By Lucianne Limo
When she landed a small job in Nairobi after completing her secondary school education, the 18-year-old girl was excited that life was shaping up well.
After completing her Form Four last year Gladys Nthuli came to Nairobi to keep herself busy as she waited to join Utalii College to pursue a diploma in hospitality. She was helping a neighbour in the village with her beauty and cosmetics shop, which also offered M-Pesa services at Umoja Inner core.
But the events that happened to Gladys Nthuli early this month will remain a nightmare that will haunt her for the rest of her life. She may never trust police officers in her life.
Turning point
On May 29, at around 7pm, a lady came to the shop and asked for a weave she called Ripple Plus.
“I told her there was no weave called Ripple Plus but Ripple Curl. She asked me to advise her on other nice weaves. I showed her a couple of them,” she recalls.
As she was checking the weaves, a male customer came and asked if he could withdraw some money from his M-Pesa.
The man said his phone was faulty and asked Nthuli if he could use her phone for the transaction. She declined.
“In the meantime, the lady customer told me she was confused and did not want to buy something her clients would reject. She asked whether I could go with her to the salon to take some samples for her client to pick from,” she says.
Nthuli says as she accompanied her to the salon, the lady stopped to make a call telling the person on the other end to come down as she did not want to keep me for long since I had to go back to the shop.
“Before she even completed that conversation, I felt some strong hands holding me from behind. My mouth was covered. I identified the attacker as the man who wanted service in our M-Pesa shop,” she says.
