Family distraught after kin jailed for 20 years in Jordan
Lucy Njeri Kuria, 33, realised too late that she was headed to Jweida prison for 20 years and not back home in Kenya where she had left two years before her arrest following the murder of her boyfriend Bakri H at their home in downtown Amman the Capital city of Jordan.
As the ruling was issued in October 2019 in a Jordanian court, her family back in Gathanji village in Githunguri, Kiambu County was all set to welcome their daughter who left Kenya in August 2015 back home- after staying for two years in a Jordanian prison following her arrest in February 2018.
Little did they know that their daughter would further be jailed after she was found guilty in the murder of Bakri who was described by authorities in Jordan as her boyfriend and whom they shared a house.
“My daughter had assured me on several calls that she made whenever she got a chance that she would win the case and immediately she was set free would come back home, I do not believe that I have to wait for the next 18 years before I can see her,” Ms Rahab Wanjiru, 57, Njeri’s mother, told People Daily.
She said that their joy following Ms Njeri’s assurance that she would be coming home was cut short when she went silent and never heard from her until a neighbour shared with them news from a Jordanian-based media house that their daughter had been jailed.
Ms Wanjiru and her husband James Kuria’s efforts to intervene and save their daughter from serving in the Middle East country bore no fruit.
She said that they have made several trips to the Jordanian Embassy in Kenya on 175 Ruaka Drive, Runda in Nairobi County and tried to engage the officials on the best way the matter can be addressed but they have never received any help.
“Two weeks after she was jailed, we visited the Embassy and the officials asked us to pen a letter explaining what we needed but to date we have never gotten a response,” Ms Wanjiru said, adding that they also got a similar response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Ms Wanjiru said that she had totally lost hope of getting any help of even visiting Jordan and seeing her daughter because she did not have any links that would see her leave Kenya.
Agency closed down
She said she had on several occasions tried to catch up with the agency that linked her daughter with the job in Jordan but this has never resulted in anything substantial after Ms Njeri told her that the company closed down.
It has also emerged that Ms Njeri had on two occasions fled from her employer’s home after raising concern with her parents that she was being mistreated and had no-one to inform over what she was going through.
Her mother said that she asked her to settle with her employer after her first plan to sneak out of her employer’s home hit the wall and led to her arrest before she was allowed back.
“I then told her that she could better settle with her employer if at all they had agreed to settle their differences,” Ms Wanjiru said, adding that she used to send upkeep back at home on a monthly basis to cater for her family and two children.
However, months later, Ms Njeri was out of her employer’s home for the second time and her only message to her mother was that she would never go back again and she would do all it takes to ensure that she gets back home.
Ms Wanjiru said that her daughter frequently called them back at home and could send upkeep but which was way less compared to when she was living with her employer.
People Daily has established that it is hectic for domestic workers to operate after they escape from their employers and end up not getting shelter with their embassy as this may lead to imprisonment because it is considered illegal- just like in Ms Njeri’s case.
Despite the challenges of being independent, all was well until February 2018- when she called home and informed her mother that she had been arrested in connection to the murder of a Sudanese refugee in downtown Amman identified as Bakri H who authorities described as his boyfriend.
“I felt disappointed and sorry at the same time. All the time I hoped that she could be deported to Kenya and face justice from here but sadly, this never happened,” her mother said.
Asked whether she revealed details of what really transpired leading to the death of Bakri, Ms Wanjiru said that her daughter assured her that all would be well and there was no need to worry.
Details from Jordan gathered by People Daily reveal that the lifeless body of the deceased was found lying in his house which he shared with Ms Njeri.
She became the prime suspect in the death because of the fact that they lived together and was well known to most neighbours and that she was the last person to see him alive.
In a statement that she gave the police after she was arrested, Ms Njeri said that she arrived home on the fateful day and found the victim holding a knife as he threatened to end his life in unclear circumstances.
She persuaded him not to end his life but the Sudanese national could not hear any of the pleading.
It is at the time when Ms Njeri dashed towards him that Bakri stabbed himself on his arm and slashed his throat. She then tried to save her lover from dying by stopping the bleeding and that it most led to Bakri’s death by suffocating him.
According to the police, they did not believe that she was speaking the truth and that they had recovered several bottles of alcohol at the crime scene and in addition forensic experts had detected bruises around his mouth which they said was an indication that someone had blocked his air path.
In addition, the forensic experts said that someone had used their hands to strangle him manually. Ms Wanjiru said that she now keeps on wondering how their daughter is doing.
