Two young Ugandan women, Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi, left home with dreams of good jobs in Dubai. Instead, both ended up trapped in sex work, abused by wealthy men, and later died after falling from high-rise buildings. At the center of their story is a Ugandan man called Mr Mwesigwa, a former London bus Driver, who recruits young women into a sex trafficking network.
The Story of Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi
Monic moved to Dubai in 2022 after being promised work in a supermarket. Soon after arriving, she realized the job didn’t exist. Instead, she was forced into sex work to pay off debts that Mwesigwa claimed she owed him more than $20,000 for airfare, rent, food, visa, and “expenses.”
Friends say she was made to serve wealthy men, some with extreme and degrading sexual demands. These included men who wanted to defecate on women, urinate on them, or film them while humiliating them.
She hoped to escape after finding another job in Dubai, but in May 2022, she mysteriously fell from the balcony of her new apartment. Her body was never returned home, and the family believe she was buried in Dubai.
Kayla’s story was strikingly similar. In 2021, she too fell to her death from a Dubai high-rise. Authorities blamed alcohol or drugs, but later toxicology tests showed nothing in her system. Friends and family believe her death, like Monic’s, was connected to the sex network run by Mr. Mwesigwa.
How Mr. Mwesigwa Operates
Survivors say Charles ‘Abbey’ Mwesigwa lures women to Dubai with promises of supermarket or hotel jobs. Once there, they are forced into prostitution and told they owe fake debts for flights, visas, food, and housing, debts so high they can never leave.
Inside Abbey’s apartments, dozens of women are kept “like a market.” Drugs, violence, and group sex are common. Those who refuse are threatened or beaten.
Mwesigwa introduces them to wealthy Arab and White clients who pay huge amounts for violent and extreme sex acts.
Many racist clients prefer Black women because they want to watch them cry and plead during shocking sex acts. Some girls were forced to entertain several men a night, earning as little as $1 for “regular” sex, while others were sold for thousands of dollars to men who wanted to perform shocking acts.
“There was a client who said: ‘We pay you $4,000 to gang-rape you, pee in your face, beat you, and add in $1,000 for being recorded eating faeces aka “Dubai Porta Potty“.
Mr. Mwesigwa’s Shocking Admission
BBC undercover reporters filmed Mwesigwa himself bragging about his business.
He said he had 25 women who were “open-minded” and “could do anything,” charging $1,000 a night or more for “crazy stuff.” He invited reporters to try a “sample night.”
When confronted, Mwesigwa denied running a sex ring, claiming he only connects women to “rich men for parties.”
But testimonies from survivors and the deaths of Monic and Kayla point to a much darker reality of abuse, violence, and exploitation.
For the families of Monic and Kayla, the pain remains raw. They remember them as hopeful young women who wanted better lives but instead died far from home. As one grieving relative asked: “Who is protecting the girls who are still alive? They are still suffering in Dubai.”
By Vivian K.