We accept God's will, families say as five buried after road accident

Richard Makau and his wife Malia, parents of Mulwa who lost his wife Victoria Mueni and his daughter and three other relatives in a road accident two weeks ago, during the funeral in Kitui last Saturday. [PHOTOS: PAUL MUTUA/STANDARD]

Everything was set for a dowry payment ceremony. The venue would be the home of Damaris Kimanthi at Kathome village in Kitui Rural Constituency. She was expecting the family of Makau Mulwa, who has married her daughter Victoria Mueni.

On the other hand, in Mulundi village in Kitui Central, Richard Mulwa Makau and his wife Malia were waiting for their son’s wife Mueni to arrive from Nairobi so they could make a journey to their in-laws home. This was on June 9.

However, the long-awaited day never came to be thanks to a grisly accident along the Machakos-Kitui road. The accident at Kyua killed 22-year-old Mueni, her one-year-old daughter Mariah Stephanie and three other people when their car was involved in an accident with a lorry.

Mueni’s sisters-in-law, 20-year-old Monica Zipporah Makau and Tracy Martha Makau, 24, also perished in the accident. Tracy’s three-year-old daughter, Marian Jasleen, as well never lived to see another day.

KAMBA TRADITIONS

According to Kamba traditions, a man’s relatives are supposed to go to his wife’s home a day before the dowry ceremony also known as ngasya. They are expected to cook and prepare everything for the big day. That is why the team was travelling home that Thursday after which they would leave for Mueni’s home the following day ahead of the ceremony that had been slated for Saturday.

However, Mueni’s husband, Mulwa, was saved from the accident because he had travelled home earlier.

The two families said they were devastated when the news made rounds that their loved ones had perished in the accident.

“It was horrifying. We were at home waiting for their arrival and everybody was gearing up for the big day. This was the saddest news ever but we have to accept God’s will,” said Mulwa’s mother, Malia, during their burial last Saturday.

It is only her daughter, Judith Syomiti and Mueni’s friend, Emma, who survived the accident. They escaped with fractures and are admitted to Kenyatta National Hospital.

Malia, 50, said they had hired buses to ferry about 300 relatives and friend to the event.

Mueni’s husband was inconsolable, having lost so many relatives at ago, especially his wife and daughter.

“It is well with my soul and I completely accept the will of God who gives us strength to withstand such trying moments,” Mulwa told hundreds of mourners who attended the funeral service at Mulundi Primary School in Changwithya West on Saturday.

The whole Mulindi village was in grief as the five were buried. Villagers wailed as the caskets were lowered into graves. Syomiti, who was the driver of the fateful car, was wheeled to the funeral by paramedics and Kenya Red Cross team.