2018 Christmas Eve will remain etched in Susan Warui’s memory forever.
She often ponders how she wished events had unfolded differently, yet recognizes that had things occurred any differently, she would still be grappling with rent payments.
On that fateful day, Susan and her two sons aged 7 and 10 were forcefully evicted from their house due to accumulated rent arrears they were unable to settle.
This was shortly after Susan’s return to Kenya from working in Botswana. She says that when one goes away from home for long, they lose networks and get confused upon returning.
After her arrival, Susan struggled to regain her footing financially. The eviction marked the lowest moment in her life.
“It was a hard start for us, my children were young. They had never taken a matatu and didn’t know Kiswahili. There was no income, savings diminished fast. That’s how we found ourselves broke,” Susan Warui revealed.
Feeling burdened with the sorrow that she had let down her sons, her world was instantly shattered at that point in time.
Support system
However, what seemed initially like a devastating blow turned out to be a hidden blessing in disguise. She braved the pain and decided to charge for her future by embarking on a house construction process in Matasia, Ngong.
The single mom manifested and affirmed that she would build a house for herself and her two sons, where nobody would dare evict them.
Throughout the construction journey, her two sons, nuclear family and close allies turned out to be her pillars of strength.
“When I rose again, my dream was just to have the house done. I figured out I can buy something to improve the structure every end month with the money I’d been spending on rent,” Susan revealed in an interview.
Month after month, Susan diligently invested in purchasing construction materials for her dream house with the money she’d have otherwise used for rent.
She took each step as a small yet significant stride toward meeting her aspiration. Her two sons would always cheer her on.
“On better days, we could cook nyama or matumbo and eat at the site then they would sleep over, so they literally owned the process,” she said.
Apart from her sons, Susan was also swept away by the wave of support she received from her nuclear family and understanding friends who knew of her past struggles.
She shared a bond with her suppliers and project builders who not only uplifted her spirits in difficult times but also extended her timelines to pay for the products and services they offered.
“They came to trust me. Today, if I ask for a load of sand to pay end month, I am given without many questions. When I get money, I pay,” she revealed.
Challenges
Susan has also confronted her fair share of challenges. As a single mother and the sole project financier, the most difficult obstacle was seeking guidance and finding the right individuals to work with.
She believes that women, in general, are often underestimated in this industry which is mostly male-dominated.
“They think you don’t know what you want. You also get a lot of chauvinists and naysayers who think a woman cannot build, so I vowed to only work with those who believed in me,” Susan candidly added.
Moving in
In April, Susan moved into her new home, despite being unfinished. There were a few basic necessities missing such as curtains for the windows.
Her desire for the peace and security of living in her own space outweighed the incomplete state of the house. Furthermore, moving in allowed her to identify errors she had made during the construction process.
“The first mistake was altering the plan too much, because I ended up with more rooms than I needed, and a kitchen smaller than it originally was.”
