The family of a 21-year-old Beatrice Waruguru who died in Saudi Arabia is distraught over post-mortem results which tell a tale of the suffering she endured leading up to her demise.

The results of the autopsy reveal have she was tortured before she died, judging from marks on her body, with strangulation marks on her neck and her body too weak signaling dehydration and undernourishment by the time she died.

Her family had gathered at the Kenyatta University Funeral Home on Thursday, May 12 where they took her body after noting the severe marks on her body when it first arrived from the Middle-Eastern nation, desperately waiting for the report from two pathologists witnessed by a police officer, who confirmed their fears of torture.

“The autopsy suggested that a rope was used in strangling her. At the same time, her body was feeble from prolonged starvation,” Mercy Wambui, a relative of Waruguru, who was present during the autopsy stated.

The pathologists, in their report, further noted that her eyes had been gouged out, and had torture marks that included burn scars all over her body which confirmed she was tortured to death.

Saudi authorities had ruled her demise as death by suicide when they sent her body back to the country.

The Government has insisted that it was not aware of the death, and efforts to reach the Ministry of Labour by a local publication were rendered futile as Labour CS Simon Chelgui declined to comment on the alleged torture and death of the lady, stating that he had not received an official report.

His office however assured that upon receipt of the report from the National Employment Authority, action would be taken on the agency that was responsible for the recruitment of the deceased, whose details remain scanty pending investigation.

“We don’t want to comment before it is confirmed because they must know about the agency that took part in the case. The Authority is the one that regulates the agency,” said the official from CS’s office.

It is however reported that at the airport on Wednesday, May 11 when the body landed from Saudi Arabia, a representative from the Association of Skilled Migrant Agencies of Kenya was present.

“I’m here to ensure that everything goes well and the family is assisted. Everything done here is in order, there is no cause for alarm,” the association representative Josephine Muriuki assured.

Family members say that Waruguru had reported that she was being tortured by her employers sometime in May 2021, and began working on having the employment agency that facilitated her travel  to intervene on her behalf. This, unfortunately, was disregarded as the suffering seemed to weigh her down, and towards the end of the 2021, her relative Wambui says her phone went dead silent.