Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi forcefully rejected accusations that Kenyan officials enabled the abuse of migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia after investigators alleged prominent politicians profited from recruitment agencies sending women into exploitative conditions. Mudavadi told parliament the government has deregistered over 600 corrupt labor brokers since 2022 while establishing mandatory insurance protections and stricter vetting protocols for overseas placements.
Human rights organizations acknowledged the administrative changes but cautioned that enforcement gaps persist even as authorities finalize fresh labor agreements with Riyadh designed to strengthen wage guarantees and abuse reporting mechanisms. Mudavadi highlighted surging diaspora remittances that climbed from 490 billion shillings to beyond one trillion shillings, crediting institutional reforms under the State Department for Diaspora Affairs established two years earlier.
The defense followed detailed reports documenting physical violence, sexual assault, wage theft, and confinement suffered by Kenyan women working in Middle Eastern households, with some cases resulting in death.
Human rights organizations acknowledged the administrative changes but cautioned that enforcement gaps persist even as authorities finalize fresh labor agreements with Riyadh designed to strengthen wage guarantees and abuse reporting mechanisms. Mudavadi highlighted surging diaspora remittances that climbed from 490 billion shillings to beyond one trillion shillings, crediting institutional reforms under the State Department for Diaspora Affairs established two years earlier.
The defense followed detailed reports documenting physical violence, sexual assault, wage theft, and confinement suffered by Kenyan women working in Middle Eastern households, with some cases resulting in death.
