Judy Nyawira, wife to comedian and scriptwriter Abel Mutua says she tries as much as possible to keep a distant relationship with her in-laws.
Explaining her reasons, Nyawira says it’s out of a past painful experience that she chose to keep a distant relationship with her in-laws when she got married.
When her father died in 2002, Nyawira says her mother’s in-laws turned on her, throwing them out of their matrimonial home and grabbing his father’s wealth.
Judy described her mother as a devoted housewife who thought out her father’s life and so when death robbed them of the man, he hadn’t yet written a will.
“Everything they had built with my dad was in his name. So when the in-laws decided to do whatever they did, she had no means to claim,”.
By losing everything, their lives took a dramatic turn to the worse forcing her mother to become a cleaner at a local market where she earned Sh200 a day.
Judy says the experience of seeing her mother belittled and at the mercy of people became her driving force to work hard.
“I would accompany mom to the market where we would sweep for as low as Sh200. Starting from scratch was hard,” she says.
“Our breakthrough came when mom got a job in Karatina town. I was in High School at that time and life gradually changed for the better. Mom could now afford to escort me to a supermarket and buy me biscuits, blue band, and other goodies plus give me Sh500 pocket money before I left for school.”
It’s this childhood ordeal that has stuck with Nyawira to date and even though she enjoys a cordial relationship with her in-laws she says she is well aware anything can happen.
“Of course I have in-laws but if there is something I strive to do is stay away from my in-laws. We have a very cordial relationship but I always try to keep a distance and it’s because of what I saw my mum go through with her in-laws,” she said.
Nyawira has been married for nine years and shares a 12-year-old Stephanie Mumbua with her husband.
