Kenyan Domestic workers in Cairo; the case of Peninah Kasaya

Language: 
English
Sent On: 
Wed, 2021-08-18
Year: 
2021
Newsletter Number: 
25


Many Kenyan women have come to Egypt for employment since the demand for African domestic workers is high and employment in Kenya is for many women hard to obtain. Most East African women coming to Cairo are single mothers who are struggling to obtain education for their children. Peninah Kasaya is one of the few lucky women whose husband has not deserted her but as a small farmer in Western Kenya he is incapable to pay for the high cost of secondary and tertiary education. Peninah first came to Egypt on September 14, 2014 and works in Egypt to support her children of 33, 27, 25 and 15 years old. None of the three older children has a stable job and they still depend on their parents for a living. The 25-year-old boy is at a special college since he is hearing impaired. The 15-year-old girl was supposed to attend secondary school but this has suddenly become highly uncertain.

 

On July 9 I traveled to Kenya and was supposed to be in the company of Peninah and other women who were returning to Kenya for family visits. Yet, Peninah didn’t board the plane. While sitting in the plane we heard she had been arrested by the airport police. Peninah was allowed to return to Kenya on August 9 and now describes her ordeal: “the following day I was taken to police station handcuffed. I was told there is someone by the name Irene Riziki who raised a complaint at the tribunal that I gave her fake visa and she paid me 500 US$. I was shocked since this was a lie and told the police so but they did not believe me. I was taken to court after three days, I had to look for a translator and paid 400$. When the judge asked if I was the one who gave Irene a visa I said no. I was told I have no case and I was taken back to the Cairo airport cell. I stayed there for one month without food or water. Friends of mine brought some food and water which sometimes reached me and at other times not. The cell was very dirty. Police officers treated me badly for that one month I stayed there. I didn't know why I was kept there for one month. My boss made inquiries into my arrest but when it was extended and extended my boss fired me via a text message he wrote for me “Sorry Peninah, but I have no choice due to circumstances.”

 

I am now in Kenya without job and income and totally confused since the police withdrew my visa and my boss sacked me while I was still in police custody. I have a son who just joined high school, I don’t know how I'm going to pay fees for him while I'm jobless. I don't know whether I can return to Cairo or not. I am totally confused.”

 

Irene Riziki is a woman from Mombassa who had been between 2011 and 2021 working in Cairo and shared a room in a flat with Peninah. Kenyan women come to Cairo on a tourist visa and overstay that visa for reasons of work. A certain Egyptian lawyer by the name Mohammed contacted Kenyan domestic workers and said that he could help them with a residence permit. Several women, including Riziki and Peninah, believed his offer was genuine and each paid him in 2017 500 US$ for a visa they believed to be genuine. When, however, a woman was arrested in 2017 at the airport for having a visa that Mohammed had provided they discovered it had been fake and thus also the other visa Mohammed provided no longer could be trusted. Mohammed operated in a period that the Egyptian police was checking Africans in Cairo for valid visa. Riziki did not renew her visa with Mohammed but Peninah did so for one more year out of fear that if she would be found without a visa that authorities would return her to Kenya. She was even able to travel with this on June 27, 2019, to Kenya. Airport authorities did not notice the fake visa. Peninah changed her passport in Kenya and on September 16, 2019, returned to Egypt with a new passport and a tourist visa that expired of time. She no longer dared to be in Egypt on a fake visa.

 

Other women, including Riziki, immediately stopped using the services of lawyer Mohammed. They realized it is better to be without visa in Egypt and pay a fine at the airport than having a forged visa which results in harsh police responses. The height of the fine depends on the length of time one has overstayed his/her visa.

 

Most employers in Egypt are Egyptian and non-Egyptian families who like to have a domestic worker living in house to help them daily with cleaning and sometimes taking care of children, pets, cooking and ironing. But these employers are incapable of providing these domestic workers with a residence permit. Since work is carried out illegally, working conditions are not protected and depend on the family where work is carried out. The exception are the domestic workers working for diplomats, but these are only very few. Peninah was lucky to find a job in 2019 with a Moroccan diplomat.

 

It is hard to find work in Kenya if you do not have your own business or have family members who can help you with a paid job. 67% of the Kenyan youth, defined as people between 15 and 35 years of age, are un- or underemployed. 95% of Kenyans obtained primary school education but only 33% were able to complete secondary school which, unlike primary school education, is not free [www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk].

 

People try to find income with very little or insufficient education. This draws them to the cities which offer better opportunities but the costs of living here are substantially higher than in rural areas.

 

Most women in this situation make in Nairobi perhaps 20,000 Kenyan Shillings (ksh) and outside Nairobi their income may drop to a meagre 2,000 Ksh for a full-time job (six days per week, ten hours per day) one hotel assistant told me during my recent visit to Mumias, Kenya. Kezia in Ongata Rongai (near Nairobi) pays for her hovel of 2 by 4 meters 2,500 ksh. Here she lives with three children. The toilet is shared with tens of other families in the same compound. She survives thanks to her daughter in Cairo who sends money to her mother who is able with this to send her 15 year old daughter to secondary school because Kezia knows that without education her daughter might end up in the same situation as her. If one wants to rent better accommodation the costs easily increase to 15,000 Ksh for a two-bedroom flat which is the rent her neighbor pays who also works in Cairo. In Egypt domestic workers obtain salaries between 6,000 and 12,000 EgP which translates to 36,000 to 72,000 ksh. This is big money in Kenya. Of course, no woman can send all this money home, but they make all efforts to reduce their living costs in Cairo as much as possible so that they can send as much money home as possible.

 

Riziki returned to Kenya in February 2021. She had not left Egypt once for a visit to Kenya and thus also had no chance to change her passport. She was arrested when the airport police discovered the fake visa she had bought from Mohammed in 2017. She spent weeks in a police cell whereby the police was pressing her to give them the name of the person who had provided this. Probably out of fear for lawyer Mohammed she gave the name of Peninah with the false claim that she had provided her with the fake visa. This was a lie with great consequences for Peninah who, not suspecting any difficulties, was arrested on July 9. At that moment she had a work permit from her diplomat employer but this did not help her.

 

Peninah told the police about lawyer Mohammed but since she initially trusted him she had no copy of his ID and since he had approached them she also did not know about his whereabouts and neither do the other women who had been duped by him. Lawyer Mohammed disappeared. The women told me about his shady practices two years ago. I warned them not to get involved in buying fake visa. Some stopped using his ‘services’ but other continued for a while because some women had indeed been able to travel with his fake visa. I understand that the Egyptian police is making all efforts to root out the business of fake visa. Peninah and other women have been naïve and those who were caught paid a heavy price for this. I definitely hope the police will be able to punish the crooks who produce such false visa.

 

Kenyan women in Cairo save money through a merry go round. They contribute monthly with a certain sum that is given to one of the women in their group. In June it was Peninah’s turn. She was glad to receive 1000 US$ and put this in her suitcase. That would have enabled her to pay for her son’s education in the coming school year. Of course, the suitcase was thoroughly checked and the money was found. With this money she could pay for the translator. The remaining 600$ she could take with her to Kenya.

 

Her concerns are now how to pay for the school fee of secondary school education in Ongata Rongai/Nairobi. The annual fees are 77.000 ksh for a day school of which the government will pay 22,244 ksh but this leaves Peninah with a cost of 54,756 ksh (approx. 550 US$) which is money she cannot get together without an income in Egypt. Her son’s wish is to become a chef but for this he needs to complete his secondary school education and at a hotel management college. Who can help her?

 

 

August 18, 2021

 

Cornelis Hulsman, editor-in-chief Arab-West Report