Kenyan Family in Agony After Daughter Dies of Covid-19 in Saudi Arabia

A Kenyan family from Kisii County is appealing to the government to help them bring home the body of their kin who died in Saudi Arabia last month.

24-year-old Janet Nyamburi left the country on August 29th for Saudi Arabia where she worked as a driver in Al Hofuf State until her passing.

Nyamburi’s elder brother Jared Oyugi said her employer phoned the family and informed them that his sister succumbed to Covid-19 on October 9th.

"We do not know her employer's name. He is the person who informed us of her death through a text message, saying she died of Covid-19 at a hospital in Saudi Arabia where he had taken her for treatment,” Oyugi told Daily Nation.

While the employer claimed that all the paperwork required for the transportation of the body was ready, the family says their efforts to follow up on the body at the Saudi Arabian embassy have been unsuccessful.

"He (the employer) told us that paperwork was ready, but there was no plane to transport her body back home because of her Covid-19 status. But we are wondering why they cannot put it in a body bag?" Oyugi wondered.

The family has been living in distress for the past one month and is crying out for assistance from the government.

"They have kept me in the dark for the past one month. I am beginning to wonder whether they have already buried my daughter," the deceased’s mother Mary Bonareri said adding that all they want is to give her daughter a decent sendoff.