As the family of 29-year-old Maureen Wangui from Kirinyaga struggles to come to terms with the heart-wrenching loss, details of her last moments including a suicide note she allegedly left have emerged....CONTINUE READING THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
In the note, Wangui regrets the decision she was going to take and the reasons why she chose not to spare the life of her young daughter.
Her story sheds light on her struggles with depression.
“Sitaacha mtoto wangu akiteswa. Where I go I don’t know but I will go with you. If they did not show me love, my child trust me, they will have none for you,” the note reads.
“If I had a little hope that there would be even a little light at the end of the tunnel, I would hang on. But let us give ourselves to the water. Please God forgive me and when I get home, give me love that no one ever showed me.”
Wangui is reported to have drowned after jumping into river Nyamindi in Kirinyaga with her baby strapped on her back last Saturday.
Recounting the events of the fateful day, Frida Njoki, her grandmother, says Wangui arrived at their home with her child on Sunday a week ago, brought by her father.
Moreen Wangui’s grandmother, Frida Njoki.
The motive behind this action was not immediately clear.
“The father brought her here on Sunday and told me to stay with her. The child is five years old, she couldn’t talk well,” she explained.
On the morning of Saturday, the day she drowned, the Njoki said she was with her and even gave her soap to wash the child’s clothes before she later disappeared.
“When I entered the kitchen, I didn’t notice her leaving. I went asking the grandfather if he had seen her and he said he had not. I then assumed that because she normally goes down the stream with other ladies then she probably must have gone there,” she narrated in a clip seen by the Star.
Moreen Wangui’s grandfather.
Wangui is said to have sneaked out of her grandparent’s home and went to the river where she allegedly threw herself.
A watchman who was guarding a coffee factory is said to have seen her and raised an alarm.
Her body was found, Monday some 10 kilometres away downstream from where she drowned on Saturday.
Police said the body was discovered by residents who were harvesting grass on the riverbanks.
The body of her daughter Precious Wairimu which had earlier been retrieved was taken to the mortuary pending postmortem.
Her grandfather on his part recalled hearing screams and when he came out to hear where it was coming from, he saw a woman running downwards prompting him to follow her.
“Upon getting there, she (Moreen’s grandmother) came crying “the child is in the river, the child is in the river,” he said.
Simon Gichia, also a family member, was happy that the body had finally been retrieved albeit with the sadness they are undergoing.
Gichia said that River Nyamindi has claimed many lives.
In fact, during the search for her body, a male body whose identity was yet to be established was found.
“When someone drowns in River Nyamindi, seven days can pass before we find it. It is deep and bad, it has robbed the lives of many, it has eaten our children,” he said.
Stephen Kinyua, an uncle to the deceased appeared to suggest that this was a suicide case.
“The child of my brother came here at Nyamindi River and threw herself together with her child of five years,” he said in an interview..CONTINUE READING>>
