NAIROBI, KENYA – Underneath the scorching heat, Cynthia Shikuku, 27, walks as fast as her legs can carry her from Kikuyu town, an informal suburb west of Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. Shikuku, a live-in domestic worker, needs to beat the setting of the Sunday sun. Her employer requires her to return from her weekend leave by 7 p.m.
This is her eighth month working for a family of three. She says she is a happy nanny, housekeeper, cleaner and cook for the family, which treats her well.
Shikuku has been able to earn a living in Nairobi for the last six years as a domestic worker for both high- and middle-income families. She works in order to support herself and her only son, 6.
“I gained experience working for very rich people, but for short periods because I was stepping in for friends who were either sick or pregnant,” she says. “Some of the employers were single mothers. Others were couples with several children. But for middle-class citizens, I have worked longer periods, ranging from six months to a year.”
Shikuku is a trained domestic worker, which she says entitles her to higher pay than untrained workers.
“I was trained as a domestic worker at a local college for a year, thanks to my single mother, and I feel that no one should pay me less than 7,000 shillings [KES ($70 USD)] a month,” she says. “Most of my peers are paid about 4,000 shillings [KES ($40 USD)] for similar work in families of five to seven people, but I cannot settle for that.”
She says these workers eventually gain experience, but that their salary never increases because they’re not professionally trained. She says many of them end up quitting.
“My counterparts, after being trained by their African employers, end up quitting and using their new skills to work for Asians,” she says. “Although Asians treat them like slaves, they pay decently, 6,000 shillings [KES ($60 USD)].”
But Shikuku says her training enables her to chart a different course.
“I prefer working for fellow Africans,” Shikuku says with a grin.
Still, she says she wishes she could devote her energy to caring for her own son instead of for others’ children. Like many working mothers in these hard economic times, Shikuku is forced to parent less and work more as she lives apart from her son all week.
“I am a [live-in] domestic worker,” she says. “I work from Monday to Saturday afternoon, having the remaining weekend off. This is the only time I have to rest and spend time with my child.”
Her older sister and younger brother take care of her son during the week. The siblings live together in a two-room house in order to afford rent because of the high cost of living here. The one room of the house serves as the kitchen, living room and a bedroom, while the other room serves as a bedroom and storage. They share a communal bathroom outside the house with about eight other households in the neighborhood.
“My son has joined nursery school this year, and it has enabled me [to] work more easily because I no longer have to pay a nanny or day care to nurture him as I work,” she says. “My siblings help out with taking care of him when he arrives home from school. We have all worked out a comfortable schedule to bring him up.”
She says that she was also raised by her relatives, but that there were more people to help out back in the rural area where she grew up.
“I was raised by my grandparents and elder sisters because they were farmers and did not have to work in offices or other formal jobs,” she says. “We lived in the rural setting, and whenever my mother was away farming or harvesting, she would take us with her or leave us with a relative. We had enough to eat and drink and were always safe.”
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