For Mary, silence is no longer an option. Her son sits at home, unable to go to school, and, after years of working with harsh detergents, her nail beds are now rotted. She can no longer do laundry and potential employers see her as "damaged goods."
She needs the money her former employer owes her to survive. Working with the union and Murogo's organization, Mary has been successful in getting her former employer to pay back some of the money, and was promised the rest by the end of August, which she says she still hasn't received.
Now she plans to go back to her former employer's home and demand the rest of the money, the equivalent of about $1,000, which is substantial by Kenyan standards. "Ukoloni Mamboleo," she said, which loosely translates to "new colonizer" in Swahili, Kenya's traditional language.
Although the existing form of domestic help was a concept brought in with British colonization, Mary said, "It's not a Britain who's colonizing me, but my own African sister."
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