A Nakuru-based lobby group has written to President Uhuru Kenyatta and the Inspector-General of Police demanding a probe of atrocities and suffering of Kenyans in the Middle East countries.
In a letter dated September 21, Social Watch group, through its executive coordinator James Mugo, wants officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia embassy in Nairobi, Immigration department and the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Services investigated.
Mugo said Kenyan women have been facing horrendous sexual harassment while their male counterparts are forcefully recruited into extremist groups in the Middle East countries where they are promised ‘lucrative’ jobs.
“While in Kenya, they are promised lucrative domestic and industrial jobs but on arrival to the said workplaces things change,” reads part of the letter.
The human rights watch wants the president to order for comprehensive investigations to combat the worrying situation.
According to the letter, Middle East job hiring agents collude with immigration officials, air ticketing agents and other corrupt cartels to process passports, visas and air tickets at a fee.
Mugo decried that Kenyans in those foreign countries end up being held at ransom, tortured and left stranded at detention camps.
He called on the government to unearth the unscrupulous agents and government officials involved in the heinous connections and have them subjected to the full force of the law, adding that it amounts to modern day slavery.
He revealed that the lobby group was ready to divulge more information to help the state conduct a fruitful probe of the saga.
Meanwhile, the lobby group called on the government to rescue more than 30 Kenyans from Nakuru County said to be stranded and starving in a transitional detention camp in Saudi Arabia where they had gone to seek jobs.