Death in Dubai: 1. The real Mona Kizz

World of Secrets

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.7 • 765 Ratings

🗓️ 15 September 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Monic dreams of leaving her home in rural Uganda for a different life. So when a “friend” promises her a job in Dubai, it feels like the chance she’s been waiting for. Monic is elated, she is the first of her 11 siblings to travel abroad. But just a few months later she is dead. Her family is left searching for answers. What happened in Dubai?

A warning that this podcast includes disturbing scenes, including discussion of sexual abuse and suicide. Some episodes also contain strong language.

Presented by investigative journalist Runako Celina.

Season 9 of World of Secrets, Death in Dubai, is a BBC Eye investigation, produced in association with Thread Studios, for the BBC World Service.

Please note, the image is being used for illustrative purposes only and the person depicted in it is a model.

If you feel distressed by the references in this story, please speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support such as Befrienders Worldwide. www.befrienders.org

For UK listeners, details of organisations offering information about or support after sexual abuse, or with feelings of despair, are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline. Here’s a link to the BBC Eye documentary film, which we recommend you watch after listening to this podcast: https://bit.ly/bbcdeathindubai

If you are in the UK, you can watch on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/n12t256jg

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:06.0	Episodes of World of Secrets are released weekly, wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
0:12.0	But if you're in the UK, you can listen to the full season right now, first, on BBC Sounds.
0:19.5	A heads up before we start. This podcast includes discussion of suicide
0:24.1	and some disturbing events. I'll give you some details of support organisations at the end.
0:37.0	It's early morning on May 1st, 2022, and Kampala, Uganda's sprawling, bustling capital, is waking up.
0:46.3	Rita's closed the curtains, shut out the sun.
0:52.3	She's trying to have a lion.
0:56.2	Her phone rings and she quickly silences it.
1:00.3	But it rings again and again, the same number.
1:05.3	Reluctantly, she picks up.
1:08.1	On the line is a familiar voice.
1:11.5	He asked if I knew what had happened, and I said no.
1:16.0	He asked if I had seen the news. I hadn't.
1:20.6	Then he said Monica had died.
1:25.6	Five months earlier, Rita says this man helped her sister Monica move to Dubai, got her a job, arranged her travel, promised Rita that she would be safe.
1:38.3	But now, he's calling to say she's dead.
1:43.3	I felt sick. I didn's dead. I felt sick.
1:46.0	I didn't believe.
1:48.0	I asked how she died.
1:50.0	He was like, I'm going to send you a video they shot while she was dying.
1:55.0	A few minutes later, it arrives.
	...

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