Migot's Story

My name is mwavita, I was born and raised in kibra, I am a fourth born in a family of seven, I found myself being raised by my grandmother but until today I still do not understand why my parents left only me and went to the neighbouring country where my dad used to work as a millitary man. Then after ten years in the foreign land a very terrible war broke out and anyone who doesn't belong there had to move to their own country.

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My father then run to the neighbouring Sudan while  my mum came back to Kenya with my siblings then I went back to live with them, during the time living with my family I realized that my mum never love me, anything she does, buy or even cook she Will always serve my siblings first until one elder sisters who cared about me will ask her why, or sometimes they even quarrel before she gives me anything.

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My mum never likes when I am with my brother's and sisters, she would always act like she was not my mother but the fact remains that she is my real mother who brought me to this world, and also she would always look for somewhere to take me just to separate me from my other siblings. One day she decided to take me stay with her step sister but I only stayed there for a while because my aunt got separated with the husband, then she took me to another sister who just got married as a second wife there also I didn't stay long because her husband's children did not treat me well so i came back again.

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I was taken to stay with different people until one day she decided to take me to stay with her sisters daughter who was married with three children, there I was treated like a nanny and remember i was also a child in lower primary, in the morning I had to wake up early clean the children and take youngest to daycare before leaving for school, one day she left the house very early in the morning and the husband tried to take advantage of me. He attempted to rape me i struggled and managed to escape from him, I run away from that house and swore never to go back there. I went back home and told myself if my mother will insist that I go back to that house I am going to involve my family from my father's side in this matter, since you know I cannot tell her about the incident she will not agree that such thing almost happened to me.

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After coming back home , she accepted me back and allowed me to stay with them, but in her hands  I had to go through hell until when I sat for my KCPE exam's and I did very well, I was selected to go to KAMKUNJI HIGH SCHOOL. Then my mum refused because earlier my sister whom she loves very much ran away from home and did not finish class eight and she had high hopes for her, so she told my father,"if my daughter did not make it to high school , so does mwavita." she could not allow me to go and my dad will always obey her, and that was the end of my going to school.

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So I had to stay home and help with house chores, then I heard about an organisation that provides technical training so I decided to go and registered for tailoring classes and the fee was not much, after sometime they refused to pay for me so I had the to continue helping  at home but all this time i was denied happiness everytime it was insults and hatred from my mother. she made my younger siblings disrespect me and I did not have the right to stop them from doing anything until one day I found myself a boyfriend who sympathies with me and he came asking if we can run away together and he promised to take very good care of me, and a better life than what I'm going through.

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Then we came into agreement And i decided to take his offer, we run away together and stayed peacefully for years until the time I had my third born is when he decided to change all of a sudden anytime he is at home there will be no peace in the house he will always throw insults at me whenever I ask him for our basic needs until one day he decided to leave us. He left me with three children two girls and a boy the oldest a boy and a girl were already in upper primary while the youngest was just a baby, my problem started afresh and this time am with children, so I have a responsibility to take care of my family, I am supposed to fend for everything be it shelter , clothes, food education and other necessities for the kids.i had no other alternative but to look for a way to sustain my family now that that I am both the mother and a father too. it was not easy finding  a job because of my level of education, but i did not give up I continued searching until one day I found a cleaning job, I was supposed to go wash and clean the house and for me that was a fortune I never had, I continued working though the pay was not much, but "it was better half a loaf than having nothing."

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Now at least we were not begging for anything  from anybody, life became a little bit easier, the children did not lack anything at least I can provide for their basic needs, but I myself I was still stressed thinking how my kids will be able to go to high school , it was not that they were not doing well , they were amongst the best students in their school so my worries is how I was going to manage taking them to high school since the resources I have was not enough to pay for the high school. One day my very long lost childhood friend appeared all of a sudden, I heard a knock at my door one morning and when I opened the person standing outside was my long gone friend whom I had even forgotten that she still existed, we hugged each other, and we also celebrated her coming back , she brought alot of gifts for us and both me and my family were grateful for her, we shared our stories and she s told me about many good things that happened in her life since the last time we were separated and I also shared my own story and according to her story I thought that this time I have found a greener pastures that I have been dreaming of. I asked her if she can find me work and she agreed. then she communicated with people in Mombasa and in two days she came back and told me that she had secured a job for me and I was happy to hear about it.

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I made arrangements to leave my children , when my mom heard that I found a job she agreed to stay with them, my friend told me that we will be leaving in two days time and by then I was ready to leave, she arranged for the transport and everything. when the day came we left for mtwapa and reached safely at night, it was already dark when we reached a huge iron gate and my friend pushed a button by the gate and a white man came and open for us, we enter the house and my friend was a very well known person in that house, she talked to the man and I was interviewed by the man and then accepted to work as a cleaner in that house. Inside I was welcomed by other girls whom I found in that house and I was happy to think that the job will be easy since there were other girls who were already working in that house.

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The next day my friend said that she will be leaving but she will be visiting oftenly, since I was not alone I had to get used to the other ladies I found there. After sometime I realized that different men were visiting the house , pick a girl and going with them in one of the rooms in the house, first I thought those girls chose to do that kind of job so I didn't bother to ask them why, until when my turn came, one girl was told  to prepare me. New clothes were bought for me, I was  forced to take alcohol and there my problem started afresh, I came from a frying pan to a boiling oil. Every day different men will come and we were assembled like goats in the market for a customer to choose and buy.

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I stayed in that house for a period of six months without going outside, there is no way to go out since there is no security man there, the big door was being guarded by dogs only the owner who goes in and out of that compound. one day a customer came into the house and then we were assembled as usual but that customer insisted that he wants only me and he also wanted to take me to his place, he agreed with our boss when I prepared myself then we went out in his car.

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On our way some commotion happened that caused a lot of traffic, I sat there and look at the man in the eye he looked back at me and did not respond, I opened the car door still he did not re-act and then I stepped out of the car and walked away he did not follow me either, so I took that chance to run away. it took me days in the streets of Mombasa to beg for money so that I can raise just transport to take me back home. After sometime I managed to raise some amount just enough to take me back to Nairobi.

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I was happy when I reached my home but I had nothing important to show to my family, funny enough my mum did not ask me about my trip or even why I didn't send money, because honestly I did not bring any money with me , all that time in mtwapa I never received any amount from my boss. After some months I started feeling sick I was coughing alot and also loosing alot of weight so I decided to visit the hospital and there I was diagnosed with tuberculosis and as you know the medical routine in Kenya they had to check my HIV status, I was found positive so now I'm leaving positively and on ARVs. 

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The bottom line is that I went looking for greener pastures but instead I will now have to carry this burden all my life.

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