This archive report was first published on 25 September 2019.
Lucia Nekesa's ordeal began eight months ago when she left Kenya to work as a house girl in Iraq. She had secured a job through agents in Kenya, but was surprised to find out that she would be flown to Iraq instead of Qatar, as she had been told.
Speaking to reporters at the Haki Africa offices in Mombasa, Lucia recounted the moments of torture she endured in Iraq. She was battered for eight months, with false accusations made as a prelude to the beatings. Her employers would overwork her, and when she complained, she would be punished.
One of the people who tortured her was a Tanzanian man named John, who lied to her that he was a Kenyan. When Lucia asked him why he tortured fellow Africans, he replied, 'If I am asked to kill, I will kill you. I will do whatever I am asked to do.'
Lucia's health worsened, and she eventually escaped with the help of an African woman. However, she was deceived by the people she thought could rescue her, and was taken back to the agency where she was battered again.
Thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Haki Africa, a human rights organisation, Lucia was finally liberated from her ordeal. Haki Africa's managing director, Hussein Khalid, has vowed to work with the government to pursue the agents who exploit Kenyans and fail to help them in times of need.
Lucia's story is just one of many cases of Kenyans being exploited and tortured in the Gulf. She estimates that there are many more Kenyans languishing in prisons in Iraq, and she hopes that her story will bring attention to this issue.
