Editor's Review

Detectives have reunited a minor with his mother, after she fled from captivity in Saudi Arabia, leaving the 2-year-old boy under the care of his father.

Detectives have reunited a minor with his mother, after she fled from captivity in Saudi Arabia, leaving the 2-year-old boy under the care of his father.

This is after the woman only identified as Mohammed 28, escaped from the gulf country after being taken seriously ill, following months of torture by her employer. Mohammed escaped back to the country leaving her beloved son with her husband who was equally living in dehumanizing conditions and could not stay with him.

In a heart-wrenching experience, the child’s father Bashir Mwarabu, was forced to hatch a plot to send the child to his mother in Kenya, since he could not take care of him under the prevailing circumstances.

An opportunity presented itself when another victim of torture identified as 26-year-old Maimuna Kassim, escaped from captivity to the streets of Riyadh where according to her report, she was arrested by authorities and served a three-week sentence in Tarhil prison, before being deported back to the country on October 3, 2022.

Kassim offered to travel back with the minor but upon arrival, the good samaritan disappeared with the child prompting her distraught mother to file a report at Gongoni police station.

Detectives based at the Anti Human Trafficking and Child Protection Unit in Mombasa, took over investigations into the matter and yesterday, the minor and the suspect were found in Mabrui, Kilifi county.

A sombre mood engulfed Gongoni police station in Kisauni, Mombasa county, as mother and child were finally reunited last evening.

The minor’s mother could not hold back her tears as she reminisced the double pain and suffering she had undergone in a foreign country and the possibility of never seeing her son again.

The emotional reunion and the discovery that the suspect was a victim of trafficking whose passport and belongings were withheld at the recruitment agency in Saudi Arabia, left our detectives investigating the matter in a melancholy mood.

This comes in the wake of increased cases of mistreatment of migrant workers in the gulf.