Examining the Human Rights Gaps Facing Kenyan Women Domestic Workers in Gulf Cooperation Council Nations

Author: Winnie Murigu

September 9, 2026

IDWF demonstration in front UN demanding for Migrant workers' rights in Qatar. [Image credit: International Domestic Workers Federation/Flickr]

Introduction

Kenya, like many other countries in the Global South, has been facing domestic economic pressures due to soaring youth unemployment, which accounts for 75% of the population. For this reason, Kenya has increasingly leaned on exporting labor to various countries in the Global North as well as Asia. The state frames these migration corridors through Bilateral Labor Agreements (BLAs) as structured pathways to employment. Compared to relocating to Western nations, migrating to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) often involves simpler travel requirements and lower initial hurdles for low-skilled positions (Manji, 2017). The GCC is estimated to have the largest number of Kenyan migrant workers, accounting for over 400,000 as of 2026, with many working in hospitality, domestic service, and security (Business Daily, 2026). This migration pipeline is highly gendered, attracting thousands of Kenyan women into the highly unregulated sphere of domestic work in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, and Oman. Saudi Arabia is the most popular destination for Kenyan women domestic workers.

According to data from the Kenyan Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, nearly 80,000 domestic workers secured employment in the Arab nation in 2022 alone (KIPPRA, 2023). These women migrant workers contributed $302.26 million in 2022, making Saudi Arabia the third-largest source of remittances (Munda, 2023). Kenya and Saudi Arabia's Bilateral Labor Agreement on the Recruitment of Domestic Workers was adopted in January 2016 to protect the interests of both domestic workers and their employers (Kibii, 2023). Under the agreement, Kenya was tasked with ensuring appropriate documentation and screening of departing workers, while Saudi Arabia is responsible for promoting and protecting the welfare and rights of employers and domestic workers employed in Saudi Arabia in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. (Malit & Youha,2016). 

However, a major structural conflict exists between the official narrative of state-managed migration and the lived realities of workers on the ground, who regularly report wage theft, mobility restrictions, and physical abuse. Despite formal BLAs intended to standardize protection, these formal mechanisms routinely fail. The human rights violations experienced by Kenyan women domestic workers are not solely the product of the Kafala system. Rather, they emerge from protection gaps that begin in Kenya's labor export governance, continue during recruitment and migration, and persist in destination countries where labor protections remain structurally inadequate.

Human Rights Gaps Before Departure

Under Article 21 of the Kenyan Constitution 2010, which establishes the state’s obligations concerning international human rights, the state maintains a duty to protect its citizens from foreseeable human rights abuses abroad. It remains bound by its commitments under the Maputo Protocol to ensure that outbound workers are not dispatched into environments that systematically deny their dignity and security. However, the Ministry of Labor recorded 136 reported deaths and 1,908 formal distress calls since 2022 (Standard Media, 2026) due to various challenges. 

Weak Recruitment Practices

While BLAs require vetted contracts, Kenyan recruitment agencies frequently substitute contracts at airport transit points, forcing workers to sign agreements written in languages they do not understand, with reduced wages and extended working hours. A petition report, ELRC Petition No. E038 of 2023, submitted to the Employment and Labor Relations Court in Nairobi, showed that agents receive approximately $1,000 in commission per worker; contract substitution occurs at airports before boarding; and workers are sometimes issued 90-day visit visas for two-year employment contracts, potentially rendering them undocumented migrants upon visa expiry. Furthermore, local recruitment agencies routinely bypass statutory security bond requirements under Section 84 of the Employment Act, leaving workers without financial backing for emergency repatriation. 

Inadequate Pre-Departure Training

The inadequate pre-departure training provided to migrant women workers intensifies their vulnerability to abuse upon arrival in the GCC. The Kenyan National Employment Agency, in accordance with the Employment Act, previously developed a one-month course for home care management. The course covers fundamental home care activities such as childcare, housecleaning, meal preparation, laundry, pet care, and geriatric care (IOM, 2018). Because these women are typically deployed as domestic workers to the GCC, where Arabic is widely spoken, this is the source of most misunderstandings owing to the language barrier. The Kenyan Senate testimony confirmed that outbound domestic workers undergo a two-week pre-departure course at the National Industrial Training Authority, down from the original one month, a reduction officials attributed to pressure from recruitment agencies (Parliament of Kenya, 2025).

BLAs Favoring Labor Export Over Protection

Kenya has relied primarily on BLAs with destination states to regulate outbound labor, which should be designed to establish safe recruitment pipelines, standardize contract terms, and govern wage structures. However, the government entered into bilateral labor accords with the GCC states, with limited ratification of international agreements protecting migrant workers. None of the GCC states is a signatory to or has ratified the International Labor Organization’s (ILO) Domestic Workers Convention, which requires the elimination of forced labor, acceptable working conditions, and a minimum salary. Saudi Arabia, which employs the largest number of women as domestic workers, prohibits women from joining unions or worker committees, changing jobs, or quitting without permission from their employers until their two-year contracts expire. There is no minimum wage guideline, and labor laws do not cover domestic employees (Robinson, 2022). By sending women to work under such conditions without adequate safeguards, Kenya risks contributing to systems in which conditions may amount to forced labor or modern slavery.

Failure to Ratify ILO Convention No. 189

Kenya’s non-ratification of ILO Convention No. 189 has weakened its legal authority when negotiating bilateral protections abroad. In ELRC Petition No. E038 of 2023, the Employment and Labor Relations Court observed that while ratifying ILO Convention No. 189 on domestic workers' rights falls under executive discretion, Kenya’s regulatory gaps under Sections 82–85 of the Employment Act allow foreign contracts of service to be attested without verifying whether host states offer equivalent labor safeguards. This institutional deficit permits GCC states to operate selective, highly asymmetric enforcement regimes that relegate migrant domestic work to an unregulated tier of precarious labor. 

Human Rights Gaps in GCC Nations

The GCC has systematically abstained from ratifying Convention No. 189. This non-ratification contributes to gaps in the protections of domestic workers, including the following. 

Modern Slavery 

The Kafala system, a migrant labor sponsorship system, binds a foreign worker's legal residency and visa directly to a specific local employer. This system creates a power imbalance between the employer and the employee, as the employer has control over the employee's legal status and can threaten deportation if the employee does not comply with the employer's wishes. The Kafala system ties workers to their employers and places them in a position of extreme vulnerability, making them dependent on their employers to secure legal status and protection (Robinson, 2022). Such conditions may violate international instruments prohibiting slavery and forced labor, such as the ILO Conventions on forced labor and human trafficking and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3, which protects the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

Lack of Freedom of Movement

Passport confiscation by employers remains a widespread practice across the GCC, despite statutory prohibitions in several host states. By seizing identity documents, employers immobilize workers, preventing them from accessing diplomatic missions, medical facilities, or legal authorities. Workers are frequently locked inside homes, isolated from outside contact, and denied access to communication devices, creating both physical and digital isolation that severs networks of social support and legal recourse (Amnesty International, 2025). Furthermore, the Kafala system makes it difficult for women to escape from abusive employers as they are prohibited from leaving the country without their employers' permission, which restricts their freedom of movement and further increases their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse (Roper & Barria, 2014). Punitive mechanisms like restricting workers' freedom of movement are inconsistent with the right to freedom of movement protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 13, and related human rights treaties.

Lack of Fair and Safe Working Conditions

Deprived of mobility and bargaining power, domestic workers face severe labor violations. Common conditions include excessive working hours alongside the complete denial of weekly days off or annual leave. Financial exploitation is similarly widespread through systemic non-payment, underpayment, or deliberate delays in wage disbursement. In many instances, contract substitution occurs upon arrival, forcing workers to accept lower pay and longer hours than originally agreed (Amnesty International, 2025). The extreme isolation and privacy of the domestic sphere further heightens vulnerability to gender-based violence, encompassing emotional degradation, physical assault, starvation, and sexual abuse. This contravenes the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Article 7, on fair wages and safe working conditions, and ILO Convention No. 111 concerning Discrimination in Employment and Occupation, as well as international human rights instruments guaranteeing non-discrimination, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and anti-racism provisions.

Lack of Legal Protection

The Kafala system's legal framework often excludes migrant domestic workers from labor laws, denying them access to justice and protection. If a worker flees an abusive home to seek refuge or report violations, the employer can report them to municipal authorities for absconding (Amnesty International, 2025). Under host country migration laws, an absconding report may result in the revocation of the worker's legal residency, transforming victims of human rights abuses into undocumented migrants subject to arrest, administrative detention, and deportation (Amnesty International, 2025). This exclusion infringes on the right to an effective remedy guaranteed by international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 2(3).

Conclusion

This article has demonstrated that the human rights violations suffered by Kenyan women domestic workers in GCC nations stem from a continuous chain of governance failures that span the entire migration lifecycle. Before departure, these challenges include weak recruitment oversight, inadequate pre-departure training, BLAs favoring labor export over protection, and Kenya's failure to ratify the ILO Convention No. 189, all of which can contribute to workers being dispatched into highly precarious conditions. Upon arrival, new challenges emerge, such as exploitation associated with the kafala system, which can undermine their fundamental rights. Addressing these deeply ingrained human rights gaps requires immediate, systemic reform from both sending and receiving nations.

Recommendations

• Kenya and the GCC states should consider ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (1990) and ILO Convention No.189.

• The Kenyan government and GCC states should create a legal framework and include it in the BLAs that is gender-responsive and provides comprehensive protection for migrant workers from exploitation and abuse. 

• The Kenyan ministries of labor and social welfare should offer protection and assistance to migrant workers, while Kenyan diplomatic posts in the GCC should be provided with sufficient resources and capacity to offer adequate protection and assistance to migrant workers.

• The Kenyan government should consider digitizing the process of recruiting migrant workers for the GCC. This would give potential employers and employees greater transparency and accountability, enabling them to make more informed decisions.

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Glossary

• Absconding: To go away suddenly and secretly in order to escape from somewhere. 

• Bilateral: An agreement involving two groups, such as nations.

• Deportation: The action of forcing someone to leave a country, especially someone who has no legal right to be there or who has broken the law.

• Disbursement: A form of payment.

• Domestic workers: A person hired to perform household chores and care services inside a private home. 

• Geriatric: Relating to old age or the medical care of older adults. 

• Kafala: A migrant labor sponsorship system that links a foreign worker's legal residency and visa to a specific local employer.

• Labor: Physical work.

• Mobility Restrictions: Any limits on a person's ability to move, walk, or travel freely. 

• Punitive: Intended to punish or impose a penalty.

• Ratification: The official approval or confirmation that makes a contract or law legally valid and binding. 

• Remittances: Money sent by one party to another, most commonly when a worker in a foreign country transfers funds back to family in their home country.

• Repatriation: The act of returning someone or something to their home country.

• Standardize: To make things of the same type follow the same rules, size, quality, or design. 

• Statutory: Describes rules, duties, or rights that come directly from legislation.

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References

1. Amnesty International. (2025). Saudi Arabia: Migrant domestic workers face severe exploitation, racism and exclusion from labour protections. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/05/saudi-arabia-migrant-domestic-workers-face-severe-exploitation-racism-and-exclusion-from-labour-protections/

2. Business Daily. (2026). 400,000 jobs for Kenyans at risk in Middle East crisis. Business Daily. https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/400-000-jobs-for-kenyans-at-risk-in-middle-east-crisis-5380100?utm_source=facebook.

3. IOM. (2018). Ministry Of Labour Launches Homecare Management Curriculum. https://www.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl486/files/mission_newsletter/file/kenya_mn_201810_130.pdf.

4. Kibii, E. (2023). Worked to Death: Lack of a Policy Framework Fails Kenyan Migrants in the Gulf. Retrieved from https://www.theelephant.info/features/2023/01/13/worked-to-deathlack-of-a-policy-framework-fails-kenyan-migrants-in-the-gulf/

5. KIPPRA. (2023). Measures to Ensure the Safety of Kenyan Domestic Workers in the Middle East. https://kippra.or.ke/measures-to-ensure-the-safety-of-kenyan-domestic-workers-in-the-middle-east/

6. Malit Jr, & Al Youha, (2016). Labor Protection in the Gulf Countries: A Comparative Analysis of Kenyan Governmental Dilemmas in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

7. Manji, F. (2017). No win-wins in Kenya’s modern-day voyages in search of work. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/no-win-wins-in-kenyas-modern-day-voyages-in-search-of-work/

8. Munda, C. (2023). Saudi remittances up 68pc as Kenya eyes labour deal. Retrieved from https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/economy/saudi-remittances-up-68pc-as-kenyaeyes-labour-deal--4121482

9. Parliament of Kenya, Senate Labour Committee proceedings, 21 Nov. 2025, https://www.parliament.go.ke/node/24917).

10. Robinson, K. (2022). What Is the Kafala System? Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-kafala-system.

11. Standard Media. (2026). Kenya, Saudi Arabia sign new labour deal amid persistent abuse concerns. The Standard; Standard Digital. https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/national/article/2001552257/kenya-saudi-arabia-sign-new-labour-deal-amid-persistent-abuse-concerns.