Human Trafficking: Over 100 Ugandan girls rescued in Nairobi
Rescued Ugandan girls in Nairobi. They are victims of human trafficking rackets. Photo: Judie Kaberia/WON
“From the moment my mum told me that I have to leave education for lack of school fees, I cried. I cried because I have tried my best to go all the way to form two and I wanted to become a nurse. Even when you look at my report forms, I was good at school,” 17-year-old Dembe* (not her real name) recounted to The Woman’s Newsroom Foundation.
“I even wanted to commit suicide, but I just agreed to come here because there was nothing left. I realized even if I cry, nothing will change,” she said, lowering her head to hide the tears welling up in her eyes.
Dembe is among some 120 Ugandan women and girls rescued from an open field in Nairobi’s Eastleigh, having fallen out with their employers.
When Covid-19 struck last year, reports of mass layoffs, pay cuts and increasing poverty levels were reported around the globe. It was particularly bad in Africa, which was already suffering from a sluggish economy even before the pandemic.
Families were under pressure to find means to survive. Not even children were spared.
And this is how hundreds of girls such as Dembe travelled from Uganda to Kenya, with high hopes of landing on greener pastures to support their families back home.
After schools were closed in Uganda last year in line with the pandemic containment restrictions, Dembe’s sister, who was a domestic worker, asked her to travel to Nairobi to look for employment.
Against her own wishes, Dembe travelled to Kenya last August, to help her family.
She worked as a house-girl in Eastleigh; her sister returned to Uganda after falling pregnant.
“I worked for the first five months and the sixth one I was chased away from my job. I moved around and when I came to this side (somewhere in an open field), I found my fellow tribe-mates sleeping under trees. I asked them what they would do from there. They told me they don’t have jobs and this is where they stay. So, I begged them to allow me join their clique; they accepted,” she recalled.
Dembe was lucky enough to secure a second job for two months. Sadly, not a single penny was paid for her labour.
“My boss kept on telling me to come back next month, ‘I will pay you your money’. The next time I went there, I found that she had relocated to Somalia. So, I had to go back to the streets again,” Dembe said.
She decided not to look for work again, after her experiences of being overworked, mistreated, insulted and even denied food.
Life on the streets of Nairobi was harsh. To have a meal depended on the generosity of passersby.
“I fell sick. I had no money even for treatment, but ‘Good Samaritans’ helped me with food and drugs. I finished the treatment. One day we were sleeping – we used to sleep on the verandah. The chief came with a large group of men; we explained everything, but they couldn’t understand. They collected everything we had – the clothes we carried around and burnt them all. They had the nyahunyo (police whip). We were whipped mercilessly and told to go away,” she recalled, her tears now flowing uncontrollably.
“So, we told them we wanted to go back home; we were tired of this life in Nairobi; (where) we struggle to get food; we even sleep on the ground. During menstruation, we suffer.”
She added: “So, I asked my mum if (it) is fine she sends me money I travel back home; I even have a health problem. She told me problems had doubled back home as my father had had left the family. She implored me to stay in Nairobi and make money.”
No pads
Dembe counts herself lucky that she is not pregnant like 28 of the women in the group who, in addition to worrying about their return to Uganda, must contemplate motherhood at their tender age.
Most of the 28 mothers-to-be are less than 18 years old.
Sadly, most of them have no clue who fathered the babies they are carrying. Rape and defilement had become part of their struggle.
Former WON Chairperson Judie Kaberia tends one of the rescued Ugandan girls in Nairobi, Kenya.
Counter Human Trafficking Trust – East Africa (CHTEA), a civil society organization working in Kenya, has given the girls a place they call a safe haven.
It is a safe haven because it has a roof, walls and a door – that can shield them from the cold nights and sex predators.
With no bedding other than a thin woven mat, the girls lie side-by-side in groups of eights or tens, close to each other for warmth and also to fit into the tiny rooms. There are about 20 of these rooms situated in different areas in Majengo Slums.
Namono (not her real name) is 15. She is seven months pregnant. She came to Kenya in January this year also hoping to get employment in Nairobi. She worked only for the first three months and was never paid.
“They (the employers) mistreated me; they overworked me and the man of the house did very bad things to me that I can’t mention to you. But he was very bad. He always used force and threatened to kill me if I say (I expose him). That is why I decided to run away,” Namono explained.
“Auntie, all I want now is to be taken back to Uganda. Do you know when they (CHTEA) are taking us home? We are suffering. At home it was not this bad, when I go home I will be safe and even with the poverty there, it is fine for me, even if my mother will be sad to see me back, I just want to go,” Namono pleaded.
When I asked the girls how they were doing and what they wanted, their sentiments were similar to Namono’s and Dembe’s. They want to go back home.
None of them has bus fare.
Their hopes are on CHTEA and International Organization for Migration (IOM), Kenya which are making plans to repatriate them.
I left Majengo Slum broken in my thoughts and in my heart. During the visit, I witnessed three girls fight over a panty because they were all on their menses. Each claimed ownership of the panty.
CHTEA’s field officer, best known as ‘Uncle’, told me that the fight was nothing compared to other conflicts: “Some nights, neighbors call me to end the wars that escalate to the entire plot; some girls kicking each other out of the rooms in the middle of the night.”
As I bid ‘Uncle’ goodbye, I could not help thinking of how the girls could get at least some basics such as sanitary pads, clothes, shoes and bedding awaiting repatriation.
Whereas this is a short-term measure, the governments of Kenya and Uganda have the power and responsibility to break the human trafficking cycle that continues to expose countless underage girls to labour and sex exploitation.
