A woman who went to work in Saudi Arabia in search of greener pastures has narrated a grueling experience in a foreign land.
Lilian Kwamboka, who recalled being tied to a chair for three days without food and water, opened up about another horrifying ordeal while in the Gulf. The hardworking woman emotionally shared a moment when her cruel Saudi boss almost sacrificed her.
Kwamboka said she had been taken to a different office by a different agent to connect with another boss after falling out with her first employer.
“This lady in the office said I would be taken to a different employer because I had complained about my first boss. Other house helps with me were also to be taken to their new places of work. We got into a car and headed for the airport. The other lady we were with was taken somewhere else by a plane while I was driven to a different house in Dammam.
“At the airport, I heard the driver and his colleague talking and they said I wasn’t going for work anymore, I would be given out as a sacrifice. When we were taking the tickets, I refused to get one, and I said I’d rather stay somewhere, even if it was at that airport, waiting to be deported to Kenya. But they persuaded me to go, and I accepted,” she recalled.
Kwamboka said she could hear the driver and his colleague saying it was over for her while in the car. They arrived at their destination in the evening, but Kwamboka refused to get out of the car and go to the house, fearing for her life.
“One man forcefully grabbed me by my hand and led me to the apartment. We got into the lift and went to the fifth floor. The place was clean, and there was a worker, but I hadn’t gone there to work because the houses where we went to work were either storey houses or floor houses.
“One girl there told me I was unaware of what would occur to me. She removed my fingernails and toenails and threw them into the toilet. Near the bathroom, there was a sink, and under that sink, there were female clothes which had a lot of blood, and they were soaked in a basin. There were a lot of female inner-wears arranged there,” she recounted.
Kwamboka from Kenya said she began to pray intensely, asking for God to intervene in her life-threatening situation.
She said she was told she had been sold, only her passport would be returned, and her family would be sent some money.
“The man who had dragged me to the house was the girl’s brother. When he came, he asked for a basketful of knives, which was brought to him. He pulled me to a room which they had tried to force me to sleep in, but each time he was walking away, I would follow him.
“Inside that room, there was a door that led to the balcony. The man lifted, hauled me over the window and left me hanging on the outside,” she claimed. How far was the police station from the apartment? Kwamboka was hanging on a metal rod from the fifth floor, and no one was there to help her.
“I was just holding on to a metal rod and got so tired, I was just switching hands. Then I said if I was going to die, then I should die. I told God to look after my kids for me. Just like that, I didn’t even know it, but I found myself on the floor. “I screamed, and the people nearby started taking pictures. The police station wasn’t that far from there, and it was not long before they came and rushed me to the hospital,” the Kenyan woman said.