A Kenyan living and working in Lebanon has captured the attention of Kenyans after posting a video on social media narrating her plight in the war-torn region.
In the horrifying video seen by Kenyans.co.ke, the lady, who introduced herself as Brenda Muthoni, is heard begging for the intervention of the Kenyan Government to evacuate the Kenyans still trapped in the region, most of whom are domestic workers.
“This is what the situation is like as I’m speaking to you right now. The house has collapsed. I cannot go outside. I don’t know how I will go outside and it’s burning,” she frantically narrates.
With explosion sounds heard just outside the house she is trapped in, Muthoni revealed that her boss abandoned her and fled to Switzerland when the tensions between Lebanon and Israel worsened.
A section of Southern Lebanon in fire after a bombing, on September 23.
Photo
Hamdah Salhut
“For a while, it was peaceful because most of the war was happening in the South of Lebanon. But for now, it has become worse,” she recounts.
She continues to relay how her boss left her in the care of his brother who has since left for Syria as well. In a stroke of luck, however, her boss’ mother-in-law took her under her wing and escaped with her.
To add to the precarious situation, Muthoni says that some of their bosses in Lebanon have refused to return their passports which they need to leave the country.
“Some have refused to give us our passports so we are just here stranded. There is nowhere to go. We have nowhere to go,” she lamented.
“Some Kenyans have been locked in houses with nowhere to go. Their bosses have fled and left them locked in their houses. We do not have any assistance on how to reach them as they have gone offline,” another Kenyan in Lebanon narrates.
In the same vein, the stranded Kenyans living in Lebanon continue to note how some of them have even disappeared without a trace and their efforts to search for them have been futile.
They go on to narrate the discrimination they are also facing from humanitarian groups helping victims of the war as the only people being helped seem to be Lebanon natives and not foreigners like stranded Kenyans.
“We are close to schools and churches that are helping people but I have not seen any Kenyan there and 90%v of these people have Kenyans working for them as house girls but they have left them on the streets or locked in their houses,” she explains.
“So we could ask the government of Kenya, please, if you could help these Kenyans who are displaced, who have nowhere to go, we will be really grateful.” the desperate plea ends.
She also noted that many Kenyans have become traumatised and incapable of sleeping or even eating due to the constant explosions of bombs outside their places of residence.
Meanwhile, Roseline Kathure Njogu, Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Diaspora Affairs, last month announced that emergency travel documents could be issued for those whose passports had been confiscated.
She further assured that flights were being arranged to evacuate those registered with the Kenyan Embassy. Out of the estimated 26,000 Kenyans in Lebanon, 1,500 have already registered for evacuation.
However, the situation seems dire as more and more clips of Kenyans stranded in Lebanon following the Israel-Hezbollah conflict keep popping up day by day.
Diaspora Affairs PS Roseline Njogu during a meeting with a team from the Kenya Tourism Board (KTB) on July 22, 2024.
Photo
State Department of Diaspora Affairs
