Nairobi, 19 May 2025: Amnesty International is shocked to read the response of the Kenyan Ambassador to Saudia Arabia Mohammed Ruwange to our 12 May 2025 report Saudi Arabia: Locked in, left out: The hidden lives of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.
The Kenyan Ambassador’s statement published on Facebook on 17 May 2025 alleges that our in-depth documentation of 72 domestic workers is not an accurate reflection of the reality for Kenyan migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Characterising these testimonies as “exaggerated” or “unverified” not only undermines these women’s experiences, but it also contributes to the very cycle of silencing and invisibility that enables abuse to persist. The Government of Kenya has a responsibility not to dismiss these accounts, but to respond to them with the seriousness they warrant.
While our report acknowledged the limited reforms Saudi Arabia has introduced for migrant workers, it highlighted that domestic workers are excluded from many of these. Furthermore, those reforms that do apply are woefully inadequate to address the severity of the abuses Kenyan women are facing there. We do seek more honesty in the treatment of this matter of public interest.
We call on the Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua to follow up his initial response with a more detailed and constructive response to the findings and recommendations in the report. We also call on the National Assembly and Senate to demand the bilateral agreement between Saudi Arabia and Kenya be made available for parliamentary and public scrutiny and the Government end the abuses that continue with impunity.
As the Government of Kenya continues to encourage its nationals to seek work abroad, it remains its responsibility to ensure proper safeguards are implemented effectively for all Kenyan migrant workers. Instead of downplaying the experiences of Kenyan women, the Kenyan government must demonstrate that they are acting to improve living and working conditions for Kenyan migrant workers to ensure their right to safe and dignified work.
Signed
Irungu Houghton
Amnesty International Section Director
For more information and interviews, contact Mathias T. Kinyoda
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Notes:
- You can read the 12 May Amnesty International research report “Saudi Arabia: Locked in, left out: The hidden lives of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia” here https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde23/9222/2025/en/ The main findings and recommendations were shared with both the Kenyan and Saudi authorities.
- The 15 May interim statement of Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary is available here
- The Facebook based 17 May statement of the Kenya Embassy to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia can be read here: https://www.facebook.com/1832974311/posts/10222620316976612/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6v