Latest
Ruto Proposes Elimination of 25% Mobile Phone Import TaxTrump's green card curbs test Indian tech workers' American dreamKenya: ODM Leader Oburu Discharged After a Fortnight in HospitalMwakilishi News Bulletin - Evening Edition, Wednesday 21 October 2026Drama Unfolds in Church as Politicians Walk Out During SpeechHealth Workers Union Raises Concerns Over Ebola Preparedness Amid New CasesTrendingHow Kenyan Nurses in the US Are Going from CNA to RN to BSN to NP: Complete Career PathwayTrendingKenyan-Born Biotech Executive Enoch Kariuki Appointed to EpiCRISPR Board of DirectorsTrendingTwo Years in Seattle and My Cousin Who Grew Up in Matungulu, Machakos Already Talks Like a CNN AnchorTrendingHow Far Does $100K Go in America's Top Cities for Kenyan Immigrants?TrendingThings My American-Born Kids Will Never Understand About My ChildhoodTrendingNairobi Police Pursue Suspect Who Allegedly Killed Girlfriend, Sent Video to Family
AdvertisementTop banner · 970×90 / 728×90
Diaspora

How Kenyan Man Traveling to the US Saved Kenyan Woman Unknowingly Going to Iraq for Work

How Kenyan Man Traveling to the US Saved Kenyan Woman Unknowingly Going to Iraq for Work

A Kenyan man has revealed how he saved a 21-year-old Kenyan woman who was unknowingly traveling to Iraq for work.

Speaking to Nairobi News through WhatsApp, the man said he met Shantel Nyaboke in a Turkish Airlines flight.

The man said the woman believed she was traveling to Qatar for greener pastures via Turkey.

AdvertisementIn-article ad

However, the man, who was headed to the United States via Istanbul realized that her destination was different from where she thought she was traveling.

"I’m traveling to the United States via Istanbul, Turkey. I struck up a conversation with a girl carrying an East Africa passport. She looked lost so I asked whether she needed help,” the man, who concealed his identity, told Nairobi News.

The man noted that Nyaboke's contract and boarding pass indicated that her final destination was Iraq. 

Upon looking at her contract, he said he noticed a few things that did not add up. The contract did not state her salary, working hours or whether she would have off days. 

He advised Nyaboke, who hails from Kisii County, against continuing with the journey that would probably turn her into a slave in the war tone Gulf nation.

"I took her to the Turkish Airlines help desk and they promised to get her a ticket back tonight (Monday). I gave her some Dollars for food and all the Kenyan Shillings I had on me for her to use when she gets back home," the man said.

In an interview with Nairobi News after landing in Nairobi, Nyaboke said an agent told her that she was going to Qatar to work as a house help and only learned that she was traveling to Iraq after meeting a stranger in an Istanbul-bound flight.

“I did not know that I was heading to Iraq. I have been hearing about Iraq in the news and I never imagined that I would end up there,” she told Nairobi News.

He [the Good Samaritan] really assisted me and only God can reward him. I don’t know what would have happened to me,” she said.

Nyaboke has appealed to well-wishers to help her get a job.
 

Comments (21)

Comments are reviewed before they appear. Please keep it respectful.

  1. XGJun 18, 2019

    Thanks you man for saving this innocent girl. Indeed she would have been a slave and consequentially killed just like the rest of our brothers and sisters. I think we should further to sue the agency that lied to her. They shouldn't be allowed to do business in Kenya. One life saved. Thanks

  2. SamcoJun 18, 2019

    Oh what a God's wonderful interventionf anyone knows her contact, my family and I will be willing to make her dream of being a better life come true.
    Please if she is able to email me,we will make her dreams true.
    Amundu@yahoo.com
    Thanks

  3. SAMUELJun 19, 2019

    goal here is to help, not sure what her dreams are but we can help her

  4. Imara DaimaJun 18, 2019

    Viongozi wa Jubilee amkeni halafu mfanye kazi yenu ipasavyo. Acheni mambo ya ufisadi, uroho (greed), kiburi (arrogance), na tamaa ya kutajirika kwa kufuata njia ya mkato (short cut). Acheni kutoa hongo mahali popote pa ibada (places of worship).

    Punguzeni mishahara yenu na marupurupu (allowances) mengi mnayopata, mjenge viwanda nchini, ili vijana wetu wapate ajira badala ya kwenda kufanywa watumwa katika nchi za Uarabuni.

  5. BrianJun 19, 2019

    Jeez! What does your comment have to do with the plight of this poor girl? Saa zingine unaotanga baba! Pewa one for the road uchangamke nitalipia baba!

  6. GUEST1Jun 18, 2019

    God BLESS this man. He did Exactly what I would do (given the Circumstance).

  7. Mwangi KiratuJun 19, 2019

    I doubt it.
    I thought the govt opened or established an office to help and deal with this kind of problem.
    How was she cleared to travel in the first place? I cringed after reading the story. Poor girl could have ended up in the streets or some old Arab's sex slave.
    Call me a racist but you never trust an Arab. Anybody black to them is a slave and they'll tell you to your face.

  8. LOD YOHSHIYOJun 20, 2019

    No it's in some of their traditions to enslave and rape and kill.so don't worry you're not a racist.

  9. Imara DaimaJun 18, 2019

    Mtu aliyemsaidia Dada Nyaboke anastahili heshima sana. Hongera sana ndugu yangu. Asante sana. Umeonyesha wazi ya kwamba utu (humanity) ungalipo (still there).

    Mtu kama wewe unastahili kuchaguliwa na wananchi ili uwahudumie watu wote wa Kenya bila upendeleo au kujitafutia sifa.

  10. jagJun 18, 2019

    There's something odd about this story, how can someone not know that their air ticket is showing final destination is Baghdad, Iraq? Unless she cannot read, of which I would wonder how she managed to communicate with whomever/agency she was working with to get to her destination.

    Also going by some responses here, how does one claim to know someone else's dream and promising to make their dream come true. You may mean well but the dramatization of response may not be the right message. Just say you can provide some help. The truth of the matter is that you actually don't know that lady's dream in life, therefore you cannot promise to make their dream come true. Besides, a dream of going to a foreign land to become a maid is a pathetic dream.

  11. BenJun 18, 2019

    First of all, there are many Kenyans who cannot read ... it is feasible this lady could not tell Qatar from Iraq. Second, the 'pathetic dream' you accuse her of having is exactly what Kenya's kleptomaniacs in leadership have handed to our young people.

  12. JagJun 18, 2019

    Could be true. I wish her well. And hopefully this story can be a good lesson for fellow Kenyans willing to go anywhere for greener pasture. I'm glad she didn't find herself in Iraq...would have been a nightmare and I'm Kenyan government wouldn't have bothered to intervene.

  13. MugikuyuJun 18, 2019

    @Jag, not all people can read per se and those who can, they would need some guidance reading an airline ticket for the first time. This lady was going to be a maid not some job requiring literacy so any of the above is a possibility. Please don't admonish those willing to help. They wording may not be your preference but the end goal shows some human kindness. Thats what counts.

  14. JagJun 18, 2019

    Thanks for your correction. I always stand corrected. I'm usually pessimistic when I see people putting their email asking others to send them an email. I guess, I've reading too much about Nigerian scammers.

  15. MugikuyuJun 19, 2019

    I thought about the scamming emails but wondered what they would squeeze out of her. This gullible lady needs lots of help especially learning how the world works as Maxiley has indicated not necessarily money. She needs a job hopefully the Nigerian scammers won't send her with some "cargo" to deliver given her naivety.

  16. MaxileyJun 18, 2019

    ,@ Jag.On the contrary the fact that this lady turned back after trusting astranger,to me this shows that she was ignorant of the contents of the documents she was carrying.True to his word this fellow was indeed agood samaritan.
    And about the promised dream,to me ithink it just a figure of speech. They could easily have said, _we will help you out.

  17. JagJun 18, 2019

    Yes that's actually a good indication that she might not know the intricacies of this world. This is one of those few cases with good endings.

  18. maxileyJun 18, 2019

    @ Jag, you are right.Such cases do not usually end up well.

  19. Msema KweliJun 18, 2019

    Mola amrehemu, this is how people’s children are sold into slavery ..... didn’t even her family check where she was being sent .... I pray she is well, hata hawo hurnda Qatar is nothing better than that Iraq . All those Arab countries are nothing but slave camps

  20. Imara DaimaJun 18, 2019

    @Msema Kweli:

    Kutokana na kisa hiki, inaonekana ya kwamba huenda ikawa kuna Wakenya ambao wameuzwa utumwani nchi za Uarabuni. Sasa wamo utumwani na hawana njia yoyote ya kupata msaada kuepukana na hali waliyomo kwa sababu hakuna mtu anayejua mahali walipo.

    Naiomba serikali ya Jubilee iwaulize Wakenya wote kama wana mtu wa familia yao ambaye alikwenda Uarabuni na sasa amenyamaza.

    Pili, Mkenya yeyote asiruhusiwe kupanda ndege kwenda nchi za Uarabuni (utumwani) kabla hajajisajili (has not registered) na afisi ya mambo ya kigeni Kenya.

    Tatu, ni lazima mabalozi wote wa Kenya waliomo nchi za Uarabuni wapate orodha ya Wakenya wote ambao wamo utumwani, anwani yao, na pia namba ya simu ya mtu aliyemuajiri mtumwa kutoka Kenya.

    Nne, ni lazima kila mtumwa kutoka Kenya awe na pasipoti yake wakati wowote.

  21. SarahJun 19, 2019

    May God help that man for saving that lady,Mimi Niko Qatar but siwezi ambia mtu akuje huku,I remember tulivyo fika huku tukaenda kuchukuliwa finger prints tulipata muhudu akatuuliza our country of origin tukamjibu then akatwambia "come in black monkeys" unapata bad treatment na unafanya job kwa company unajiuliza je mwenye ako kwa nyumba anateseka kivipi?nikifikiria kuresign nakumbuka ata 150k zenye nlilipa agency sijamaliza kulipa deni navumilia tuu matusi bora uhai.

AdvertisementMore stories (Google matched content)

More from Diaspora