Kenyan Women Stuck in Lebanon Cry Out for Help in Emotional Video

A group of Kenyan women who are presently stuck in Lebanon has pleaded with the government to facilitate their repatriation.

Through a video recording shared on social media on Monday, the ladies say they were fired by their employers and cannot afford to buy flight tickets to travel home since they were not paid.

Kenyan domestic workers in #Lebanon #Beirut are begging to be repatriated. They were thrown out of their places of work without their pay. They don’t have money to buy air tickets. Video received via WhatsApp from one of the workers. @ForeignOfficeKE @StateHouseKenya #SemaUkweli pic.twitter.com/WGt08xKpqs

— Boniface Mwangi (@bonifacemwangi) August 10, 2020

They have appealed to the government, President Uhuru, DP William Ruto, and any well-wishers to come to their rescue. 

“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.

Other countries evacuated their citizens who lost their jobs in Lebanon amid an economic crisis and the Covcid-19 crisis, another woman says.

Two weeks ago, CNN published a story detailing how the Kenyan Honorary Consul in Beirut Mr. Sayed Chalouhi allegedly physically and verbally assaulted Kenyan women seeking services at the outpost.

The women also accused Sayed and his assistant Kassem Jaber—both Lebanese nationals—of overcharging fees and pressuring them to pursue sex work to raise money for their travel back home. Sayed and his assistant Kassem denied these claims.

The number of Kenyans working in Lebanon, mostly as domestic workers, is estimated at 1,000.