After losing her mother to cancer, 14-year-old Natalie had limited options. The plan was for her to move in with her uncle while he looked for ways to cover her school fees.
A few days into her stay, he told her she’d have better prospects working as a housekeeper in the Middle East and that he could obtain papers to make her official age 19.
While the thought of travelling was exciting, Natalie had heard stories of other Kenyan girls going to the Middle East only to come back dead. She told her sister, who with the help of a friend, managed to remove her from her uncle’s house and is now working with a well-wisher to raise funds to take Natalie back to school.
Natalie’s case is not unique. Last year alone, the Kenyan government identified 853 victims of trafficking, of which 351 were girls, 275 were women, and 227 were boys.
Girls are trafficked within families and communities for labour under the pretext of supporting their education by having them live with and support relatives often living in cities. In a 2018 BBC documentary, the accounts of many of the girls interviewed indicated they ended up being sexually exploited, overworked, mistreated and abused.
Trafficking is often driven by the desire for economic gain and plays right into the power dynamics that define access to, and control of information and resources by the individuals and communities that are often affected by trafficking. In fact, in 2019 forced labour was recorded as the main reason for trafficking.
Nonetheless, the regulation of the terms and conditions of employment of domestic workers and the protection of human rights in Kenya fall short, despite the clear domestic and international laws that form part of the laws of Kenya.
According to the 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report on Kenya, the government maintained law enforcement efforts but did not take adequate steps to address official complicity in trafficking crimes, which remained pervasive. The enforcement of any action when violation occurs is also wanting and is largely informed by societal attitudes and the power dynamics that inform trafficking.
The Counter-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2010 criminalised trafficking in sex and labour and prescribed penalties of 30 years to life imprisonment, a fine of not less than Sh30 million or both. These penalties were sufficiently stringent.
Compared to other serious crimes such as rape, the availability of the option of a fine removes the stringency that should be visited on perpetrators of human trafficking, which is a multimillion-dollar enterprise that would have no challenge paying these fines. Sections 14 and 15 of the Sexual Offences Act of 2006 criminalised the facilitation of child sex tourism and “child prostitution” and prescribed punishment of no less than 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 2 million shillings.
Victimisation and ridicule
Unfortunately, many victims of human trafficking experience victimisation and ridicule when they seek help. This notwithstanding, the reports of women being killed in the Middle East do not seem to deter the continued numbers of women still being tricked into going to the Middle East.
In fact, the Ministry of Labour indicated that since January 2019, they facilitated the employment of over 87,784 Kenyans in the Gulf Region, mainly in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Yet, unfortunately, the response of their counterparts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been at best lame when these issues arise for Kenyan citizens abroad. Reports indicate that some 93 Kenyans have died in the Middle East in the past three years. What is more is that the ministry is unable to provide a detailed breakdown on the deaths of the Kenyans, which occurred mostly in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
Kenya has a responsibility under international law including but not limited to UN Labour Conventions, UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination Against Women, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Protocol on Prevention of Sale of Children to set up clear legislative, administrative and budgetary processes to prevent and punish trafficking in persons.
It is overdue for the Kenya government to take up its responsibility under domestic and international law to end this deadly scourge that constitutes a gross violation of human rights.
The writers are human rights lawyers. Stephanie is a senior Aspen New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and Carole is the Africa regional director at Helpage International
