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Charity Maina was warmly received by her younger son when she arrived home after being away for two years
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The mother of two felt the genuine love from her son, who embraced her and refused to let her go after not seeing her for so long
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Speaking to .co.ke, Maina later described her elder son’s reaction, adding that she eventually took both boys out for a celebratory meal
A young woman from Nairobi county has finally reunited with her family after a lengthy spell abroad.
Charity Maina had spent two years in Dubai, where she had travelled in search of greener pastures.
She left her young children under their grandmother’s care while she worked hard to provide for them.
Maina shared a video of the reunion that quickly went viral, capturing the raw, heartfelt emotions of the moment.
Why didn’t Maina tell her family about her coming back?
Speaking to
.co.ke
, she said no one in her family knew she was on her way home:
“I wanted to surprise them, so I made up a story. I told them some visitors would be dropping by with gifts and asked them to prepare the meal I missed most, without revealing why. They even asked me for one visitor’s phone number in case they forgot something, but I made sure they got no hint of my homecoming.”
Maina explained that the little boy who hugged her so tightly was her younger son; his brother was still in school at the time. A doctor friend who picked her up from the airport jokingly questioned the boy before letting him come outside. “He couldn’t believe it when he saw me in the flesh,” said Maina, who had worked as a nanny and house-help for a single mother in Dubai.
Maina’s elder son reunites with her
She also recalled her elder son’s reaction that evening. Maina hid when she heard him arrive, then jumped out, nearly scaring him:
“He bolted! My sister hugged him and said, ‘It’s your mum!’ He kept insisting I was a ghost and not real. It took him a while to accept it was truly me, and once he did, he wouldn’t let go.”
Maina’s family visits her after she arrives from Dubai
The following morning, Maina treated her sons to breakfast, then took five other family members out for lunch.
She felt genuine love from her mother, her boys, and her siblings, who flocked to her home at their mother’s request.
“It felt almost like a funeral—people were crying,” she said tearfully. “Life was tough out there. I’d lost weight, and they never thought I’d make it back. I had missed my family, my kids, my home.”
Nakuru mum kicked out after arriving from Saudi Arabia
In a contrasting story, Lilian Changara was distressed and stranded after her mother expelled her when she returned from Saudi Arabia in a wheelchair.
Changara, who said she had been poisoned and mistreated by her Saudi employer, was left in both physical pain and emotional anguish.
When relatives urged her to visit her parents, she complied—only to be shown the door shortly after her arrival.
