Catherine Wambui is a Kenyan national who left the country in 2020 hoping that she would make hay while the sun shines in Iraq. Unfortunately, 2 years after her arrival, she found herself detained in the country’s maximum security prison.
In an interview, Catherine said that she had secured a chance of contractual employment in Iraq as a house manager. Excited, she packed her bags and bade her family and friends farewell.
Upon arrival, she got to work immediately and time passed along until 2 years eventually elapsed, when she finally fulfilled her contract. She explained to her employer that she would like to return to the country as stipulated in the contract.
However, her boss forced her into extending her contract despite Catherine’s efforts to explain that she was not in the mental capacity to serve two more years away from her family.
“I had packed and prepared everything and he even took me shopping but when it came time to leave, he was advised by one of his friends to make me extend the contract,” she said.
Due to her refusal to extend her contract, her employer noted that she would have to pay for her own ticket back to Kenya. In addition, he remained in custody of her passport.
“I stayed in my room for two weeks then one day I took off and went to the Iraq immigration department since we do not have a Kenyan embassy there,” Catherine narrated.
After jotting down all her details, Wambui alleges that the immigration department handed her over to the Iraqi police.
“The police took me to hospital for medical tests and told me I would go home within three days once my boss surrenders the passport,” she continued.
Shockingly, she was put into a vehicle without her consent and they drove off. A while later, the entourage began approaching buildings surrounded by barbed wires, confirming her earlier premonitions that she was going to serve prison sentence unlawfully.
“I was scared when we entered the sealed building and I saw people in cages. They then started shouting that a newcomer had arrived.”
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“The prison was traumatising as it was a common space for everyone. We were in the same room with murderers and drug dealers serving life sentences,” Wambui stated.
Wambui narrated her ordeal within the prison wall confines. She said that the management did not care for the place and it was heavily congested to the extent that they’d spend nights asleep in a sitting position.
A single prison cube housed over 100 inmates and detainees, with only one toilet at their disposal. Fortunately, her lucky straw came along in the month of Ramadhan in 2023 when the prison began releasing some of the detainees.
Being among them, she got out and made haste to contact her parents back home to wire her money for a plane ticket. Wambui reveled that there are other Kenyans serving sentences in Basra Prison and not being fortunate enough to get their freedom despite having committed no crimes.
