Tricked, trapped and traumatised: The dark reality of Kenyan maids in Saudi homes
Participants march in Uhuru Park, Nairobi, on Labour Day. A report by Amnesty International reveals that Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi homes face brutal, discriminatory, and dehumanising conditions.
What you need to know:
Kenyan women face abuse, rape, and exploitation as domestic workers under Saudi Arabia’s Kafala system.
Tricked into jobs abroad, they endure slavery-like conditions, starvation, and sexual violence in Saudi homes.
In December 2019, Selestine Musavakwa was ecstatic. The widowed mother of two had just landed a cleaning job in the United Arab Emirates—a rare chance to support her children after her husband’s sudden death the previous year.
It was her first time at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and she was awed by the massive planes and the energy of international travel. She was not alone—dozens of other young women, also bound for new jobs abroad, surrounded her. But what began as a dream quickly descended into a nightmare.
Shortly after takeoff, the pilot made a shocking announcement: they were not flying to the UAE, but to Saudi Arabia. “After the announcement, it dawned on us that we had been duped,” Selestine recalls. “Our agent then admitted we were heading to Saudi Arabia to work as domestic workers. We had no choice but to continue.”
That betrayal was only the beginning. In Saudi Arabia, Selestine was employed in a private household. But instead of simply cleaning, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the man of the house. “He would come to my room with a gun, threaten me, and force me to undress,” she says. “He raped me about three times a month. He warned that if I resisted, he’d kill me and dump my body in the trash.”
The abuse continued for eight months until she fell ill and lost a pregnancy. For the first time, she was not paid a single shilling. She worked from 5am to midnight daily, was starved, and suffered in silence. Eventually, she managed to escape with the help of an international rescue organisation that paid for her return home.
Widespread abuse exposed
Selestine’s story mirrors those of thousands of women working in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. A new report by Amnesty International has revealed that Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi homes face brutal, discriminatory, and dehumanising conditions. The study, based on interviews with 70 women, paints a grim picture of modern-day slavery.
Key findings include 16-hour workdays, often without rest or days off; average wages of $240 a month, with no overtime—equating to roughly $0.50 per hour; widespread salary delays or complete non-payment; severe food deprivation, with women surviving on leftovers, biscuits, or nothing at all; and lack of privacy and basic living conditions, with many sleeping in storerooms or on floors without bedding.
“My employer didn’t think I could get tired,” one woman told Amnesty. “I worked the whole day and even at night. I felt like a donkey—and even donkeys get to rest.”
Others described being stripped of their phones, isolated from their families, and constantly surveilled. Many were called racist slurs, humiliated for their skin colour, and treated as subhuman. “I was called a ‘black animal’ and a ‘monkey’ because of my dark skin,” one woman said. “The children would point and laugh.”
Many reported being sexually assaulted or raped by male employers. Judy*, a single mother who fled domestic abuse in Kenya, described being raped five times by her employer. “When I tried to tell him to stop, he just ignored me. Men are strong,” she said. “I kept quiet because he threatened me.”
Those who dared to report their abuse often faced retaliation—false accusations of theft, withheld wages, or worse.
This went on for eight months before she realised she was pregnant. However, she fell sick and suffered a miscarriage. For the time, she never received even a penny and was overworked and starved. Each day, she would wake up at 5am and sleep at midnight.
When she could no longer stomach mistreatment, she chose to run away. She was lucky as an international organisation rescuing girls came to her aid and paid her air ticket, enabling her to return home. Selestine’s painful experience mirrors that of thousands of other female domestic workers.
A new report released by Amnesty International shows Kenyan women hired as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are enduring gruelling, abusive and discriminatory working conditions in the Arab country.
The survey, based on interviews with 70 women, has lifted the lid on how domestic workers are forced to work under brutal conditions. The report highlights how employers subject women to extreme exploitation in private homes, often fuelled by racism, and how domestic workers continue to be excluded from Saudi Arabia’s labour law and other reforms.
Extreme overwork was a universal problem for dozens of women interviewed by Amnesty International, with a typical workday consisting of a minimum of 16 hours, often more of cleaning, cooking and looking after children. The reports show women were mostly paid on average Saudi riyal 900 ($240) per month, and none was paid overtime, meaning average wage was around $0.5 per hour.
Moreover, the domestic workers indicate some employers delayed the women’s salaries or did not pay them at all. Virtually all the women interviewed reported never being given a day off during their stay in Saudi Arabia -up to two years for some.
“My employer didn’t think that I could get tired. There was no chance to rest... I would work for her the whole day and then even at night, I would still be working. I felt like a donkey and even donkeys find rest,” says one of the women interviewed.
All the women said they faced severe restrictions on their freedom and privacy; the confiscation of their phones cut them off from the outside world, leading to severe isolation and denying them contact with their families.
Despite the excessive workload, almost all the women said that their employers deprived them of food or gave them only leftovers, leaving some to survive on bread, or dried instant noodles.
Katherine Awino* told the interviewers that “food was the main problem” and she “survived on biscuits”, with her employer only giving her leftovers, rotten food or sometimes providing nothing at all, and even throwing food she cooked for herself in the bin.
Most women also described being provided with wholly inadequate living conditions, often made to sleep in a store cupboard, or on the floor of a child’s bedroom, and without a proper bed, bedding or working air conditioning. They recounted how they were shouted at, called names and humiliated, while others were sexually assaulted, and in some cases raped, by employers.
Amnesty International executive director Irungu Houghton says the survey findings show at the heart of the abuse lies a labour system underpinned by historical and structural racism, where migrant domestic workers – including black African women – are dehumanised and treated as disposable.
"These women travelled to Saudi Arabia in search of work to support their families but instead endured unspeakable abuse in the homes of their employers. The Kenyan government is actively encouraging labour migration, and the Saudi Arabian authorities claim that they have introduced labour rights reforms, yet, behind closed doors, domestic workers face shocking levels of racism, abuse and exploitation,” Irungu says.
He adds that the Saudi and Kenyan authorities must listen to these women, whose labour sustains families and contributes significantly to the economic development of both countries. “The Saudi authorities should urgently grant domestic workers equal protection under the labour law, introduce an effective inspection system to tackle widespread abuses in private homes, and fully dismantle the Kafala system that binds foreign workers to employers, fosters exploitation and perpetuates systemic racism,” he says.
Read: Why Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye's 'Atieno Yo' is a testament to the toll of domestic work on girls
Judy*, a single mother of two who had gone to Saudi Arabia to escape her abusive husband, recounts: “The man of the house raped me and even threatened me not to tell the wife. I kept quiet. It was like his daily routine. I tried to tell him to stop, but men are strong, so, eventually, he raped me five times.”
While many were too afraid to report abuse to the Saudi authorities or the Kenyan embassy, those who did ended up facing retaliation or trumped-up charges, like being falsely accused of theft, and losing their wages. The report highlights how systemic racism is embedded in the Kafala system, coupled with entrenched discriminatory attitudes.
Many of the women say their employers called them highly derogatory and racist names, including hayawana (animal), khaddama (servant) and sharmouta (prostitute).
Domestic workers also told interviews of how employers would talk disparagingly about their skin colour, comment on their body odour or prevent them from using the same cutlery or home-ware as the family. “Because of my dark complexion, I was always called a black animal. The children would also come to my face to point and laugh, saying how I am a monkey,” Judy says.
In 2023, the updated regulations for domestic workers were introduced by the Saudi government to better regulate working hours and conditions. However, without an effective monitoring, inspection and enforcement regime, these regulations continue to be meaningless in practice.
Many of the documented abuses are illegal under Saudi law but were still perpetrated with impunity. About four million people serve as domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, all of whom are foreign nationals, according to the country’s labour market statistics, including 150,000 Kenyans. Due to soaring unemployment in Kenya, officials have been encouraging young people to seek jobs in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, one of Kenya’s top sources of remittances.