The New York Times investigation, which interviewed over 90 workers and families of the deceased, found that influential figures in Kenya, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia own staffing companies and are ignoring the rampant abuses and deaths.
The report revealed that members of the Saudi royal family, including descendants of King Faisal, have investments in recruitment agencies that place domestic workers. Senior Saudi officials, including a director of a human rights board, a former interior minister, and an investment ministry official, were listed as vice chairs of major staffing firms.
Kenyan and Ugandan politicians—and even their family members—also own recruitment agencies.
While some countries have secured agreements with Saudi Arabia to protect their migrant workers and enforce wage standards, Kenya and Uganda have failed to do the same, the report noted.
A spokesperson for Kenya’s presidency stated that the government is now taking steps to protect workers and crack down on unlicensed recruiting firms.
Meanwhile, a Saudi labour ministry spokesperson said: “Any form of exploitation or abuse of domestic workers is entirely unacceptable, and allegations of such behaviour are thoroughly investigated.”
