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Kenya: Covid Deaths Leave Trail of Misery

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5 years ago

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Aisha Langoni, the firstborn daughter of Coast politician Ramadhan Kajembe was buried on Thursday under strict Covid-19 protocols at Kwa Shee cemetery in Mikindani, next to the fresh graves of her father and mother.

Langoni succumbed to the virus on Wednesday at the Pandya Memorial Hospital in Mombasa where she had been admitted after she collapsed on learning of her father’s death.

The family of the former Changamwe MP has had to deal with the pain of three Covid-19 deaths within three weeks.

Death of her mother

Langoni’s death came only two weeks after that of her father, a veteran Coast politician, and a month after the death of her mother Aziza to Covid-19.

“When Aisha received news on the passing away of her father, she collapsed and had been in hospital ever since. She did not even attend her father’s burial. Unfortunately, today, death came for her,” a family friend said.

“He [Kajembe] was admitted for two-and-a-half weeks. We’re not experts and we cannot say that he had any corona complications, but he was unwell,” Jomvu MP Badi Twalib, who is his son-in-law, said at the time of the politician’s death.

Hundreds of kilometres away at Kolany village in Sirisia Constituency, Bungoma County, another family is in agony after the virus claimed two of its members.

Wendy Kusienya, 30, died while being rushed to hospital while her sister, Elizabeth Kusienya, succumbed to the virus just a day after she had been admitted to Life Care Hospital in Bungoma.

Two other family members have been isolated while seven are under home-based care.

Such is the devastation the pandemic has caused on many families across the country; it has left many shattered as they push on through emotional pain and financial agony.

From rapid health declines to sudden deaths, the pandemic is turning lives upside down.

The sudden deaths of Wendy and Elizabeth have left their relatives devastated.

Sudden deaths

“We haven’t come to terms with the sudden deaths of our sisters. Our family has been stigmatised. Villagers consider us a corona family and do not want any association [with us],” Risper Kusienya, who is on home-based care in Bungoma, told the Nation on phone.

“We’ve been made to feel like biblical lepers who should not be associating with others. We’d not finished mourning our departed ones when we were forcefully put in isolation.”

A cousin of theirs who attended the funeral was placed under quarantine but turned negative.

In a cruel twist, however, the cousin was later fired by his employer, compounding the family’s misery.

“It’s unfortunate that he was sacked due to fears that he would infect other employees with Covid-19 yet he was free of the virus,” Ms Kusienya said.

“This disease has drained us financially and caused untold suffering, but we’ve resolved to be talking to each other at least three times a day through our family WhatsApp group.”

In July, Bishop Elisha Juma’s family had to raise Sh2 million to offset funeral and hospital bills after he succumbed to Covid-19. This was just three months after his eldest son, Peter Juma, 35, died from infection with the corona virus in the US.

The Kenya Assemblies of God Tudor bishop died on June 29 at Mombasa Hospital, where he had been admitted with high blood pressure and diabetes.

In Busia, the family of popular television actor Charles Bukeko alias Papa Shirandula, is yet to come to terms with the sudden loss of their breadwinner, and the way he was buried, a month ago.

Bukeko died following breathing complications on July 18 at the Karen Hospital in Nairobi while awaiting treatment.

Yet to recover

His father, Mr Cosmas Wafula, said the family is yet to recover from the loss of their breadwinner. “Up to now, I’m not sure if the person we buried was my son because we were not allowed to see the body,” Mr Wafula said.

“When his wife returned to Nairobi with her children, they were placed under three-week home isolation, leaving little room for us to follow up on his finances.”

The mother, Valeria Makokha, is still in shock: “Had it not been for Bukeko, I would not be living in a permanent house and a gated compound. Death is very cruel and selective. But we have left everything to God because there is nothing we can do.”