Kenyan firm denies stopping late Nigerian TikToker from travelling home

A subcontractor for TikTok, Teleperformance Kenya, has denied claims that it barred a Nigerian content moderator, Ladi Olubunmi, from travelling to Nigeria before her death.

PUNCH Metro learnt from ABC News on Wednesday that Olubunmi’s decomposing body was discovered in her apartment last week, three days after she had allegedly died.

The company told The Associated Press on Wednesday that it did not deny Olubunmi’s request for leave.

Reports from international media outlets indicated that Olubunmi’s colleagues claimed she had reportedly expressed fatigue and was desperate to return to Nigeria before her death.

Despite being entitled to an annual return ticket to Nigeria, her colleagues alleged that she was denied leave due to concerns about her work permit.

Olubunmi was said to have pleaded with her managers for permission to travel home but was unsuccessful, a claim that was described by Teleperformance Kenya as “baseless and untrue.”

The deceased reportedly moved to Kenya in 2022 to work as a content moderator for TikTok under Teleperformance, a French outsourcing firm contracted by the social media platform.

According to ABC News on Wednesday, technology workers in Kenya held a vigil in her honour, mourning the loss of their colleague.

During the vigil, content moderators and data labellers working for global tech companies raised concerns over poor working conditions, which they believe might have contributed to her death.

As reported by AP, Kauna Malgwi, a friend of the deceased, claimed that over 100 Nigerians working under Teleperformance Kenya lack valid work permits and, as a result, have been unable to travel home.

“More than 100 Nigerians are working under Teleperformance who haven’t had work permits for the last two years, and so they have not been able to travel home despite having an annual return ticket benefit,” said Malgwi.

When PUNCH Metro reached out on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abdulrahman Balogun, neither answered calls nor responded to enquiries regarding the steps the commission was taking on the incident.

This is not the first time a Nigerian has died under mysterious circumstances in Kenya. In July 2021, two Nigerians lost their lives at a house party under unclear circumstances.

One of them reportedly fell from the 7th floor of the Skyhorse Apartment in Kilimani, dying on the spot, while the other allegedly collapsed on the kitchen floor and was later pronounced dead.