“Facebook’s contractor forced me to work alongside my rapist”

This story was contributed to TechCabal by Mukanzi Musanga and first appeared in Open Democracy Facebook’s former content moderation firm has been accused of shielding an employee who allegedly raped two colleagues and sacking one of his victims to protect the company’s reputation. Two former employees in Sama’s Kenyan office have told openDemocracy that managers fostered an unsafe work environment by ignoring or minimising their allegations of rape against one of their colleagues. The allegations, which have been reported to the police but are not part of any ongoing legal challenges, are the latest made against Sama by its former African employees. The US-based tech firm is being sued – along with Meta, which owns Facebook – in Nairobi for unlawful redundancy and blacklisting after laying off all 260 of its content moderators in Kenya in March, having ended its contract with Facebook.  Hope Mandi, one of the women alleging rape, moved from South Africa to Nairobi in May 2021 after landing a job at Sama. In the same month, Mandi moved into an apartment complex on the Imara Daima estate. She says that weeks later, she was raped by a colleague who lived nearby and had come to her apartment in what appeared to be a friendly visit. Mandi said they were chatting when he first tried to kiss her and then raped her after she asked him to stop.  Mandi said that after the man left: “My immediate thought was to report him to Sama. The first person I confided in was a colleague, who informed the management of the assault.” She was taken to a hospital chosen by Sama’s in-house counselor. Once there, the counselor handled all the paperwork. Mandi claims Sama was trying to control everything and keep a lid on the rape.  Having only recently moved to Kenya, Mandi assumed Sama would assist her in filing a local police report. But she says a senior manager instead told her not to involve police. “Afterwards, there was no further action from the company. They went quiet except for the calls from the counselor, who repeatedly tried to persuade me to forgive him,” she said.  In one instance, Mandi told openDemocracy, she was on the phone with the counselor when, without warning, they added her alleged rapist to the call so that he could apologise – despite her having already refused to meet with him face-to-face. Mandi also feels she was compelled to suppress her emotional distress at work and continue to sift through Facebook content “where people were being sexually violated”, while her own assailant sat a short distance away. “He attacked and raped me but faced no consequences despite me reporting him to Sama,” she said.  Sama’s global service delivery vice-president, Annepeace Alwala, told openDemocracy that the organisation provides “a safe and respectful environment” for employees and treats all allegations of misconduct seriously. Alwala alleges that Mandi withdrew the sexual assault complaint that she initially provided.  “We can state that in this first instance, which took place outside of work, the only witness recanted their statement, and therefore we had no way to action any allegations of wrongdoing.” Mandi refutes this, claiming she never withdrew her statement. “That is such a lie,” she said.  A second attack  Another former Sama employee told openDemocracy that, just over a year after Mandi’s alleged attack, she was assaulted by the same man. Zani Mazwai also worked in Sama’s Kenya office and moved into Mandi’s apartment building in August 2022. Just after 4 a.m. on 11 September, Mazwai was awoken by a call from the man, who still lived nearby.  The man said he needed Mazwai’s help and came to her door. Although half asleep, she was concerned about him and let him in. She says he pounced on her and raped her, then fled. “I was in so much shock that I couldn’t process what had just happened,” said Mazwai. “I was able to call Mandi, who immediately came over and took me to her apartment.”  Mandi took Mazwai, who was “crying and distraught”, to the hospital for a medical examination. Mazwai says officials at Sama wanted to handle the alleged attack internally through a disciplinary hearing for the colleague she said attacked her. She claims they told her she’d need to be in the same room as him to “give an account of what happened.”  “I felt uncomfortable about this, so I decided to file a police report instead. I also told my whole family about it,” she said. “The senior officials were not happy that I filed charges because they wanted to handle it internally.” Mandi then revealed to Mazwai that the man had raped her too, and also recorded a formal statement with the police. Two months later, in November, Mandi said she was falsely accused of “coming to work drunk and unable to walk or talk.” She was fired the following month and given a severance payment of 50,000 Kenyan shillings ($350) earlier this year.  “That was less than a month’s salary,” she said. “I was so angry about everything at that time so I didn’t dispute it. I didn’t want anything to do with Sama.” When asked about this, Alwala from Sama declined to respond, citing a need to protect “employees’ privacy and confidentiality”. Mandi believes Sama got rid of her to protect their image.  “Firing me was an attempt to cover up the fact that they had sheltered a serial rapist, who had previously assaulted me, then done the same to another moderator. This looked bad for them,” she said. Meanwhile, Mazwai was given some time off work after her assault but was soon asked to go back, and her request to work from home declined. In March, she was among the 260 content moderators let go by Sama and is now a party to the lawsuit alleging unlawful redundancy and blacklisting.  Alwala stated that the company suspended and sacked the alleged assailant after becoming aware of Mazwai’s police report.  Getting justice  After Mazwai filed a police report, an arrest warrant was issued for