For all they do, house helps deserve better

The hiring, often under stressful conditions with no written agreements, leaves house-helps disadvantaged. There are cases where house-helps are mistreated, denied food, forced to work long hours without rest and no leave whatsoever.PHOTO:COURTESY

Atieno washes dishes, Atieno plucks the chicken, Atieno gets up early, Atieno beds her sacks down in the kitchen... Atieno needs no pay, reads Majorie Oludhe-MacGoye's famous poem; Atieno Yo.

 The British-born missionary who married a Kenyan, was bemoaning the plight of house-helps in the Kenya of the 1980s. Sadly, today house-helps face the same challenges as Atieno.