NAIROBI, Kenya – November 22, 2025—In a landmark ruling, the High Court in Nairobi has ordered an overseas recruitment company to pay KSh 5 million to a Kenyan man who was deceptively recruited and trafficked to Myanmar to work in an online scamming operation.
Justice Byram Ongaya directed Gratify Solutions International Limited to compensate Harun Nyakong’o for being recruited, transported, and handed over to transnational criminal networks operating scam compounds in Myanmar.
Nyakong’o, who has since returned to Kenya, testified in court that he was subjected to forced labour and coerced into engaging in fraudulent activities targeting individuals in the United States. The court found that the recruitment and trafficking chain involved Gratify Solutions International Limited and its officials — Virginia Wacheke Muriithi, Boniface Owino, and Ann Njeri Kihara — who orchestrated and facilitated his transfer abroad.
The High Court concluded that Nyakong’o had been subjected to slavery, servitude, forced labour, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as severe violations of his dignity and freedom of movement. It also recognised that the trafficking chain originated in Kenya, making the respondents strictly liable for the harm inflicted abroad.
In addition to awarding compensation, the court issued a permanent injunction barring the company from recruiting, transporting, harbouring, or facilitating the movement of Kenyan workers to foreign countries.
Nyakong’o’s lawyer, Lillian Nyangasi, described the judgment as a groundbreaking milestone. She noted that this is the first known decision in Kenya arising from a case filed on behalf of a victim trafficked to Myanmar for labour exploitation and forced criminality.
“The case highlights the complex nature of contemporary trafficking networks, particularly those operating across East Africa and Southeast Asia,” Nyangasi said. “It formally recognises the full extent of abuses suffered by victims lured abroad under false pretenses and compelled to engage in illegal online scams under conditions amounting to slavery and servitude.”
She added that the ruling sets an important precedent for holding recruitment agencies, traffickers, and complicit individuals accountable under Kenyan law, affirming that courts in Kenya can provide effective remedies for citizens harmed by transnational criminal enterprises.
