Many households across Africa employ domestic workers. They are mostly women and young girls, commonly referred to as ‘housegirls’. But how much do employers really know about their maids or where they come from?
It is estimated that over one million domestic workers live and work in Nairobi alone. Most come from neighbouring countries, particularly Uganda, drawn by the promise of higher wages and the strength of the Kenyan shilling.
However, many girls arrive in Kenya without a passport or identity card preventing them from gaining legal employment. Housed in informal, confined settlements on the cities’ outskirts, often without basic amenities, many of these young workers are vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse.
For BBC Africa Eye, reporter Nancy Kacungira travels to eastern Uganda to find out what drives young women to leave their homes for Kenya’s cities, the conditions they endure once they arrive, and to investigate growing tensions between local and migrant domestic workers.
