The man claims his wife allegedly travelled to Saudi Arabia through a recruitment agency without informing him /AI ILLUSTRATION
A father of three has made a passionate appeal to the government to help facilitate the return of his wife from Saudi Arabia after she allegedly left Kenya without informing him.
The man says his wife quietly travelled to the Gulf nation in search of work, leaving him to shoulder the responsibility of raising their three young school-going children alone.
According to the man, he dropped his wife at her workstation at the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) in Kitengela on June 18 as he normally would.
However, when he returned home later that evening, she was nowhere to be found.
He later learnt that she had allegedly travelled to Saudi Arabia through a recruitment agency operating in Ruiru, Kiambu county, joining the list of Kenyans who leave each year in search of employment opportunities in the Gulf, particularly in domestic work.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Nation, the distraught father said life has become increasingly difficult since his wife's departure as he now has to balance work with raising their children on his own.
"I hear she's been deceived by agents taking people to Saudi Arabia and since then my life has been hard with these children. They keep asking me morning to evening where their mother is," he said.
He maintained that there had been no disagreements or marital problems that could have prompted her to leave without informing him, saying he is still struggling to understand why she made the decision in secrecy.
Beyond the emotional toll on the family, the man said he is deeply concerned about his wife's safety, citing numerous reports over the years of Kenyans facing abuse and exploitation while working in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.
"I really fear for the people who go to Saudi Arabia because they always go there and they either never come back or go through very difficult experiences. Then they start saying that the government is not helping them," he said.
He urged the government to intensify oversight of recruitment agencies, accusing some of luring desperate job seekers with promises of attractive employment opportunities abroad only for them to end up in exploitative working conditions.
The father said the burden of caring for the children has been overwhelming, forcing him to take on responsibilities that had previously been shared.
"I'm struggling a lot raising these children — looking for food, washing their clothes. I think my marriage is now over and it has collapsed because of these agents who deceive people. She did not have money for an air ticket to travel there. She might return to Kenya with nothing," he said.
He further claimed he fears his wife could end up working for months without pay if her employer withholds her wages to recover the costs allegedly incurred in facilitating her travel.
"If the government is listening to me, my marriage is on the verge of collapsing because of these agents deceiving people in Ruiru," he appealed.
His plea once again casts the spotlight on the welfare of Kenyan migrant workers in Gulf countries, an issue that has repeatedly generated national debate amid reports of abuse, delayed salaries, poor working conditions and restrictions on workers' movement.
Over the years, numerous returnees have recounted experiences of physical and psychological abuse, confiscation of travel documents, excessive working hours and abandonment by recruitment agencies after arriving in their destination countries.
The Kenyan government has in recent years stepped up efforts to improve the welfare of migrant workers by introducing reforms aimed at strengthening labour migration.
These include tighter regulation of recruitment agencies, establishing distress hotlines through Kenyan missions abroad, facilitating the repatriation of stranded or abused citizens and engaging authorities in Gulf countries on labour protections.
The government has also worked with Saudi authorities to implement reforms, including the enforcement of a mandatory minimum wage for Kenyan domestic workers, as part of broader efforts to safeguard the rights and welfare of citizens seeking employment overseas.
