Ugandan Girl Nearly Succumbs to Blunt Trauma at Workplace in Oman

By Busein Samilu

Yielding to their daughter’s calculated move, saying no to her request was close to impossible after considering the benefits of an extra income in the family.

After every sacrifice made for Nakiwunga to work in Oman, receiving her half lifeless body is a dent nothing can level in their hearts. Spending nights tied on trucks in the backyard, starvation and a series of blunt force trauma took a toll on her health till she was repatriated to Uganda.

One casual evening, Sharon Josephine Nakiwunga willingly did all the chores at home and even prepared a delicious meal on her bill. This pleasantly surprised her parents who had never seen her being that generous; she was known for being indolent and good at penny-pinching.

As they were still dumbfounded, she tabled a scandalous suggestion, immediately after they had concluded the dinner. “I want to go and work in Oman so I can raise capital for a salon,” Nakiwunga said, bringing their jolly moment to a sudden halt.

“When I saw her hard work that day, as a parent I knew she was hiding or planning something but when I asked her, she just laughed. Her request was too big to be considered straight away though after thorough consultation from different family members, we agreed and she went,” Joseph Katende, her father, narrated.

13 months later, Nakiwunga was returned home half dead. Human trafficking deprives people of their freedom and rights once they are under bosses, in this case ‘buyers’ who decide whether one gets medical treatment, food, shelter or not. Such is the norm as in Nakiwunga’s miserable tale.

“She had completed her senior four and learnt how to plaint hair so her dream was to own her own salon yet we didn’t have enough money to set up one for her so I helplessly agreed with her plan,” Katende added.

Nakiwungu was trafficked to Oman through Lwakhakha International Border to Kenya by Katende Suleiman, ‘travel agent’ in April 2018 and later rescued in May 2019 by her parents with the help of the Overseas Workers Voices Uganda.

As I set foot into the deep village of Kankamba, Kiseka Sub County in Lwengo district, I readied myself to personally hear about Nakiwunga’s horror story which I had just been briefed on by Mwiza Mariam, the Executive Director of OWVU.

On arrival, I was welcomed by a barefoot dark skin old man who was sweeping the compound, dressed in a white shirt with stained collar edges that were wearing away and a grey trouser. Later, I discovered that he was Joseph Katende, Nakiwunga’s father.

With warm smiles on their faces, the whole family greeted and served me with juice and a ‘fleshy’ chapatti before we dived into Nakiwunga’s ordeal.

Her journey to Oman

Katende said that Nakiwunga’s journey to Oman started with one of her friends called Nandugwa who had earlier on told them that her brother owned a labour exporting company that was legalized to take people out for work.

Katende revealed that he personally started working on the process and met with the recruiter Suleiman Katende, whom he didn’t realize was a ‘trafficker’ since he claimed owning a labor recruiting company called ‘Aljazeera International Services and Recruiting Company’.

“Being my fellow clan mate and a fellow resident here in Lwengo, I did not even assume that he could sell off my daughter into slavery, because he even assured me that my daughter was going to a safe place,” he lamented.

Chimp Corps, in an attempt to ascertain the allegation, searched for any proof for the existence of Sleiman’s proposed legal company but did not find Aljazeera International Services and Recruiting Company among the companies that are legally registered by the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development.

Katende further narrated thus, “he (Suleiman) gave me his business card bearing this company details and tasked me to pay Shs 700,000 which I gave him and the process commenced.”

On February 23, 2018, the alleged trafficker took Katende and his daughter to his office that was located in Rubaga, where they took his daughter’s passport photos and finalized with some other paperwork.

“After the whole process, she was flown to Oman on April 2, 2018. At first, she seemed to be successful because she sent me Shs 500,000 in the first month which brought happiness to us all. But the following month things changed. She did not send instead told me that she had been fired by her bosses,” recalls Katende.

“I went and told Katende (the travel agent) everything and he promised to fix it all, requesting me to be patient. He later looked for another home and fixed her there. In July and August, she sent me another Shs 600,000; which was the last money I received from her,” he added.

Things fall apart;

While Katende planned to open up a bank account for his daughter, it wasn’t long before he started receiving devastating messages from her.

“From September onwards, she did not send money. I instead started receiving scaring messages from her. In December she told me; ‘They don’t give me food, no medication and I work from 4:00 am to 12:00 am.’ This was heartbreaking for me and the whole family,” said Katende, bowing his head to the ground.

Katende narrated that he again went back to the ‘agent’ but unfortunately this time he hit a dead end because Suleiman had shifted his office to another location.

“One of the cleaners in that place told me that they had shifted to Mengo where he directed me. I went and fortunately found them there and explained the situation to Katende, showing him the messages on the phone. He responded by throwing away my phone and said ‘that girl is just dodging work’,” Katende retorted.

As the interview went deep, tears rolled down Nakiwunga’s cheeks, who sat next to her mother; tight-lipped but quite observatory, listening to the story of her life as her beloved father profiled every detail of the happenings.

Clenching his jaws, Katende recalled when he nearly ran mad after receiving the last message from his daughter, “She said ‘this may be my last message to you my lovely daddy. You may not hear from me again, I don’t even know where I am. I love you so much.’”

OWVU (Overseas Workers Voice Uganda) Intervention

As everyone was stranded, Katende narrates that he was advised by his friend to contact an NGO called the Overseas Workers Voices Uganda for help. Together, they searched for the numbers and landed on Mwiza Mariam’s, its Executive Director.

“Madam Mariam really helped us in fighting the battle until my daughter returned home,” said Katende.

In the process, the alleged trafficker (Katende) was arrested in January 2019 and imprisoned at Lwengo Police Station, from where he was later transferred to Kampala Central Police Station and charged with a case of Illegal Recruitment on reference number SD/45/23/01/2019.

He added that he was later released on Police Bond and accepted to work on the process of returning Nakiwunga to Uganda.

Mwiza said that after meeting the family, she contacted Nakiwunga who pleaded for help via a video. In the video, Nakiwunga said, “Aunt Mariam help me I am dying from Oman. I have been thrown in Zziwa, an HIV/AIDS special hospital in Oman.”

Mwiza later contacted other humanitarian organizations in Oman “until this innocent lady landed in Uganda,” she said.

“When she had just arrived, they took her direct to Butabika hospital, something that I completely opposed. Though I was sick, I only rested after seeing her in the hands of her parents,” Mwiza added.

What really happened in Oman – Nakiwunga tells her story

In a low tone, with tears still hanging loose at her eyelids, Nakiwunga narrated her nightmare in the Arab world.

“They had a completely crippled child who used to shout at night. On my arrival, they asked me whether I had a baby to which I replied yes, though I didn’t. The following days, I was overworked and when I tried complaining, the older son hammered me in the head and denied me food,” she said.

She added that on several occasions, they tied her limbs with ropes on frames of different trucks at night and she could sleep there until morning. This always happened when she lamented that she was tired and needed a bit of rest.

“They had a warehouse where they used to steal vehicles and bring them home. When I saw the man, he called his wife and instructed her to add semen like substances in my food. They injected substances I didn’t understand in my body,” she alleges.

Medical reports from Masaka hospital showed that Nakiwunga was traumatized and couldn’t describe all that happened since she was unconscious. “Transmitted from Oman does not explain what happened and cannot give history,” reads part of the report

As poverty continues to bite, like the Katendes, most families especially in rural areas, the urge to try seeking employment opportunities abroad grows even wider.

This forces most youths especially girls to brave and travel to different countries in the Middle East to work in some of the most despised jobs sections(in Uganda) like; housemaids, cleaners and others with aims of lifting their families’ financial positions.

The heaven on earth promises these young women and men are promised while leaving Uganda are realized by only a handful of the lucky individuals while for others, its only but just a high way to the grave, unfortunately.

The government legalized labor exportation by registering companies but some people especially those from rural areas still fall victims of human trafficking due to lack of proper information on the same. In fact, some of these people don’t know that they are being trafficked until they get to the ‘buyers’ homes.

30,000 Ugandans are illegally working in Oman, according to the 2017 report of the Uganda Association of External Recruitment Agency (UAERA).