Barely two weeks ago, a woman in Mombasa became the face of the havoc that the Covid-19 pandemic is wreaking on the everyday citizen when photos of her donning a mask made from plastic bottles went viral.
The woman, who was waiting to board the ferry, attracted significant attention leading the Coast Region Police Boss Rashid Yakub to get the appropriate masks for her, and also earned her a visit to Governor Ali Hassan Joho's office where she received financial aid.
Speaking on Citizen TV on Tuesday, April 14, Susan Kageya, the mother of two, explained how her family's life changed after she was gifted Ksh100,000 by the governor.
"When I was called to the governor's office, I was afraid that maybe I had offended the government. I had to go since I was needed there, but I was really afraid," she narrated.
Kageya revealed that with the funds that she received, the first person that came to mind was her mother with whom they have not been in communication five years, and despite her personal troubles, she decided to surprise her first.
"I called my mother and sent her money to move from where she lived and look for an alternative place to stay and at least start her own business.
"I then bought food for my family and opened a tailoring shop to sustain myself and my children. This sewing machine is going to be the source of livelihood from now on," she added.
Kageya let it slip that before her photos widely circulated in the interwebs, she lived a tough life that even involved her young family going hungry whenever she failed to meet her sales targets.
"Before the Coronavirus pandemic, I used to sell drinking water to people at Ksh10, a job that I have been at for a year or so and involves crossing the channel using the ferry every single day," she confessed.
The mother of two further revealed that she dropped out of school class seven, not because she desired to, but because she saw that her mother was suffering and needed help in taking care of the family.
"I left school in class seven and got a job as a housemaid to help my mother. Through this work, I sent my mother money and I educated my brothers till they sat their Form Four education. Even though I never studied much, I am glad that I educated my siblings," she selflessly recounted.
She revealed on the day her images would go viral, they had been sent away for lack of masks and not having enough money, she returned home, but on the way, she saw a bottle on the roadside which she cut and wore as a mask.
"People laughed at me and others just wondered what I was thinking, but the officers who saw me at the crossing picked me from the queue where I had lined up with other commuters and gave me three masks," Kageya recalled.
Video courtesy of Citizen TV...
{"preview_thumbnail":"/files/styles/video_embed_wysiwyg_preview/public/video_thumbnails/ZnCzhgHKI9U.jpg?itok=0fU_BXhg","video_url":"","settings":{"responsive":1,"width":"854","height":"480","autoplay":0},"settings_summary":["Embedded Video (Responsive)."]}
