Mother of two who died in Gulf buried

Mourners during the burial of Oglah Chepkoech at her rural home in Kapserton village, Nandi County on January 11, 2022. [Christopher Kipsang, Standard]

When Olgah Chepkoech left her village in Kapserton in Kipkaren, in April last year, she had hopes of finding greener pastures in Saudi Arabia so as to support her family.

Chepkoech who was widowed in 2018 was chased from her matrimonial home by her in-laws and had returned to her parents’ home.

When an opportunity to fly to the Gulf presented itself, she quickly jumped onto it.

Unknown to her family, April 9, 2021, would be the last day they would ever see their kin alive.

Barely six months after reporting to work as a house help at Arar in Saudi Arabia, her family says she complained that she feared for her life as her employers were mistreating her.

During her burial on Tuesday, her family painfully narrated the ordeal that had led to their kin’s death on November 1, 2021, and the two-month wait for the body to be ferried home for burial.

Arrived in country

Her body arrived in the country on January 6, 2022.

According to Richard Tanui, Chepkoech’s elder brother, the family had received a report in November 2, that his kin had allegedly committed suicide. The family, however, maintains that their daughter was murdered.

Tanui said his sister was in high spirits as she left the country and hoped to earn good money to support her family and educate her children, now in Form 3 and Grade Five. 

He said that Chepkoech had always contacted the family informing them that she was doing.

But she later sent a distressing message to her brother saying her life was in danger.

Tanui explained that his sister escaped from her employer's home when she could not bear the mistreatment any more. All she wanted then was to be allowed to fly back home.

When Chepkoech escaped, she found by police officers, who took her to the labour office before the agents who had coordinated her flight to Saudi came for her. Next thing they heard is that she had committed suicide.