Former Senator Joy Gwendo was accused of assaulting her secretary, Annette Oyuga, two years ago and the matter reported at Parliament Police Station.
But Annette lamented that police were not keen on the assault filed under OB 23/15/3/16 and said they had been taking her around in circles.
The assault was leaked to the public through a short video clip that showed the Senator with the secretary screaming at each other. Annette and Gwendo reportedly attended the same school, but Gwendo was ahead. Their friendship later extended beyond Lwak Girls as they “parted ways to pursue different careers,” explains the mother of one.
“I became a pharmacist and started my own business but we remained friends. Before she was nominated, Joy could even pass by my shop and sometimes I gave her bus fare.”
Annette says things took a nose dive around 2014 when, “my businesses and pharmacy in the city was not doing well,” and in early 2015, “I texted three friends for help Gwendo included and she was the first one to respond and invited me to her offices where she took me as her secretary.”
Annette claimed she started working in Gwendo’s office as a secretary that February. “Some colleagues warned me of rough times working for Gwendo but I told them off having known her from primary school,” she said. Annette told a local daily that her salary was Sh30,000 but along the way, Senator Gwendo slashed it to Sh20,000 for unknown reasons.
“Actually, one of the girls left months after we began working without her dues since she could not take physical insults and dirty text messages from the Senator,” claimed Annette.
Annette leaked text messages from Gwendo. She is called an ‘idiot’ for failing to respond to texts in less than two minutes. “I ought to have left you to die and I hate you like sh**t” read another slew of text allegedly fired by an infuriated Gwendo to Annette after she was sent to pick a cheque.
Jailed Former Senator Tried To Sell Households To Raise Funds
In August 2015 Annette left the office feeling unwell but Gwendo reportedly ended her contract in her absence.
“She later called me with the promise that I ought to see her anytime I needed support, including my initial plans to revive my business,” said Annette.
She visited Gwendo’s office in December where “She convinced me to stay and even offered me some allowances on top of Sh20,000.” But she was not paid her December salary or the allowances and after Christmas festivities, she returned from upcountry only to find that “my landlord was ready to evict me having not paid two months’ rent of Sh16,000.”
Instead, Gwendo paid the landlord directly, Annette said. The scuffle in the video that went viral allegedly emanated from Annette’s failure to pick a call from Gwendo’s husband on March 15.
“I was headed to Parliament to run some errands when I saw an incoming call from an unknown number, but since I was passing through the scanner I could not pick it immediately,” said Annette.
Barely a minute later she claims to have received a text message from the Senator instructing her to return to the office in less than five minutes.
“I found her husband waiting for me since I had the key to one of the offices the Senator wanted to access,” she says.
Gwendo, who also had a spare key, was away in a committee meeting. But when she later arrived from the meeting, “she removed her shoe and hit me on the forehead as her husband, driver and bodyguards watched,” claims Annette, adding that she suffered a deep cut on her forehead that is slowly healing even though doctors recommended a CT Scan due to frequent headaches she had been getting.
“I think the injury was deep enough because I left the office bleeding profusely while heading to the police station. The scan will cost me around Sh8,000, but I don’t have that amount now. The police, on the other hand, are telling me to produce the clip for further action since only one person has recorded statement.”
Annette added that “I want justice to be served but police are acting slowly. If she (Gwendo) agrees to settle my dues, I’m ready to leave her alone because God knows who is on the wrong.”
Gwendo earlier said that Annette had refused to leave office after being fired but Annette counters, arguing that “it is not true because she (Gwendo) drafted a fake dismissal letter days later in an attempt to cover up her shame.”
