Runda woman arrested for detaining house-help for years with no pay
Police have arrested a woman in Runda for allegedly detaining her house help for four years without pay and torturing her.
Beatrice Muthoni Nderitu was picked by police from her posh house in Paradise Kasirini, Runda and taken to Muthaiga police station where she was detained overnight.
Kiambu OCPD Duncan Nguthu said she will be arraigned in court on Wednesday.
The victim, 25 year old Mercy Mwake, told Citizen TV that she was held hostage in the house since 2014 before she managed to escape on Friday.
OVERWORKED
Mercy said she was always overworked, waking up at 4:30am and clocking off past 10pm. She was also subjected to routine beatings and was never paid salary for two years.
During the interview with Citizen TV , she exhibited scratch marks on her neck inflicted by her employer who would always strangle her during fits of rage.
Mercy also showed off swollen knuckles. Her employer’s preferred tool of torture was a wooden cooking spoon.
“Sometimes if she finds out that I have made a small mistake and what I did was not to her satisfaction, she will beat me up,” said a teary Mercy.
HIT ON THE HEAD
“One day she picked a cup and hit me on the back of my head, opening it. It was the second time she had done that to me,” Mercy said.
In her four years in captivity, she never spoke to any of her family members. The employer lied to her family that Mercy had left for another job in Mombasa.
A frail and disheveled Mercy gave a shocking narration of how her employer had allegedly circulated her picture to security guards manning the gate with instructions that she should be denied exit from the posh estate.