Attachments
By: Ivy Gikonyo
Abstract
The plight of women trafficked for domestic work from and through Kenya to the Middle East and other parts of the world is often whitewashed by the fact that many of the victims were not forced to travel abroad. They signed up for it. This seems to absolve the supposed work agencies and the government of any wrongdoing. However, the victims are unaware that they are in fact being transported as commodities, subject to the whims and fancies of their masters. Another often overlooked reality is that these work agents would not exist if the women they recruited were not vulnerable. African women face oppressive conditions, often overlapping, that push them to the brink. The options they have are to either remain at home and suffer lack or travel to the Middle East and suffer abuse. Twenty years after the establishment of the Maputo Protocol, they are not yet emancipated. Whereas much effort is currently employed towards bringing perpetrators to book and rescuing and rehabilitating victims, this paper examines whether the scourge of trafficking women under the guise of lucrative employment abroad can be eliminated through the application of intersectional feminism which seeks to increase the options available to women.