Rebecca Atieno, aged 20, on Wednesday gave birth at Uhuru Park after she was unable to raise Sh50 to secure a ‘safe’ room.
Atieno was blessed with a baby girl, with no complications and wrapped her with her sweater.
According to The Standard, moments after being fired from her hotel job on Tuesday she headed to Nairobi’s Uhuru Park, the only place she could find a moment’s solace.
Confused, hopeless and reeling from the symptomatic third trimester pregnancy exhaustion, she found a spot at the park where she hoped to gather her wits.
The previous night, her landlord had kicked her out for failing to pay Sh50 at a rundown lodging in Muthurwa.
All she has for her baby is a Maasai blanket donated to her and a single pack of diapers.
“I marveled at my newborn daughter’s perfect fingers and toes. I felt lucky, as all new parents do, but also because I had somehow miraculously managed to do this all on my own,” said Atieno.
For now, without a job or money to sustain her child, the future remains uncertain. Yet in many ways, Atieno feels like she has already passed the biggest test – safely delivering her baby.
“My boss claimed that I was too slow to work at such a place, I felt like she was forcing me to leave the job. I didn’t have anywhere else to go,” said Atieno, adding that since she separated from the father of her baby in Kisumu, hers has been a life filled with uncertainty.With no relatives in Nairobi, Atieno has to now fend for herself and the baby. She hopes to get a job soon to help her raise her bundle of joy.
She did not expect to give birth to her baby, whom she named Hope, that day. She had gone twice for antenatal checks at Bahati Hospital in Nairobi’s Eastlands, where she expected she would bring forth her child.