Janet* arrived in Nairobi from her village to work as a house help.
She was 18 years old at the time – and three months pregnant – something she had kept a secret as she feared being turned away by her new boss.
“I needed some little money, and so I knew could work for two months and make a few coins before my bum grew excessively out of shape,” Janet told Mwanahabari.co.ke.
“I lost my parents at an early age. I must have been 9-years-old when my father and mother died in a road accident along Mombasa Road,” said Janet.
After her parents’ sudden death, Janet, an only child, joined the funeral procession back to the village to bury her parents.
“I was a child at the time, but I could tell that things were not going to be easy for me. I could hear people ague over my dad’s pick up track, clothes and land.
They were supposed to protect me
“I would later learn that these were actually my uncles, people who were supposed to protect me,” Janet narrated.
Life in the village was never easy for a girl who had spent nine years in Nairobi.
“I had to move in with one of my uncles He had two wives and seven children. I automatically became the eighth child.
“It was difficult for me at first, but being a child, I drowned most of my sorrows in play.
“I also stated attending a public primary school which was three kilometers away from home.
” I spent most of the school journey dodging trees and plants (bare-feet). I hurt my feet so many times I still have scars.”
I was asked to repeat
Janet proceeded to sit for her Kenya Certificate of Secondary education and scored 347 marks out of 700 marks.
She, however, did not join Form One as three of her cousins had sat for the same exam, and being the children of the house, they got the nod to join secondary school first.
Janet was asked to repeat Class Eight and join secondary school the following year. She had no choice, and there was no room for negotiation.
“My uncle was a good man, but his income was meager. So, I politely obeyed their directive to repeat school.”
Janet sat for her exams the following year and scored 389 marks out of 700.
She was sure she would join school this time round – but shock awaited her.
“There is no money my dear,” her uncle had thundered. The other three children who had joined a local day school were hardly in school. They had become perennial fee defaulters the whole school knew them as such.
Janet went back to Standard Eight
Her uncle and aunts asked her to repeat school one more time.
“I was no longer a child. My breasts had overgrown my chest; I, like most girls my age, walked with a slight bend in an attempt to hide the annoying protrusion. I was shy,” she says.
Janet went back to Standard Eight – only this time she went to a different primary school.
“It was while here that she I met my savior; a female teacher who knew my late dad and mother. In fact, my father had paid her school fees while she was in the Teacher Training College. She took me in, and promised to take me to secondary school. it was February, so I joined Form One right away instead of repeating a third time.”
I got pregnant
Janet was happy to join a local secondary school. She was now living with the teacher who also had a very brilliant son in Form 2.
“School was fun, and I even moved to Form 2, but then I learned that I was pregnant.
“I was not a careless girl, actually, I got pregnant on my first attempt at sex with the teacher’s son. We were just kids.
“The teacher (who was a single mother herself) was mad when she learned that I was pregnant at such a young age, but she promised to support me after she learned that I was carrying her grandchild.
But then, tragedy struck – again. Janet was only three months pregnant.
The teacher and her son; the father of my child died in a road crash.
Janet was left alone – again – sad and confused.
Left with no one to pay her school fees – and her stomach growing fast – Janet decided to travel to Nairobi to seek employment, any job.
Trip to Nairobi
“A lady friend I knew in the village was working in Nairobi as a house help. I called her and asked her to help me get a job as a house help. I never told her that I was pregnant.”
That is how Janet ended at the Johnson’s, a while family with roots in England, that lived in Nairobi’s Karen area.
“I arrived with my suite case, dressed in my best attire by the village standards.
“The Karen home was warm and welcoming, and my employer was very kind to me because I was still a young girl,” she says.
Adding: “He almost turned me away saying I was still a kid, bu my connection put in some nice words for me,”
You are pregnant
It was not long before her employer realized that she was pregnant – and was expecting a child in the next few months.
“They too had a baby boy who was just two years old, and were concerned that I had kept the pregnancy a secret.
“I was shocked by their gratitude. They loved me, and cared for me like any family would their daughter.
“They even hired another house help and asked me to rest. I lived in the servant quarters like a queen. The wife taught me how to be a mother even though I was just a small girl.
“It was not long before I gave birth to my daughter who also became part of the family – and would play with the employer’s child.
Janet’s daughter grew – and so did her employer’s son.
Meanwhile, Janet became the house manager in charge of all domestic workers.
Marriage proposal
“My employer’s son left the country for studies abroad at some point, and spent most of his years abroad. He would call home, talk to all of us…”
Janet’s daughter, on the other hand grew to become a nice young woman, she had joined the university and studied medicine.
“She landed a job and that’s when she bought me a house in one of the leafy suburbs in Nairobi.
“She wanted me to retire, but I said no because I wanted to help the Johnson’s who had now aged, and needed love and care. I had to reciprocate the love they showed me.”
Then it happened
Her employer’s son had just arrived from abroad – and had asked to meet every member of the family – including Janet and her daughter.
As they sat at the table that evening, the young man broke the news.
“I want to marry your daughter, mum. Would you allow me, kindly? he said this, his eyes moving between his dad, mum and Janet.
“Dad, please allow me marry her! She has a good heart, and I have known her as the nicest person on earth, just like her mother,” he said a posed.
There was silence
I didn’t know that these young people had been ‘talking’.
Janet waited for the Johnson’s to say NO.
“I was shocked by the answer,”
“It’s okay son, I have no objection if you love her, do you have any objections Janet?” the old man, Mr Johnson had asked Janet.
“A flood of tears rolled down my eyes. I couldn’t believe it,” she told Mwanahabari.co.ke.
“I sad YES.”
This rich family had just allowed a daughter of their house help to become part of their family.