This was once incident that shocked Kenyans to the bone and is still talked about in many parts of the country to this day.
Residents of either Thika in the outskirts of Nairobi or Ongata Rongai in the late 90s will be familiar with the tale as I am told there is a distinct link to the two locations.
The story started with this family like any other employing this househelp. A shy, very innocent-looking young girl. But then as this tale proves, looks can be very deceiving indeed.
After a short while, it became apparent that the house-help was very sick. However it was not exactly clear what the problem was. This was in the late 90s and people were not very fast to diagnose Aids or even attempt to test for the virus.
The young girl coughed a lot and she seemed to have some strange-looking sores on her body. The good-natured family did their best to get treatment for her but every time she seemed to show signs of recovery, something else would crop up. Either she would develop a fever or serious diarrhea.
Then one day she just disappeared and has never been heard of again since.
This family would have settled down and forgotten the whole incident, had it not been for the youngest son (a teenager) suddenly falling sick with symptoms that were strangely familiar and in fact similar to those of the departed maid.
To cut a long sad story short, the man of the house and his two sons ended up losing their lives from the mysterious disease that was later identified as the dreaded Aids.
What got people really talking so that this tale was all over Nairobi at one time, was the facts that it became clear that the Father and his two sons had been enjoying sexual favors from the house help, apparently without each other's knowledge. That is what is so sick about this tale. Strangely enough the mother of the house remained unscathed. There were some unconfirmed rumors that she had actually tested negative to the dreaded HIV virus.
One popular gutter press publication at the time had the headline to this story; "Maid Wipes Out Thika Family." In my opinion this headline is unfair and very far from being accurate. It portrays the family as the victim when it is actually the poor young girls we employ in our houses who are victims of sexual harassment and even rape, every day and have very few options in these matters. What is she expected to do when the man of the house, her employer approaches her for sexual favors? Or her employer's children? This is the sick thing going on in Kenyan homes and it took a maid suffering from Aids (maybe even acquired from a previous employer) to expose it.
Previous Hot stories in this series:
The Doctor’s Revenge
Matatu Nightmare
Couples Reunion Turns Ugly
Husband Learns His Lesson The Hard Way
