This archive report was first published on 28 September 2019.
Lucia Nekesa, a 38-year-old mother of three, returned to Kenya after a harrowing eight-month ordeal in Iraq, where she was exploited and abused by her employer.
According to Nekesa, she was recruited by a Kenyan agency to work as a house help in Qatar, but was instead taken to Iraq without her knowledge or consent.
Speaking to the media at Haki Africa offices in Mombasa, Nekesa recounted the physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her employer, including being beaten, locked in a small bathroom, and forced to work long hours without pay.
She also revealed that she was sold to another agency after being accused of stealing her employer's money, and that she was swindled out of her salary amounting to over Sh600,000.
Nekesa's ordeal was only brought to an end after interventions by Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Haki Africa, a human rights organization.
Published on September 28, 2019
