Mother Dearest

There are women who sacrifice everything for their children and there are those that don’t. ANDANJE WOBANDA speaks to Yvonne Mutheu, about having both and how that has influenced how she will raise her daughter.

- Andanje Wobanda

They say a mother’s love is the best gift one can give a child. For Yvonne Mutheu, 26, and her siblings, the person who provided that love, was her maternal grandmother.

‘I can’t say I know my mother all that well. She left three months after giving birth to me to go to Tanzania. She came back a few years later to give birth to my third born brother before she vanished again. My grandmother was left with the burden of raising us.’ reveals Yvonne

There is a glint in her eyes when she speaks about her grandmother

‘My gran is a very strong woman. We were raised in Mathare. At the time we were eight people crammed in a single room; my grandmother and grandfather, an aunt, uncle and the three of us. These days, I wonder how we used to survive in that space. Gran worked as a house help for a Muhindi (Asian) family in Ngara and even if she was struggling, she never gave up on us or her children.’

‘When I was eight, my grandmother who was struggling to raise us sent my sister and I to a children’s home. She wanted us to get an education and she felt that was the best way to do it.’

‘We were told that we were going to a boarding school. I wasn’t entirely happy but at least I was in a place that was free of fighting. My grandfather, aunt and uncle were always arguing when they drunk, which was often. I think that is part of the reason why my grandmother took us to a children’s home. My uncle especially used to lash out at us. He was frustrated by my mom’s behaviour; disappearing only to appear with a kid before disappearing again,’ she explains