Eighty-five Kenyan women working abroad – mostly in Saudi Arabia – have died in the past three months, a politician has told parliament.
Alfred Mutua, who is currently being vetted by MPs for the post of Kenya’s foreign minister, also said another 1,000 Kenyan women had been repatriated.
Many Kenyan women go to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations in search of work. Mr Mutua did not explain how the women had died but said that many are “mistreated”.
He had been asked in parliament about the measures he would put in place to ensure the migrant workers were documented and protected.
“I’ve looked into the matter, and I’ve seen systematic failure in systems, from how they’re recruited here… and how they’re let to operate when they get to Saudi Arabia and other countries,” he told MPs.
The nominee promised that, if approved, he would work with the relevant authorities to allow investigators to travel with him to Saudi Arabia, to look into each death that has occurred.
“So that each and every person who participated in their deaths is brought to book and charged.”
In 2021, Kenya’s foreign ministry said 89 Kenyans, most of them domestic workers, had died in Saudi Arabia in the previous two years.
The deaths were however attributed to cardiac arrest.
