Confessions of a house help: He told me to be his wife briefly

Be my wife briefly

Mildred cleans her boss's house in Lavington twice a week. The man has another live-in house help. One day she arrived to find that the woman of the house had traveled to Eldoret with the children and their regular house help. She found the compound unusually quiet and when she knocked, it was the man of the house who came to open the main door.

She inquired where the others were and was told they had travelled the previous day. The man went back to his bedroom while she washed the utensils they had used previous night. Since there wasn't a lot of work, Mildred decided to go back to their 'waiting area' and try her luck elsewhere.

But before she left, she knocked on the man's door and asked for her day's pay. The man opened the door in a night gown and asked how much. She told him it was Sh200. Mildred says the man seemed to hesitate a bit.

He then promised to pay her more if she agreed to be his wife briefly. Mildred got shocked, and was lost for words. "We stood at the door to his bedroom for almost 30 minutes as he pleaded with me to 'keep him warm'," she recalls.

Then the man took his phone and started searching for something. He asked her to give him her contact. She did. Then out of the blue, an MPESA message showed up on Mildred's phone. The man had sent her Sh1,500.

"Your problem is that you are not telling me how much you want. I would have given you exactly what you want," he said.

"Add me Sh1,000, or Sh2,000 or any amount you feel suits me," Mildred found herself answering. This time, the man went for his wallet and fished out Sh2000 in cash and gave it her. She gave in. The man did not stop there. Since then he's been inviting her to his house when his wife is away. At one time, he took her to a lodging when his wife was around.

Mildred, a single mother of a five-year-old son says she doesn't regret having an affair with this rich man. "He gives me good money," she says. She still works at the house, but his wife has no idea what is going on."

The two women promise to go on with these affairs as long as the men continue to pay them.

Thieving ladies

Some bachelors however, have paid for their shameless ways when their cleaning ladies cum lovers pilfer valuables from their houses and vanish never to be seen again.

"One once stole almost Sh14,000 from me. I would never have known given the money was in my coat," one bachelor who declined to be named explains.

"You cannot trust them entirely. They have a habit of stealing small but valuable things, so you must be extremely cautious when dealing with them," he warns.