Outrage after Nigerian TikTok content moderator found dead in Kenya

A storm of protests has erupted after a Nigerian lady, living and working in Nairobi, was found dead in her Lower Kabete apartment on Friday, March 7, after missing work for three days.

According to CNN journalist Larry Madowo, Ladi Anzaki Olubumni had moved to Kenya to work as a content moderator for TikTok in 2022 and had not seen her family since. She had been working for French outsourcing giant, Teleperformance, a subsidiary of TikTok. 

Olubunmi had been contracted by one of the leading outsourcing companies in the world, which brings together Africans across the continent to work in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

However, despite being entitled to a return ticket to her country of origin each year, her colleagues reported that she had been denied leave due to concerns about her work permit and a reportedly toxic work culture.

Reportedly, most moderators at the outsourcing company did not have work permits and thus were not allowed to go home as they might not come back or be harassed and extorted at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

However, the company denied any of these allegations, even releasing a statement revealing that they have been in constant contact with the family and local authorities to get to the bottom of the death.

One of her colleagues, who spoke to The Nigerian Guardian Newspaper under the condition of anonymity, revealed that Teleperformance denied Olubunmi, who has been a staff member of the organisation since 2022, her leave days and work permit.

According to the colleague, Olubunmi had been pleading with her managers to grant her permission to travel to her home country.

The colleague narrated: "The deceased is a Nigerian national working as a TikTok content moderator since 2022. As per the contract, she is entitled to a return ticket every year, but she went home only once after begging and crying to the management."

“We are blaming Teleperformance because they denied her leave days and a work permit, so she couldn’t go home. She went to the managers crying, but they were videoing her and laughing at her.

“She didn’t have a work permit, like most Nigerian workers, hence they denied her the chance to go home after so many attempts."

Kenya’s vibrant tech scene, often lauded as Africa’s Silicon Savannah, is now under scrutiny, this time not for its innovations, but for the welfare of its workforce.

Olubunmi's sudden death has ignited a firestorm of protest and reignited concerns over the treatment of tech workers, particularly those in the demanding and often psychologically taxing field of content moderation.

According to Launch Base Africa, colleagues who discovered her absence after she failed to report for work are now staging a strike, accusing Teleperformance of neglecting their welfare and contributing to a climate of exploitation.

When Olubumni failed to report for work on Wednesday, colleagues claim the company did not conduct a welfare check.

It was only on Friday, after days of unanswered calls and messages, that concerned coworkers took it upon themselves to visit her apartment, only to discover her body.

The company’s silence and apparent lack of proactive welfare checks have been met with anger and disbelief.

This latest incident also resonates deeply with the ongoing discourse around content moderation, a critical but often brutal component of the global AI industry.

Mophat Okinyi, a Kenyan content moderator who was instrumental in the development of ChatGPT and recognised as one of TIME100 AI’s most influential people in AI, has confirmed the Teleperformance incident to Launch Base Africa.

Okinyi, who himself suffered significant mental health consequences from his work, is a vocal advocate for better protections for content moderators.

“We’re doing a vigil in Nairobi for the deceased [today],” Okinyi told Launch Base Africa.

He is among a group of Kenyan moderators who filed a petition last year calling for government investigation into exploitative conditions within the sector.

Teleperformance is yet to officially comment on the incident. However, this tragedy has thrown a harsh spotlight on the often-shadowed realities of Kenya’s tech boom. 

It also echoes the case of Keith Makori, the Kotani Pay co-founder who died last year in what police ruled as suicide, shortly after his fintech startup had secured significant funding — a case that similarly hinted at the intense pressures and hidden vulnerabilities within the sector.