How Kenyans are sold into slavery

In a report “Human Trafficking in East Africa: Research Assessment and Baseline Information in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Burundi”, published three months ago, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) says Kenya and Tanzania are transit routes for Ethiopian women being trafficked to Europe and the Middle East and Somalis trafficked to South Africa.

Chinese women have been trafficked for sexual exploitation and Bangladeshis for forced labour through Kenya.

“In all of the countries (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Burundi) the majority of trafficked respondents indicated that traffickers used either promises of jobs and/or promises of jobs with a good salary to persuade them.”

Victims pay between Sh80,000 and Sh700,000 to the cartels for either right of passage abroad or jobs that hardly exist in Kenya, according to Cyrus Omooria, the officer in charge of investigations and prosecution, Immigration Department, Mombasa.

For those able to get to their destinations (Kenya, Europe, North America, South Africa, Middle East), the cartels seize their identification documents, hold them incommunicado and could turn them into sex slaves, according to Noah Chanyisa Chune, the Cotu director of Education who is trying to fight slavery in the EPZs.

“The most common form of recruitment is deception, followed by abuse of power or coercion. Most of the victims were given false promises of jobs, better life and even marriage to rich people abroad and at home,” the Cradle report says.

Following two months investigations, this writer can reveal that about 20,000 people in Kenya are pushed into slavery in Europe and Middle East each year while another 30,000 get into slavery locally, working as house-helps or as involuntary prostitutes in Nairobi and at the Coast.

The situation has become so bad that the Government is repatriating 80 foreigners each month (about 1,000 a year), according to a top Immigration official.

In its publication, US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, June 2008, the American Government places Kenya in “Tier 2”, the classification of a country that is a “source, transit and destination” for people trafficked for purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation.

Those vulnerable are people hungry for foreign jobs. Mr Omooria, who has been in Immigration Department for 15 years, has rescued hundreds of trafficked victims, the latest being 28 Somalis discovered at the Miritini Vehicle Inspection unit on May 8.

The van that had gone for mere check up happened to be carrying human cargo destined for Tanzania. It was at this checkpoint the Immigration and Police stumbled on a big story — the 25 Somalis on board had no identification on them and were headed to South Africa.

In another case in May, a group of 20 Somalis and Ethiopians were seized by police in Msambweni abandoned on an island next to Shimoni.

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Gullible fall for brazen adverts

Human smugglers and traffickers have become so impudent that they advertise their services in local daily newspapers.