Kenya Elections Drama - Dora’s 15-day Misadventure

A few weeks before Kenya’s elections, Dora landed a 6-day-a-week job as a domestic worker in Langata, a middle-class neighborhood just 20 minute’s walk from her house. Dora’s employer, Maryanne, also a mother of three, needed someone to help take care of her home while she was away at work. Dora’s experience raising her own three children worked to her advantage. It was a perfect match.

I met Dora at about the time she started working for Maryanne, and it was clear that despite their employer/employee relationship, the two shared an easy goodwill that perhaps came from their common experience as mothers.

Dora was from western Kenya and was a bright, friendly and chatty individual. Despite the obvious hardships of her circumstances, she was always ready to smile and share a joke with her audience. Maryanne, though born in Nairobi, traced her roots to the central part of the country.

Dora and Maryanne’s two communities are now deeply polarized by the outcome of the country’s December 2007 elections. One community feels strongly that their preferred presidential candidate Raila Odinga, won the vote, while the other is adamant that Mwai Kibaki was the winner.

The three weeks following the elections have thus seen widespread violence and unrest, owing to the dispute in the presidential election results.

Nonetheless, Dora and Maryanne’s experience during this turbulent time has been a refreshing tale of mutual concern and respect, despite vast differences in political beliefs. It’s a story of two mothers keenly aware of the pain borne by innocent women and children during times of political strife. It’s a story, I believe, that bears telling..

One week before Christmas, Maryanne took leave from work and settled into her once-a-year role as full-time mother. Like most working women however, she quickly realized that it was not going to be easy taking care of three young children alone. Dora graciously accepted to spend Christmas with Maryanne and her family, and then take a few days off to participate in the general elections.

So, as agreed, Dora spent Christmas day with Maryanne and her family, and brought along her three year old son, Joshua, to join in the festivities. Maryanne’s children were delighted to have a new playmate, particularly her oldest, who was the same age as Joshua.

Come Boxing Day, Dora took Joshua home and then traveled to Kisumu, leaving him and her two other children in Kibera, in the care of her sister and brother. Dora expected to take the night bus back to Nairobi immediately after voting, and get back to her children and to her job. But that was not to be.

On election night, while vote-counting was still in progress, Dora attempted to board a bus back to Nairobi. However at around midnight, it became evident that this was not going to be possible, as all buses were packed beyond capacity. Dora resolved to wait and try again in the morning, and telephoned Maryanne with the news.