Kenyan domestic workers stuck in Beirut, Lebanon on Monday stoned the Kenyan consulate as they chanted “We want to go home”.
The irate Kenyan nationals have been seeking to return back home but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears for weeks now.
The government had promised to repatriate its nationals after the Beirut explosion on August 4. On Friday, however, the government said that the process would take longer due to the blast that killed hundreds of people.
Kenyan domestic workers stranded in Beirut after devastating blast demand repatriation. pic.twitter.com/10Yhv6Jf8v
— Nation Africa (@NationAfrica) August 18, 2020
Last week, the women pleaded with the Uhuru Kenyatta-led administration to help repatriate them.
In a video shared on social media, the women narrated that they had been kicked out of their places of work without pay and could not afford to purchase air tickets home.
Citing financial constraints, the women said they are homeless and cannot afford daily meals.
They begged Kenyan authorities to sponsor their return home.
According to one of the women, other nations have evacuated their nationals affected by the layoffs apparently occasioned by the global coronavirus pandemic.
“We are hopeless here in Lebanon, we want to go back to our country, we don’t have food and even water to drink. We are stranded here in Lebanon, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta our President, our Deputy President William Ruto and the government at large please we need your help. We don’t have money to pay for our tickets. We can’t even afford our daily meals, ” the woman said in an emotional appeal.
A CNN report that aired weeks ago indicated that the Kenyan Honorary Consul in Beirut, Sayed Chalouhi, and his assistant Kassem Jaber, physically and verbally assaulted the women.
The women also told the Cable News Network that the two officials urged them to work as sex workers so as to raise money for their repatriation.
Kenyan authorities then said they were probing the matter.
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