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{
    "id": 1120005,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1120005/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 273,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Sen. Kihika",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13216,
        "legal_name": "Susan Wakarura Kihika",
        "slug": "susan-wakarura-kihika"
    },
    "content": "Thank you, Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir. I rise to second this Motion as Member of the Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, and one of the Members who travelled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) back in April. We saw firsthand what our fellow Kenyans are going through out there. This is an issue that I would imagine most of us have encountered in one form or another because it has been in the news, social media and everywhere. We have seen a lot of distress calls by many Kenyans who are in those countries. I am mostly talking about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have heard allegations of torture and mistreatment of the workers and that sort of stuff. Before we even got there, it was interesting to get to the airport and see many groups of generally very young girls wearing T-shirts with a company‟s name. Perhaps they were always at the airport every time I travelled, but I just had never paid attention, and this is the first time that I noticed it. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, we came to learn that is how the recruitment agencies get them out to those countries. Once they get over there, they are handed over to agencies from that side. One of the major things that we noticed was the disconnect once these Kenyans get to those countries. Once they go to a certain family to work, though I believe that the agency from that country keeps up with them, many of the times, the girls lose contact with their families. They do not have phones with which they can reach their families or the families say that they do not know where these girls are. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, another major issue was the fact that some of these families seem to take away the passports of these workers when they arrive, so that the workers cannot leave. In many of the cases, it seems as though they cannot leave. We met many of the staff at our Embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and tried to get to the bottom of what was happening. When you listen to them, everything"
}