For many Kenyans, seeking work abroad still comes at a high price

It was February 2020, when Mary Wangui Maitai left Nakuru County for Saudi Arabia. A recruitment agent had found her a job as a domestic worker. In March she called home and sent her family 24,000 Kenyan shillings (about $ 230 at the time). After that, her husband Shadrach Nderitu Mwangi did not hear from her again.

About two months later, the same agent showed up at Shadrach’s door with photos on her phone. They showed Mary dead. The agent said she had hanged herself on a bed with no mattress and no blanket. She asked Shadrach to sign a letter allowing the embassy to bury his wife in Saudi Arabia. In exchange, she promised to look after the family’s needs.

Shadrach was left in painful uncertainty. There was no official who had contacted him. All he had were pictures on an agent’s phone. He requested the agent that, if his wife had indeed passed on, to have her remains brought back to be buried in her motherland, so that their children may at least have closure. Yet until now, there is no public record confirming the successful repatriation of Mary Wangui Maitai’s body to Kenya.

Mary’s death never appeared in any publicly available government database of migrant worker deaths. It only came to light because her husband spoke out. Human rights groups have repeatedly criticised abuse and deaths among Kenyan domestic workers in Gulf states. In 2022, a study by the research organisation NORC found out that almost all Kenyan migrant workers returning from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates reported being victims of forced labour.

Despite stories like Mary’s, thousands of Kenyans continue to seek work abroad because they see few alternatives in a country where about 40 % of the population lives below the poverty line and decent jobs are hard to find. Remittances from Kenyans abroad reached about $ 5 billion by 2024. For many families, that money decides whether children stay in school or not.

Not everyone loses their lives in an attempt to find work abroad. Many lose their savings before they even leave. Joseph Otieno, 34, from Mombasa, is one of them. In 2024, he paid 60,000 shillings to an agency that promised him a construction job in Qatar. After taking the money, the agency went silent. Joseph Otieno is still repaying the loan he had taken to make the payment. “They just closed and opened somewhere else under a new name,” he says.

Hundreds of rogue agencies struck off

The government has started cracking down on rogue agencies, in a bid to improve the welfare of its workers serving in the diaspora, particularly in the Gulf States. In November 2025, the government deregistered 680 recruitment agencies after receiving more than 100 complaints from victims who collectively lost over 17 million shillings (about $ 13,000) in total. Another 400 agencies were struck off in December. 

Kenya’s Minister for Labour and Social Protection, Alfred Mutua, said at the time: “We are creating structured, safe and dignified pathways for our people to work abroad. This mission cannot be derailed by con artists.” A new Labour Migration Management Bill currently before the Senate would create a welfare fund for Kenyan migrant workers and impose stricter financial rules on agencies. If passed, it would be Kenya’s most comprehensive attempt yet to protect citizens working overseas.

Yet for the estimated 150,000 Kenyan domestic workers already in Saudi Arabia, the problems go far beyond rogue agencies. The kafala sponsorship system binds a worker’s legal status to their employer, which makes it extremely difficult to escape abuse. Promised improvements such as safe houses and more labour attachés in the Gulf have largely failed to materialise, as researchers noted in April 2026.

Shadrach Nderitu Mwangi wrote a tribute to his wife that appeared in a local newspaper. It ends with a direct appeal to her: “The children miss you. I miss you so much. We all miss you.”

Joseph Maina is a freelance writer based in Naivasha, Kenya. 
mainajoseph166@gmail.com

If you are thinking about taking your own life, please talk to friends and family about it. International suicide hotlines offer professional help: https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/