Sombre Mood as Kenyan Woman Who Died in Saudi Arabia is Laid to Rest

A Kenyan domestic worker who died in Saudi Arabia under mysterious circumstances about five months ago was on Saturday laid to rest in an emotional sendoff in Imenti South, Meru County.

Jackline Muthoni, a 41-year-old mother of two daughters aged 12 and 18, died on June 10th while undergoing treatment at Al-Eman General Hospital in Riyadh but her family learned of her demise four months later. The death notice showed she died after suffering “hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and excessive bleeding.”

Muthoni was about to be buried in a mass grave in the Gulf nation but former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko intervened and helped the family to repatriate her body alongside those of two other Kenyan women who died in Saudi Arabia.

Sonko, who spent nearly Sh3 million on tickets and mortuary fees, said his team was processing the bodies of Mercy Mbula of Machakos County and Lucy Mwanyae of Kilifi when they were told there was another body of a Kenyan that was about to be disposed of.

“We were informed that Muthoni died in June and her body was about to be buried in a mass grave so we decided to bring her back so that her family could give her a decent send off,” Sonko said during Muthoni’s funeral on Saturday.

Leaders who attended the funeral called on the government to enact relevant laws to protect Kenyans working in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia where cases of mistreatment and death have been rampant.

“It is sad that we don’t even have data on all the people working in the Middle East and who they are working for. I will petition parliament so that a system is put into place to ensure we know who is where, working for who and what4 type of job,” former Nairobi Governor Anne Kananu said.

“The agents should also be registered with the Foreign Affairs ministry so that we as leaders should be responsible. There is no way a Kenyan can die in foreign land only to be discovered four months later and nobody is being held to account. This is unacceptable and something must be done,” she added.