Kenyan man in Saudi jail over 'chat with a woman'

Haki Africa Communications O?cer Salma Hemed (right) with Khadija Rashid, who poses with a photo of her son, Juma Laki, in Mombasa Tuesday. Mr Laki is said to be languishing in a Saudi Arabia jail after he was found chatting with a woman on Facebook . [PHOTO: OMONDI ONYANGO/STANDARD]

MOMBASA: A 20-year-old Kenyan man is languishing in a Saudi jail after he was accused of having pictures of a woman on his cell phone and chatting with her via the phone.

The act is said to be in apparent contravention of the Sunni kingdom's puritannical laws.

Haki Africa official Francis Auma said Juma Laki from Likoni constituency left Kenya for the oil-rich gulf nation in March 2013.

Auma said Mr Laki's mother, Khadija Rashid and uncle Khalfan Ronga, lodged an appeal with the organisation for assistance. They said the last time they spoke to Laki was on April 10 this year.

"My son called me to say he was in jail after a friend 'sold' him out, claiming his phone had pictures of a woman whom he had been chatting with," a teary Mama Khadija told The Standard Tuesday.

She said her son had been employed by a Mr Samir and that since his arrest by special Saudi police, he has never appeared before court but continued to be kept in police custody without charge.

Laki's family pleaded with the Government to intervene and have their son returned home.

"My husband, who used to work with Telkom Kenya, died in 1995, and I have been solely responsible for bringing up Laki and his four sisters. I am heart-broken ever since I got news about his incarceration in a foreign jail," she said.

She said efforts to talk to the agent who recruited her for the Saudi job have not borne any fruit. "He has continued to snub our calls, leaving us in total darkness as we do not know his fate," she said.

Ms Rashid said her son was on a genuine mission to fend for himself and his family as he has been regularly sending money home.

"He used to send at least Sh20,000 per month and would tell me to use it on our family," she said.

Mr Auma said Haki Africa has received several complaints from Kenyan immigrant workers in Saudi jails.

"There are Kenyan agents who are notorious and keep on sending job-seeking youths to the Gulf and once they get their commission, they abandon them and end contact completely. This is unfortunate and we hope to engage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to have Laki's case resolved," he said.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia enforces strict rules governing mixing between men and women and has come under a barrage of criticism from equal rights activists.

Women in the strictly Islamic country are not allowed to leave Saudi Arabia without the permission of their guardian, who can consent on what is known as a 'yellow document'.

The document previously had to be produced at the airport but can now be completed online to avoid embarrassment for airport staff and the travelling women.

Saudi Arabian women are being monitored by an electronic system at airports that notifies their male 'guardians' when they try to leave the country.

Women are also required to have a male guardian responsible for them.

Saudi Arabia applies a strict interpretation of Sharia, or Islamic law. Earlier this year, it was ranked the second worst in a Thomson Reuters global survey on women's rights.

In June 2011, female activists launched a campaign to defy the country's driving ban.