Kenyan woman stranded in Saudi Arabia seeks help to return home

Glasgow, Delaware

A Kenyan woman who says she is stranded abroad is seeking help from well-wishers and the Kenyan consulate in Saudi Arabia to return home after losing her employment and surviving a stroke.

Gladys Bonareri from Laikipia County, who has been living in a small room believed to be some kind of servants’ quarters used as a holding place for those recruited in Kenya, recently took to social media asking her compatriots in diaspora to come to her aid.

“I need your help to go back home. I’m in Saudi Arabia and just had a baby but I don’t have money to buy a ticket to go back. I’ve reached out to the Kenyan embassy in Saudi but they are not interested in my story,” she said in a WhatsApp voice recording.

Reached through phone by the Nation, Ms Bonareri said she has been living in an office complex with her three-month-old baby girl for the last three months with no money, little food and medical care.

“I’m really suffering here with my baby. These people have been treating me like a prisoner since my baby was born. All I want is to go back home but they are not giving me travel documents because they say my baby is not Kenyan even though I came here when I was pregnant,” Ms Bonareri said as she tearfully narrated her ordeal.

Hired as house help

She said that she was recruited by an agency in Kenya known as Afrister early this year for a house help job in Saudi Arabia. In February 2020, she left Kenya for Saudi Arabia. When she arrived in Saudi Arabia, she was received by a partner agency known as Rwasi.  She was subsequently hired as a house help by a Saudi family but soon after she discovered that she was pregnant.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant, in fact when I was leaving Kenya, I did some tests that showed everything was normal. A few months into my job, I fell very ill and I was hospitalised. The doctors discovered that apart from being pregnant, I had also suffered a minor stroke,” she said.

She says she stayed in hospital until September when she gave birth to a baby girl. And because she could not work since she had a baby to care for, she decided to go back to Kenya but she could not afford to raise money for an airline ticket.  At the same time, she also discovered that she needed to have travel papers for her new born baby whom she insisted was conceived in Kenya though born in Saudi Arabia.

“When I called the embassy they told me I needed to provide a marriage certificate. I told them I’ve never been married but they couldn’t hear any of that,” she said.

Her story was circulated on social media and was finally picked up by Dr Newton Kinnity, a Kenyan political activist living in New Haven, Connecticut.

“My daughter alerted me to the plight of what she called two Kenyans who were sick and were suffering in Saudi Arabia. I made contact with Gladys Bonareri through WhatsApp and after listening to her story, I immediately wrote to the Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia asking them to get involved. The office has not responded since September,” he said.

The Nation made attempts to contact officials at the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia by phone without success.

Regrets leaving Kenya

Ms Bonarer told the Nation that she regrets leaving home for Saudi Arabia, claiming even though the agency that is currently housing her is somehow tolerant, her employers were very abusive.

“These people are inhuman. Some of them treat us as if we are just trash. I wish I never came but right now, I just want to home,” she said.

Ms Bonareri was born in Subukia, Nakuru County and her parents are Wilson Gekonge and Veronicah Moraa. The family has since relocated to Laikipia, according to Dr Kinnity, who said he has been speaking to her father who is very worried about the fate of his daughter.

Dr Kinnity who says he has been supporting Ms Bonareri with cash for food after he made contact with her while she was still in hospital.

“By the time I got in touch with her, she was in the hospital. She told me she wanted to leave Saudi Arabia once she was out of the hospital but she did not have money for an air ticket. I volunteered to pay for her ticket back home once she was out of the hospital,” he said.

Baby’s travel documents

He said that after she left the hospital, she contacted the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia for the travel documents for her new-born daughter.

“The Embassy refused to give her travel documents for the infant, demanding for a marriage certificate. Gladys says she was never married in Kenya and wonders how the embassy expected her to have a marriage certificate. Her Kenya passport clearly shows she has been single and she is still single,” he added.

Dr Kinnity says he has unsuccessfully tried to contact the Kenyan embassy in Saudi Arabia using telephone numbers available on the internet.

“I have written emails to the embassy but I have not had any reply. Gladys needs travel documents for her infant baby whose pregnancy she conceived in Kenya. She is now crying for help. She dearly needs help to get the travel documents for her infant,” he said.

He is now pleading with the Kenya government to help Ms Bonareri get the travel documents for her baby so that quick arrangements for her to travel back home can be finalised.