Four-month-old Baby Mary Kaingu, daughter of Ms. Peninah Kitsao, passed on Thursday morning after three days of fever. The family instantly made burial arrangements to transport the body from the Coast General Hospital, where the baby was treated. This was sad news not only for the mother but also for the media after media highlighted the widow’s predicament of boiling stones to make it look to her eight children, she was making a meal for them as she had nothing.
Cooking’ Stones for Children.
In a small town in Mombasa Kisauni, Peninah Bahati Kitsao hoped they would fall asleep while they waited for their meal. Peninah Bahati used to do laundry for the locals, but with the corona pandemic getting work is almost impossible. The movement restrictions made it even worse for her to search for jobs. Ms. Kitaso lost her husband last year when a local gang killed him. She lives in a two-bedroom house with her children without electricity or running water. Ever since her husband’s death, she has been struggling to bring up her eight children on her own, and things got tougher as the days went by.
A shocked neighbor, Prisca Momanyi, came to see if the family was fine after hearing the children frequently crying for long hours. The neighbor drew the media’s attention to her plight after realizing what Ms. Kitasao was going through. She couldn’t believe how loving Kenyans could be after she received calls from all over the nation, asking how they may assist. The widow has received money via Mobile cash and through a bank account that Ms. Momanyi opened, as the mother of eight is illiterate. Ms. Kitaso described acts of generosity as a miracle.
As part of measures to support the most vulnerable from the coronavirus pandemic, the government started a feeding program. But it had yet to get to Ms. Kitsao by the time media caught up with her. Her neighbor thanked the county authorities and the Kenya Red Cross, who came to help Ms. Kitsao.
“Many more households in the coastal city are going to benefit from the relief food scheme too,” the authorities say.
Widow Losses a Baby.
A week after Ms. Kitsao received aid to save her children from hunger, the widow from Kisauni, Mombasa County, lost her last-born child. Her four-month-old baby, Mary Kaingu, passed on Thursday morning after having a fever continuously for three days.
“She developed a fever, and hospital admitted her on Monday,” Saumu Kaingu said.
She was to go home the next week on Wednesday as she had improved, only to die on Thursday the same week. Straightaway the family made plans to collect the body from the hospital where the baby was treated for the burial. The widow buried her last-born child in agony after losing yet another member of her family after losing her husband. However, she remains grateful for the food donations and monetary funds from the Kenya Red Cross Society, Mombasa County, and other well-wishers.
GRATITUDE
A tearful Ms. Kitsao poured her gratitude to well-wishers and assured her to use the money and donations to enhance her family’s living standards and educate the children.
“I am grateful for the support. I am lost for words. Surely, I couldn’t have gotten this kind of help without God, who made it possible for the media stations to highlight my plight. I now have sufficient food for my children,” she said while holding baby Mary in her arms when the well-wishers visited her home.
She adds that God heard her prayers, and she is forever thankful.
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