A Kenyan woman named Ruth Njau Tverbakka has opened up about the house girl job that gradually stripped her of her confidence and silenced the bold young girl she once was.
After completing primary school, Ruth’s mother could not raise school fees for secondary education, forcing her to drop out.
Days Began Before the Sun Rose
The two began hunting for casual work wherever they could find it, joining groups of labourers hired to harvest potatoes, weed farms and tend other people’s gardens.
The work was gruelling, and Ruth began imagining a different kind of life, until an opportunity eventually came through for a house girl position in Nanyuki.
She assumed it would involve light child care, cooking and cleaning. She was wrong.
The household Ruth joined had seven members, including teenagers in boarding school, two primary-school-aged children and a toddler of about two years.
Her shift started at roughly 4 am. She washed clothes outdoors, then rounded up the family’s dogs, which were allowed to roam freely at night, and returned them to their kennels.
Silence That Hurt Most
After that came house cleaning, caring for the youngest child, preparing the child’s meals and tending the garden. Feeding the dogs was also her responsibility.
She was given two slices of bread and tea for breakfast and was not permitted to use the household’s bathroom.
On top of all this, Ruth says she was sometimes beaten for forgetting tasks or misunderstanding instructions. She cannot even recall with certainty whether she received any pay.
Before Nanyuki, Ruth described herself as a talkative, laughing, expressive young woman, but that changed when she was punished for chatting with a neighbour’s house girl.
After that incident, she became afraid to speak to anyone. Her only conversations were with the children in the home, and over months her voice grew quieter, and her sense of self eroded.
One morning, something shifted. Ruth woke up and decided she was done. She left with a handful of coins, no phone and no clear plan.
She boarded a matatu to the next stop, then went door to door telling her story to strangers and asking for help with bus fare. People listened and contributed.
Reframing the Girl Who Ran
She eventually raised enough to travel to her grandmother’s home, where she stayed until her mother came for her.
For years, Ruth looked back at that moment and felt shame. With time, her perspective changed.
She now sees a young woman who, with almost nothing, found the courage to leave a situation that was destroying her.
”She was simply hurt and silenced,” Ruth reflected, adding that she shared her story as a message to anyone in a similar place.
Ruth is now based in Norway, a stark contrast to her humble beginnings that pointed her towards a different future.
