Kenyan Woman Who Was Pushed Off a Balcony by Her Saudi Arabian Employer Appeals for Help
A Kenyan woman who was pushed off a two-story balcony by her Saudi Arabian employer has appealed for assistance.
Mary Wanjiru, a resident of Njoro in Nakuru, is pleading with the government and well-wishers to help her raise funds to seek proper medical treatment following the ordeal. The 32-year-old is confined to a wheelchair after she suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed her legs.
“I’m pleading with the government to help me access proper medical care so that I can regain my mobility. As of now, my life is stuck on this wheelchair, I can’t do anything to fend for my children, and my mother is not able to look after them,” Wanjiru told TV47 in a recent interview.
Wanjiru, who was admitted to a hospital in the Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh for weeks, returned to the country last month and counts herself lucky after escaping death by a whisker.
She arrived in the Gulf nation on April 22nd this year to work as a housemaid and all was well until July 15th when her employer’s wife asked her to prepare food enough for two days. The following day, she noticed suspicious activities in the house and spotted the family moving an object wrapped in a carpet. She suspects that the family was planning for a ritual.
“The carpet was wrapped around what appeared to be a human body. I was shaken and rushed back to the house. I had earlier noticed bloodstains on the lower side of my mattress,” Wanjiru recounted.
“Earlier in the day in rather unusual behavior, the wife placed a dustbin on the cooker. Knives had been arranged around the sink. I moved the items to the appropriate places. Then I found candles placed in a pattern on the floor of the toilet.”
Wanjiru says she was doing some cleaning at a balcony later in the day when her employer suddenly pushed her to the ground.
“I saw him behind me. He pushed me without saying a word. I was in freefall from the second floor before I landed on the roof of a low-height store.”
Fortunately, she landed on her back and managed to drag herself to the edge of the roof, attracting neighbors’ attention.
“The police came and rushed me to hospital. They brought my employer to the hospital and told me that they would investigate the matter after speaking with him, which they did but in a language, I didn’t understand. However, the police officers who had rescued me took away my phone and never returned to the hospital, eventually cutting off communication between my family and friends,” she said.
At the hospital, she made friends with an Arab woman who recorded a 90-second video that went viral on social media in August and saved her life.
“The woman recorded a video of me in bed pleading for help and asking to be repatriated. She shared it on an internet platform that had Kenyans. I prayed that someone would identify me and come to my rescue,” said Wanjiru.
Her aunt Mumbi Matheri saw the video in one of her WhatsApp groups, and through the help of three Kenyans working in the Middle East, they were able to trace her and bring her back home.
“I still believe I can walk again if I get the right treatment which I was denied in a foreign country. I believe in working hard to provide for myself and my family. I don’t want to be stuck on this chair all my life,” Wanjiru said.