In January 2021, Alice Munene was on the verge of quitting her job.
The 29-year-old accountant was stuck between a rock and a hard place as she was going back to work after giving birth.
Alice had spent three months with her baby girl and had to look for a good childcare system for her.
"I looked for weeks. The nannies I got were too expensive, while I didn't know any good daycare centres near me," she said.
She was so frustrated with her search that she almost tendered her resignation at work to focus solely on caring for her child.
Thankfully, she said, her husband and her boss talked her out of it.
"My boss told me to take my time and get the best childcare support for my baby then I could come to work. My husband also took it upon himself to search for nannies that were in our pay range," she said.
They eventually found a nanny who fit in just right with their family, with a few minor compromises.
According to UN Women, most women end up leaving the workforce due to childcare and family care obligations they have to take on.
Working mothers usually have a hard time going back to work after giving birth.
It is especially terrifying to mums who have just had their first child because they are already terrified about motherhood.
New mums who are going back to work often wonder what form of childcare would be the best for their precious babies.
LIMITED OPTIONS
In Kenya, the options are not so many. Either you get a nanny or you opt for daycare because not many workplaces have supportive childcare mechanisms in place.
Camila Manjer, a graphic designer in Nairobi, says when she was going back to work after maternity leave, she was at ease, knowing she had a nanny.
“I was very calm going back to work because I had been with my nanny for months. She knew how to deal with my daughter and I would call at least twice a day to make sure everything was going great,” she said.
The trust she had in her nanny allowed her to transition well back to work.
She only had to check in on them often to make sure all was well during the day then she would go on with work.
Diana Chemwa, a businesswoman from Ongata Rongai, leaves her son in the care of a nanny because the child can now express himself and his emotions verbally.
“I can call the nanny and ask to talk to him, and he will tell me that maybe the nanny has beat him or something like that. I am more confident now than when he was younger,” she said.
Initially, she was not comfortable leaving her then seven-month-old son with a nanny because of horror stories she had heard from friends.
“My friends have told me tales of nannies from hell that made me scared of leaving my child with one. Babies are so defenceless and can't report back to you if something bad has happened,” she said.
“Then you hear stories on the news about nannies who mistreat innocent children. I was just skeptical from the start.”
GETTING A NANNY
She admits that getting the right nanny is what makes the difference.
Before getting her current nanny, she had to go through a revolving door of other nannies.
"The first one I had left after two months. She just woke up one day and said she wanted to leave and demanded her final pay. I was so shocked and unprepared because I thought we were getting along," she said.
Her second nanny left while she was at work and she got a call from her neighbours that her son was crying in the house and the nanny was not in sight.
"My heart stopped that day because my son was about a year old. I left my business unattended and ran home. Thank goodness he was unharmed. She just took some of my clothes and my husband's," she said.
Chemwa has never heard from the nanny again and she considered what she took with her as her severance pay.
For mothers who cannot afford to pay for nannies, they resort to taking their children to work with them or take them to a daycare centre.
Joyce Koech, a graduate of communications, is one such mother.
Joyce got pregnant in her second year of school and she often had to take her daughter to a daycare centre.
“They charged me Sh70 every day. I only had to bring what she needed like a change of clothes, diapers and packed lunch. They usually opened at 7am and closed at 6pm, so I had time to go to school and back,” she said.
She said her daughter, then nine months old, was in safe hands and she trusted the caregivers at the centre.
“I was actually referred there by a professor of mine and many other mothers were bringing their children. I felt that surely, all these mothers must trust these caregivers for a reason,” she said.
On asking whether she would consider getting a nanny instead, she said she would choose a nanny if she could afford to pay her well.
The minimum wage required by the government to be paid to domestic workers is Sh10,000.
Usually, a domestic worker or nanny lives with the family they provide care for, and the extra mouth to feed plus the salary to pay them can be too expensive for some families.
Daycare, therefore, becomes the only viable option for many women, and not all of them are well maintained or regulated.
Faith Nyambura, a trader at Gikomba market, had a rough experience with daycare centres where she used to take her two-year-old daughter.
“She used to be sickly and was constantly underweight every time we went for her clinic visits. They used to serve the children ugali and cabbage, and I was sure my baby was not eating well, but at that time, it was my only choice,” she said.
She said her daughter and other children at the centre were constantly sick with common colds that they spread among each other, and they spent a lot of money on healthcare.
"Then sometimes I would pack her medicine and ask the caregivers at the daycare to give it to her according to the prescription, but then they would forget, perhaps because of the large number of children," she said.
Nyambura was fortunate enough that her place of work, the newly constructed Gikomba market, had a baby centre constructed specifically for the women traders to have a place for their babies while they work.
“I asked my boss if I could start bringing my baby to work with me and they agreed. Other traders who are self-employed already bring their children along with them. It has been like that for so many years,” she said.
REPRIEVE FOR MUMS
The move to construct baby centres by the Nairobi government is a revolutionary one for childcare provision in Kenya. Gikomba is the first beneficiary, with more planned subject to availability of funds.
The set-up was a bit short-sighted, however, says Peninah Ndegwa, an urban planner and founder of social enterprise Wow Mum.
“Before we came in, the baby centre was just a room with a sink and a window and the babies were sleeping on the floor. We said we just have to do something about this,” she said.
So Wow Mum partnered with the county government to make one of the baby centres more baby-friendly.
“We started by installing a baby changing station, which was something the mothers in the market needed desperately because they used to change their babies’ diapers on floors and on top of their shop’s counters and all manner of places,” she said.
They later added a bed, proper storage facilities, a disposal bin for the diapers, nice flooring and then painted the centre in beautiful baby-friendly colours.
Ndegwa says her joy is seeing new mothers and children using the area every time she visits.
“These women often have no capacity to get a nanny or a domestic worker to help them with childcare while they work, so they resort to bringing their children to work," she said.
"Institutions with such well-facilitated spaces for mothers and children are a lifeline for these women.”
The women traders confess that the refurbished space is a great help as Nyambura says she has the luxury of checking up on her daughter at any time.
"The first few months of using this facility really was a blessing. My daughter's weight improved significantly and she is not as sickly as she used to be," Nyambura said.
Women who have absolutely no sustainable options for childcare often have to rely on support from their families, friends or neighbours.
According to a case study report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), families may take up the collective responsibility of taking care of a child in the event that a quality childcare system is not in place.
"Family care is a common care situation for a child. A non-working parent, grandparent, aunts or even older siblings may take up the responsibility of childcare," said the study ‘Conditions of Work and Employment Programme'.
It is also not uncommon for children to be sent upcountry to live with their grandparents when the cost of living cannot support decent and dignified childcare in the city.
The lack of proper childcare systems in the country is not just an issue that parents face, as Ndegwa said.
"It is a broad issue that touches on public health, work output and even the economy," she said.
While some companies may have the capacity to provide childcare services for their employees' children under the age of five, not all take up the task.
Many employers do not see the business case for childcare provision, and there is no law in Kenya to compel them to do so.
The Health Act 2017 was a step in the right direction for the country in that it requires that employers support breastfeeding mothers in the workplace.
Many private sector organisations have also been on the frontline in providing these nursing facilities, with the public sector and informal sector trailing behind.
UN Women has advised in the past that a sustainable childcare system can make the difference between women continuing with their work or quitting to take on childcare full-time.