Kenyan Woman Stranded In Saudi Arabia Returns Home After Viral Tea Expose

Her brother expressed his gratitude to us for featuring her on Monday, November 21 after she returned to her home in Kisii.

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Dec 23, 2022 - 09:36 Updated: Dec 23, 2022 - 09:40
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Kenyan Woman Stranded In Saudi Arabia Returns Home After Viral Tea Expose
Outside JKIA's terminal 1A building. /KENYA AIRPORTS AUTHORITY

Linet Bonareri Ontweka, a woman who was detained in Saudi Arabia after travelling there to seek employment opportunities is back in Kenya, one month after Viral Tea's feature about her ordeal in the Gulf.

A source close to the family who spoke to this writer revealed that Bonareri flew back into the country on Thursday, December 22. 

Her brother expressed his gratitude to us for featuring her on Monday, November 21 after she returned to her home in Kisii.

A picture of Linet Bonareri Ontweka who went to Saudi Arabia. /WHATSAPP

"Just been called by the brother to the lady who had been detained in Saudia.

"She returned yesterday and she went back to her home in Kisii. The brother is very appreciative," the source said.

Viral Tea welcomed the new developments with excitement especially since she was in the Middle East country since March 31, 2022.

Bonareri is married with three kids and heard about women travelling to Saudi Arabia through her friends and decided to try out the opportunity with the help of an agent after her efforts at finding a job locally hit a dead end.

The journey from Nairobi to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia was without incident. The following day she was in the Gulf.

However, she noted that the journey from Riyadh, the capital, to her new workstation was further than she had been made aware of. Her job was handling domestic chores for a Saudi couple with their two children.

“I worked for three months straight but there was no pay forthcoming. I opted to go on a go-slow. This prompted them to pay me just half the amount they owed me,” Bonareri who left her children and husband in Kenya told Viral Tea at the time.

Bonareri then learnt that her hosts were planning to indenture her (sell her off) to another employer. She decided that the best she could do was escape and seek help elsewhere.

She vanished from her place of work on August 30, 2022, however, she was arrested when seeking help from the police and was subsequently handed over to the offices of the agent’s contact in Saudi Arabia.

She claimed that afterwards beatings and forced labour were the order of the day. She and other Kenyan women facing the same predicament had been coerced into a sweatshop formation where they worked all day packaging honey in bottles for no pay.

Her relatives in Kenya got wind of her predicament but upon trying to inquire from the local agent that facilitated her travel, no useful information was forthcoming.

The family accused Joytom Manpower and Travel Agency headed by one Mercy Kawara of being seemingly helpless in addressing the situation which was part and parcel of the initiators.

Copies of a contract signed between Bonareri and an employment outfit known as Contrabil Limited show that she was to work for two years as a housemaid in Saudi Arabia at a payment rate of 900 Riyals (Ksh29,286 per month). Even this amount, with all the risks involved, remained a mirage in a foreign land.

Bonareri’s family expressed fear that just like other cases of Kenyan women undergoing abuse and even death in the Gulf, their kin risked joining the list if help did not reach her in good time.

On Monday, October 31, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Secretary (CS) Alfred Mutua met representatives of employment agents who recruit Kenyans for jobs in Saudi Arabia and other regions.

"It's clear that the problems facing some of our people start back home in Kenya. The system is flawed and corrupt and unless it's fixed, nothing will change.

"There is massive corruption in how Kenyans are prepared before they leave to be domestic workers in Saudi Arabia and follow up of Kenyans when they arrive," Mutua disclosed on the major reasons Kenyans are suffering in Saudi Arabia during his visit on Wednesday, November 2.

His ministry had expressed the aim of weeding out illegal agencies, some of which are owned by prominent Kenyans, by blacklisting them to ensure that they don't run.

Foreign Affairs CS Alfred Mutua holds a meeting with representatives of employment agents who recruit Kenyans for jobs in Saudi Arabia and other regions on Monday, October 31, 2022. /FACEBOOK.ALFRED MUTUA

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