Read Frances Woodhams blog

For 18 months an anonymous British housewife has ruffled feathers by lifting the lid on the private life of “Expatland”, where privileged women struggle to fill their days in a country of never-ending summers.

For the past ten days, though, the funny and evocative stories of happy but ultimately mundane lives in Nairobi have been replaced with the reality of surviving in a country ravaged by tribal violence. Now the author of the Africa Expat Wives Club blog has agreed to reveal her identity and discuss the tragic situation in Kenya.

“The situation has left me feeling physically sick; I have been eating but not tasting anything, going to bed but not sleeping,” said Frances Woodhams. “We have been rocked to the foundations by the fact that our future, which we took for granted, is no longer secure.”

The tribalism that colours Kenyan life

The eruption of violence following Kenya's elections has brought to the fore the latent tribalism present in every day life

Multimedia

• Video comment: Richard Dowden, Africa expert

• Video: violence in Nairobi

Multimedia

• Pictures: Kenyan elections protests

Background

• FCO issues Kenya travel warning

• 50 die in blazing church as tribal war looms

• ‘We’ve spent three days hiding in our homes’

• British tourists told to stay indoors

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Mrs Woodhams, 35, grew up in Wiltshire and studied history of art at university. She was working in the City as an insurance broker before moving to Africa nine years ago, just two days after marrying Ben, 37, a surveyor. They arrived in Nairobi four years later and now have three daughters: Felicity, 7, Lucy, 5 and Juliet, 2.

Before Christmas the prospects were promising: the economy was booming, new shops were full of Kenya’s growing middle class and there was little concern about the forthcoming elections. Lying awake last week, however, Mrs Woodhams could hear the gunfire and CS gas canisters as police and soldiers attempted to control rioting at the slum a few miles away from home.

As a demonstration of their commitment to Kenya, the Woodhams recently bought a colonial-era home in two hectares (five acres) of garden at the foot of the Ngong Hills, about eight miles from the city centre.

Then, days after Christmas, rumours started that the presidential poll had been rigged and the incumbent was about to be announced as the winner.

Mrs Woodhams recalled: “I did do some panic-buying but I tried not to do too much because all the roadside stalls were closed and the people who normally depended on them have to go to the supermarkets. They get there and there is no bread and no milk because people like me have bought 25 litres to put in a freezer, and they don’t have a freezer or even a fridge.”

This chaos was totally unexpected when she started the blog 18 months ago to counteract the impressions created by the best-known chroniclers of expat life in East Africa. The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley and Out of Africa by Karen Blixen were both set in the colonial era and the killing of Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, in 1941 — the subject of the film White Mischief — exposed the sexual shenanigans in the European smart set.

“I really wanted to show people that White Mischief and Out of Africa are not really what our lives are like,” said Mrs Woodhams. With two women arriving every day to do the housework and help with childcare, there can be little for wives to do apart from school runs. The difficulty of obtaining work permits precludes “proper” jobs. “It is a blog about housewives who do no housework,” said Mrs Woodhams.

The blog explains peeling the price stickers off bottles of olive oil and imported wine before arriving home because of the guilt that the staff might see how much they cost. And it explores if, with the passing of time, it is possible to see the funny side of giving food poisoning to your new social circle after cooking dinner for them for the first time. And then poisoning them again the second time.

Mrs Woodhams started blogging shortly after the birth of her third child. A series of postings on the type of characters that make up Nairobi’s expat community brought new readers and controversy. She insists that none of the characters is based on any individual, but some people have complained that they have been portrayed in her cast, which includes The Two-Year Wonder, The Missionary and The Kenya Cowgirl.

“It was supposed to be a satirical look at ourselves and how we live here, but I suppose it was a bit controversial really,” she admitted. “No one has complained to me directly but friends have said ‘do you know what people are saying about you?’, so I’m aware I’ve upset some people. They feel I shouldn’t be publishing details of our lives here.”

The recent turmoil has given her writing a new dimension and thousands of additional readers, but Mrs Woodhams is longing for the day the Africa Expat Wives Club returns to its domestic duties. “All the mundane things I used to write about have gone out of the window,” she said.

Lure of the land

— The East African Protectorate was established in 1895 to promote settlement of Kenya’s fertile central highland and Rift Valley. It officially became a British colony in 1920

— By 1930 there were 2,000 white settlers in Kenya, and more than half of its agricultural land was reserved for their farms, largely growing coffee and tea

— In 1963 there were about 60,000 settlers. Many left after independence

— The white community now numbers about 30,000. Many work for more than 60 British companies operating in Kenya

Sources: Oxfam; A History of the World from the 20th to the 21st Century; Time; Times archives; uktradeinvest.gov.uk

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