The silent suffering of domestic workers

In 2018, Emily* worked for a Chinese in Yaya, an upmarket suburb in Nairobi County, as a domestic worker. She commuted daily from her home in Kibera, a low-income settlement southwest of the city centre.

For the six months, Emily worked for this family, she earned a total of Sh12,000 a month.

Then one day as she went about her tasks, the Chinese employer ambushed her claiming she had stolen Sh10,000 belonging to him and his wife. They searched her handbag and found nothing.

Then they called police on her.

“A woman police officer came and took me to the police station where she forced me to strip naked. The Chinese had claimed I had hidden the money in my private parts,” she says.

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“I cannot put words to how I felt. It's an indescribable humiliation,” she says.

After the search, she was released. Emily says she had no money to sue the Chinese for the violation of her rights. She says such is the violence domestic workers face but let it go because they have no means to defend their rights.

Sarah* too, has been exploited and harassed. She also lives in Kibera and treks daily to Kilimani, another upmarket residential area, to search for domestic work.

Full pay

She says some of her employers treat her like a nobody.

“Before I start the job, we’d agree for a pay of Sh1,000. But once I finish the job, they give me Sh300. When I demand for the full pay, they threaten to call the police on me to report me for robbing me,” she says.

“What can I do? Where will I report them? In any case if I did, they have money. They would bribe their way out. I just walk away praying for karma to hit them and their children soon enough,” she says.

Emily and Sarah believe they can be a solution to the demeaning treatment of domestic workers once the country ratifies the International Labour Organisation Convention 189(ILO C189) on domestic workers.

For them, the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence ought to be the moment for the government to fast track the ratification of the convention.

Article 3 of the convention requires Member States to “take measures to ensure the effective promotion and protection of the human rights of all domestic workers.”

16 Days

“As we commemorate this year’s 16 Days of Activism, it is critical to invest in prevention and support measures aimed at eliminating sexual and gender-based violence in workplaces,” says Grace Ngugi, executive director of Dhobi Women Network, a domestic worker’ rights organisation.

“Continuous harassment, and abuses of women and girls domestic workers such as sexual harassment, physical, emotional, and mental abuse, discrimination, and unjust and exploitative working conditions have made women unproductive in workplaces,” she adds.

She calls on the government to quickly ratify ILO C189z, saying it would pave the way for creation of decent work environment for domestic workers, free from discrimination and all forms of harassment.

In an earlier interview, National Gender and Equality Commission chairperson, Dr Joyce Mutinda indicated that the government had a plan to ratify the convention alongside ILO C190 on ending sexual harassment at the workplace by March 20, 2024.

The names of the domestic workers have been changed to protect them from losing work opportunities.

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