Kenyan Woman Who was Pushed Off Second-Floor Balcony by Saudi Arabian Employer Arrives Home

A Kenyan domestic worker who was thrown from a second-floor balcony by her Saudi Arabian employer has spoken out.

Mary Wanjiru, 32, sustained serious injuries during the incident and was admitted to a hospital in the Saudi Arabia capital Riyadh for weeks.

In August, a video of frail-looking Wanjiru pleading for help from her hospital bed went viral on social media, sparking uproar.

After months of misery, Wanjiru recently reunited with her family and counts herself lucky after escaping death by a whisker.

Speaking at her mother’s home in Njoro, Nakuru County, Wanjiru said she was working at a hotel in Nairobi when the opportunity for better pay in Riyadh came. An agent facilitated her travel to the Gulf state where she arrived on April 22nd this year to work as a housemaid.

Wanjiru says she worked well in the first two months and even received her full pay but things took a dramatic turn on 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 said.

“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 says.

A scan on her back revealed that she suffered a spinal injury that paralyzed her legs. At the hospital, she made friends with an Arab woman who recorded the 90-second video that 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 Dubai, the family was able to trace their daughter and started the process of facilitating her return home.

Wanjiru, who is confined to a wheelchair, landed at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on November 4th.

“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.”