Ladi Anzaki Olubumni, an employee of Teleperformance Kenya, whose body was discovered at her apartment in Lower Kabete, Nairobi on March 11, 2025.
In a drab office in Kaduna, the capital of Nigeria's north-central state of the same name, Ladi Anzaki sat pensively at her desk.
She had just returned to the office after a short lunch break.
It had been a busy Tuesday and she had spent most of her time talking to various clients and customers.
As she was relaxing before getting back to work, she saw a notification on her phone.
The message was from a close friend.
It contained a link to several job vacancies, including customer service, translation and data labelling.
But Anzaki was not one to be tempted by such opportunities.
She immediately made a few phone calls to friends, including the one who had sent the link, to confirm its authenticity.
In the end, she was convinced that this was the best opportunity, as the benefits were much better than what she was earning at the time.
But there was an obstacle – the job opportunity was five thousand kilometres away in Nairobi, Kenya's capital.
Anzaki had rarely travelled outside her native Nigeria.
The thought of relocating to Nairobi worried her, but after meeting with the company's recruitment representatives, she was assured that the company would cover all her expenses, including travel and accommodation in Nairobi.
In November 2022, after obtaining the necessary documents, she travelled to Nairobi with high hopes.
A close friend, who requested anonymity due to a non-disclosure agreement signed with her employer, Majorel Kenya (Teleperformance), told Nation.Africa that upon arrival in Nairobi, they were locked up in a building in Westlands and their movements were restricted.
“We were all locked up in a room, and our movements were limited since we did not have work permits or any other documents. We would be picked up in the morning and dropped at the office, then later taken back. This went on for the first few months before we moved out and started living on our own,” her friend told Nation.Africa.
However, these claims have been denied by Majorel (Teleperformance) Kenya.
The company’s management said that it “prioritises employee wellness and welfare” and acknowledges the “challenges faced by our moderators, who are first responders ensuring internet safety”.
The company also said that it complies with Kenya’s labour laws.
“Our wellness initiatives include 24/7 access to professional counsellors, mandatory wellness breaks, and ongoing support from team leaders. We maintain a counsellor-to-content moderator ratio of 1:38 and a 1:10 ratio for ongoing assistance, compared to the industry average of 1:75,” Majorel Kenya management said in a statement sent to Nation.Africa.
While in Nairobi, Anzaki and her friend faced a bigger problem. Back home in Nigeria, they had been promised customer service representative and data labelling jobs.
However, when they reported to the company’s offices in Westlands, they were told that they would be working as content moderators instead.
The job involved reviewing content on the TikTok platform and labelling it based on the training they had received.
Each of them was required to work in shifts for almost nine hours a day, five days a week.
The working conditions, including exposure to harmful content on TikTok, took a toll on Anzaki, according to her close friend.
In her final days, she had considered quitting her job and returning to Nigeria.
But that was not to be—Anzaki was found dead after going missing from her workplace at Teleperformance for almost three days.
An official statement from her employer said that she had felt unwell on February 27 and had taken two days' sick leave.
She reported for work at Westlands on March 3 and 4, but did not turn up on March 5, 6 and 7.
The company then sent a colleague to check on her, who discovered her body.
The statement also mentioned that Anzaki had travelled to Lagos, Nigeria on February 10, 2024 and returned to Kenya on February 23, 2024. She had another trip planned for later in March 2025.
In the days that followed, her colleagues alleged that there had been an attempt to cover up the circumstances of her death.
Her family in Nigeria remains distraught as they try to repatriate her remains for burial.
A post-mortem has yet to be carried out as the company awaits permission from her family in Nigeria.
On Saturday March 8, Nation.Africa interviewed dozens of Teleperformance workers who described the harsh working conditions.
Mr Philip Adebayo (not his real name), a native of southern Nigeria, said that despite being promised work permits within three months, many of them are now forced to evade security agencies.
“We have been arrested several times and taken to police cells. The officers usually extort money from us, and in special cases, we call the employer, and we get released. We are always told to wait, but it has now been two years of being in the country without documents,” he told Nation.Africa.
On Saturday evening, the workers had planned to protest outside Teleperformance's offices in Westlands over the death of their colleague.
However, they were later called into a meeting by management.
They claim, they were warned against speaking out and told to wait a week for the company to 'resolve' their grievances.
What makes the workers even angrier is that they are subject to deductions such as the housing levy under Kenyan law, even though they have no legal status in the country.
Mr Acy Ayodele (not his real name) said efforts to get an explanation for these deductions had been futile.
“I have worked in this country for nearly two years now, and every month, I am deducted all taxes, including the housing levy and health insurance. Where do these funds go when I don’t even have legal status in the country? I am constantly running from security agencies,” he said.
Teleperformance (formerly Majorel) is a global outsourcing company that works with tech giants such as TikTok on content moderation.
In January 2025, President William Ruto announced during a speech at State House that the company was setting up its offices in Nairobi, Kenya.
“Teleperformance, the biggest outsourcing company in Kenya, is setting up its offices here, and we have agreed that over the next three to five years, a total of 300,000 to 500,000 jobs will be available for the youth in the country,” President Ruto said in January 2025.
The company has maintained that all its foreign employees in Kenya have the “requisite paperwork” and that it has complied with all local labour regulations.
