With sorrow, my friends and I remembered Maureen, one of our former colleagues who succumbed to domestic violence. Maureen was a good lady, smart and beautiful.
Maureen was 25 when she decided to settle. She was employed on a 25K salary but she loved the flashy lifestyle. A lifestyle that made her date more than two men to finance it. A 25K salaried employee living in a two bedroom apartment in Kilimani with a rent of 55K. She used this job as a cover to her bad lifestyle. This job was enough to convince her family that she was employed and paying her own bills.
Maureen was the slayqueen of our workplace. She had the latest gadgets and fashion. She was also our loan officer. Maureen had enough cash to loan all of us and we would even take two or three loans before offsetting the first one. Maureen rendered tala, branch, mshwari, fuliza etc useless at our workplace.
Maureen settled with a very violent man. She hid it for a few months before we noticed black eye and scars on her body. She would lie that she fell in the bathroom, a small accident, a scratch from her dog etc and would never admit to being hit by her man.
Maureen would argue with all she had that her marriage was okay. She would prove all of us wrong and would even cut us off when we persuaded her to leave. She even quit working with us. This man used to give her a lot of money because she was still present on social media flaunting the good life and endless vacations even while unemployed. We think it was the good life that made her endure the pain.
Maureen’s presence on social media started dwindling. She would post once a week, go silent for days and post again. We knew something was wrong. Maureen loved photos. Maureen loved the online energy.
One day, we woke up to news that her body was found in her apartment after going offline for 3 days. Her man was nowhere to be seen. The police said that there was high a probability that he had crossed the border to Uganda after stabbing her severally. All along, Maureen was suffering in silence.
It was at that time that they discovered Maureen had tied the knot at the AG’s office in secret. Her family plus friends were not aware.
We were left wondering why she tied the knot in secret? Why didn’t she inform her parents? Did she think of inheriting any wealth incase they separated so she decided to make it official? Why was she staying in that marriage? Maybe she thought he would change. Maybe she thought there were brighter days coming. Maybe she thought his apologies were genuine over and over. Maybe she thought a good wife is supposed to endure her husband’s bad side. Maybe, just maybe, she thought miracles would happen.