Lucky to be alive: Chepkemoi’s worst nightmare became reality
Diana Chepkemoi at their Chelaino village in Bomet county on September 9, 2022.
What you need to know:
- At first, she was told she was going to Qatar. Then the plan changed and her new destination was Saudi Arabia.
- She was turned into a slave, her ruthless employer telling her she had been bought.
- Oppressed, depressed, hopeless, 24-year-old Chepkemoi was practically pulled from the jaws of death, thanks to a photo of her emaciated body that she posted online and went viral.
“I was dead, but like a phoenix, I have resurrected. I have come back to life.”
These words sum up Diana Chepkemoi’s joy as she sits in her family’s house in Chemalal-Kimulot village, Bomet County, surrounded by her siblings, mother, and other relatives.
Her family agrees with her, never letting her out of their sight as if afraid that she might be whisked away without notice.
Her mother and brother sandwich her on a three-seat couch. Her mother constantly serves her vegetables, urging her to eat.
Oppressed, depressed, hopeless, 24-year-old Chepkemoi was practically pulled from the jaws of death, thanks to a photo of her emaciated body that she posted online and went viral, revealing her plight and sparking an operation to save her from her cruel employer.
Chepkemoi, the second-born in a family of five headed by a single mother, had deferred her studies at Meru University after only one semester during the 2017/18 academic year to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Management Technology but had to abandon the course because of financial constraints.
She had to ‘hustle’ to help support her siblings. The idea to seek a job outside the country came to her mind in October 2020.
“A friend working in Dubai told me that as long as I had a passport, I could get a job there. But I did not like the process involved. In 2021, I heard about employment in the Middle East from another friend who knew about my family’s financial difficulties. He said he knew someone who could help me. I met a broker who took me to the agent, Susan Makungu,” narrated Chepkemoi.
Agent's persuasion
At first, she was told she was going to Qatar. Then the plan changed and her new destination was Saudi Arabia. She flatly rejected the deal.
“For me, Saudi Arabia was a No, a big No! I knew what happens there. I had done my homework and had heard the stories from there. I knew I did not want to set foot in Saudi Arabia.”
But the agent did not give up. She persuaded her that there was a good opportunity for her, to work for a prince.
When she asked her about the suffering of the people who are always in the news, the agent dismissed them as “Kemboi”, unreliable people who ran away from their jobs.
The name was used in those circles to describe runaways and derived from Kenya’s Steeplechase hero Ezekiel Kemboi, because of his running skills.
“Somehow, I was persuaded. She made me believe that those who suffered were just ‘Kembois’, and the process had already started anyway. I was assured that I was being taken to a good place.”
The process included two medical examinations to ensure she was in good health. Even after the first medical in March 2021, Chepkemoi still had doubts about going to Saudi Arabia.
She passed the medical and was sent for training in home-care management for two weeks in Thika.
Then the process of waiting for visas and tickets started. “Finally, on June 27, 2021, other girls and I boarded an Air Arabia plane.
We all wore white T-shirts with ‘Makungu International’ printed on the front and Ghazlan Recruitment Agency on the back.
In Riyadh, we were quarantined for a week. Officials of Ghazlan picked us up on July 3 and our employers picked us up one by one. My employer came for me at night.”
Her employer lived with his daughter and 13-year-old granddaughter in a big three-storey house.
There was another African servant. “The first thing my bosses asked for was my passport, which they locked away in their room,” Chepkemoi recalls.
Ordeal
She knew almost immediately that she was in trouble when, after scolding her for a ‘mistake’ she made, her boss, the elderly man’s daughter, Rehema, hit her on the knuckles using a broomstick.
“I do not know exactly what I had done wrong because even my colleague was surprised by the punishment. The threats were constant. I reported the matter to Susan, the agent in Kenya. She told me she would call Ghazlan, but nothing happened. I was locked up in the house. No one is allowed to walk alone in the streets without a Saudi ID card.”
She did not receive any pay for the first three months. The first month’s salary of around 700 riyals (about Sh25,000), went to buying her a new phone and the money she earned for the next two months was deposited in a bank account to which she was allowed access much later.
Diana Chepkemoi being held by former Nairobi County CEC Vesca Kangongo at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on September 6, 2022 after returning from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
She sent the money to her mother to help build the house the family lives in.
“That money also helped my siblings. My younger brother, Martin Kipkirui, is at Moi University, while Lorraine, our fourth-born, is at Tom Mboya University. I was happy that they would not have to drop out.”
"Things were not going well for Chepkemoi at work. “My boss’s constant threats, shouting, and reprisals had me living in fear and utter anxiety. I did not know when I would be abused for things I did not understand. For a full year, I lived in terror. I was depressed. My employer constantly reminded me that she was more powerful than my embassy and that nothing could save me from her since she had bought me.
“I felt like a slave. Even when accompanying her and her daughter on their shopping trips, I had to carry her purse and mobile phone. If she wanted to use her phone, she would stretch out her hand for it, and then return it after finishing. I have never felt so demeaned.”
Things came to a head in July this year after she took her boss’s daughter swimming.
“We had a good afternoon, but everything was ruined by her sully mother who started verbally abusing me as soon as we entered the house. First, she was annoyed that the child’s clothes did not match, that they were dull. I was stunned and started crying. The child had chosen the clothes herself. She shouted at her daughter, who was also now scared.”
Things worsened later that night when the girl fell ill. Chepkemoi was accused of not drying her hair properly.
No family communication
“Her daughter told her that she had seen me talk to an African man. It was a Kenyan I had met as she was swimming. I was accused of neglecting her. Madam had been aggressive before, but this now bordered on violence. She confiscated my phone, saying she had bought it for me, although she had used my salary.
“I felt defeated, hopeless. I could not eat. The pressure was too much. I became withdrawn and cried a lot. I could not talk to my family because I had no phone and I was worried about what they would think about my silence. With the horrible stories from Saudi Arabia, I wondered if my family thought something had happened to me.”
For two months, she did not speak to her family and could not even send money as her salary was suspended. Her health deteriorated.
“I weighed 54kg when I arrived in Saudi, but I am now 42kg. Now one of my goals was to come back home and eat. Eat, and eat well. I do not want to look at myself in the mirror because I still wonder what happened to me. I must regain my weight.”
One day she remembered her old phone, hidden deep in her bag. She quickly charged it and started texting via WhatsApp.
“Then I remembered that WhatsApp is not safe and blocked my account. I resorted to Messenger and I reached out to a family friend called Rosemary and told her about my problems. She encouraged me that I would be saved. You will get out of there, you are not a slave", she told me.
"She revived my hopes. I had given up. I was battling mental problems and psychological torture. I had given up all hope of ever returning home.”
Breakthrough
A few days later, Chepkemoi learnt that her story was trending on social media.
Although she was happy that her plight was out in the public, she had fresh worries: How would her boss, who was away, react when she got to know what was happening?
She was right to worry because her boss soon made her fury known.
“She started calling and threatening to make me see fire. My mistakes were piling up. First, I had to explain where I had found a phone. I could only imagine what she meant when she said I would see her fury and fire.”
Chepkemoi was lucky. Sakan, an NGO that helps people who are stranded like her, called her boss’s father, whose name was on her contract, to ask about her case.
“I do not know what they talked about but an ambulance arrived. I was in the house doing my chores, although I was not well. Two paramedics examined me and told my employer I was okay. My employer asked if I wanted to go to the hospital. I did not think twice. I got into the ambulance and I was taken to a hospital and was later transferred to another one.”
Two men, who said they were from the Kenyan Embassy, came to visit her.
She was suspicious of them and did not know whether to trust them. She remembered Madam boasting about her influence at the embassy.
She was later transferred to a facility run by Sakan, whose officials went to collect her belongings from her employer’s house.
Chepkemoi is lucky to be back home safely with her family. She now has a chance to rebuild her life.
“I am so happy to be back home. Many organisations are promising to help my family, pay my fees, and do many things, but I have only spoken with Meru University and the county government of Bomet. Meru Vice Chancellor, Prof Romanias Odhiambo, called and told me to report back to school this week.”
As Chepkemoi concludes her story, the rain is coming down heavily outside. The family is happy. Their daughter is alive and back with them. That’s all that matters.
“I did not have a phone, passport, or even a change of clothes. I left just as I was. At the hospital, I was then taken to an office for a meeting with a man who identified himself as a representative from the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Labour, the head of the hospital, and Kenyan Embassy officials.”
She was later transferred to a facility run by Sakan, whose officials went to collect her belongings from her employer’s house.
“All I wanted was to be deported. I never had to see my Madam again. I am lucky that she did not find me at the house when she came back.”
She found several other Kenyans and Africans at the Sakan facility, which appeared to accommodate thousands of stranded people.
Some were suffering from mental illness because of the torture they had suffered at the hands of their employers. She was told that even when they are taken to the airport, they refuse to leave and went back to the facility.
“It is not a joke. Seeing yourself fade away is the worst feeling ever. People do not think mental health is as important as physical health. Some officials at the embassy told me my case was not bad. They had expected me to have broken limbs. That is when they certify the case as serious.”
At last, she boarded the flight bound for Nairobi at the airport in Riyadh.
“It was 7 pm last Monday. I was over myself with joy. We switched planes at Sharjah on Tuesday. I started panicking when we were told there was a delay. I was scared that we would be returned to Riyadh. That is why we were screaming with joy when our flight landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 1.40 pm last Tuesday.”
She was puzzled when she saw police officers waiting for her at the airport. She thought they had come to arrest her for causing problems for the country. But she did not care.
“I was the first one to alight from the plane. When I saw some MPs and my mother waiting for me, my heart melted! It was the best feeling ever!”
Chepkemoi knows how lucky she is to be back home safely with her family. She knows it could have been worse. She now has a chance to rebuild her life.
“I am so happy to be back home. Many organisations are promising to help my family, pay my fees, and do many things, but I have only spoken with Meru University and the county government of Bomet. Meru University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Romanias Odhiambo, called me and told me to report back to school this week.”
As Chepkemoi concludes her story, the rain is coming down heavily outside. The family is happy. Their daughter is alive and back with them. That’s all that matters
