I still feel depressed when I think about how far I could have been

In 2009, I was working in a bank in Thika. I had been promoted too and I was getting attractive allowances. The promotion couldn’t have come at a better time; my eldest daughter had just left her marriage and come back home with a six-month- old baby, and my husband had quit his job. I was now the sole breadwinner.

I had requested to go on leave in April, which would have perfectly coincided with my children’s school holidays. But for some strange reason, the acting manager insisted that I had to go on leave in March. I went on leave and on coming back, I was surprised that he and another key employee had also gone on leave. The Thika branch was a small one with a skeleton staff, so it was odd to have several key employees on leave at the same time.