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Needy couple pleads for Sh26K to bury their young daughter – Video


It is every parent’s prayer never to bury their child – the natural way is where the child buries the parents. But when misfortune strikes and a parent loses a child, they expect to take the remains to the final resting place as soon as is humanly possible.

But for a Nairobi couple, the pain of losing their beloved seven-year-old daughter has been aggravated by the fact that they can’t bury her –just because they cannot raise a paltry Sh26,000.

For close to two months, the body of their daughter has been lying at a mortuary in Nairobi because they cannot raise the amount to conduct a postmortem, before they could be allowed bury her.

And every passing day adds Sh500 on to the bill, which is the daily mortuary fee.

Mustafa Akalamwa, who is a day labourer and his wife Pascalina Wughanga Fatuma, a cleaner, narrated their ordeal to Nairobi News on Wednesday and are now banking on well-wishers to come to their rescue.

COLLAPSED

It all started on April 3rd, this year, when their daughter Truphena Shikamwa, a pre-unit student at Mother Teresa children center, collapsed on the playground as she played with her friends in Kariobangi estate.

Young Truphena succumbed as she was being rushed to hospital on the fateful day.

“I came back home from my day job and found my two other children crying and no one wanted to tell me what was wrong,” recalled Pascalina.

She left her daughter healthy and bubbly. She had no history of any illness.

“We want to know what happened to our daughter and be able to bury her at Langata cemetery because we cannot afford to take her to Western Kenya and give her a decent send off,” said the grieving mother.

According to her, their local chief in Kariobangi wrote the family letters to seek help from the Embakasi North CDF offices for assistance which proved futile.

A Good Samaritan had promised to provide them with transport to Kitale, but when the day came for them to transport the remains he backed out without any explanation.

They are worried because the daily bills have been escalating and they have no means to pay for them.

The mother of four said the family survives on sh4,000 that she gets paid from her cleaning job.

The family lives in Kariobangi North near Light Industries sewage slums and are calling for any well-wishers to help them offset the mortuary bill which is accumulating by the day.

Young Truphena remains are detained at St Francis Funeral Home in Kariobangi.

Well-wishers can reach the mother through telephone number 0703-486121.