Baby Satrin Osinya: Mixed fortunes for closely knit family

Moses Gift (left) holds his injured brother Satrin Osinya at Coast General Hospital, Mombasa in March 2014. (Photo:Maarufu Mohammed/Standard)

Mombasa, Kenya: One evening last week, we visited Benson Osinya and his two sons Peter and Erick in their home in Likoni, Mombasa. They were preparing the evening meal, the most difficult responsibility the three Osinyas find themselves grappling with every day, they say.

It is something they did not have to worry about four months ago when the matriarch of the family took care of this without much ado. Then a terrorist’s bullet in a church in Likoni on March 23 ended Veronica Osinya’s life, turning the family’s routine into a chore.

The Osinyas do not look forward to this time of day as it reminds them of how their life has changed since that dark Sunday and how their evening meals will never be the same again; the six of them, parents and their four sons, will never again have a chance to eat together as they talk about their day.

While Veronica left the family dinner table permanently, baby Satrin Osinya, one who had a bullet lodged in his head on that fateful day but which was later successfully removed, and his brother Gift, 13, have since moved from home.

Satrin stays with Nairobi Senator Mike Sonko’s family in Runda while Gift is in boarding school in Ruiru, Nairobi. The two are now under Sonko’s care.

Many remember how a crying Gift carried his blood-soaked baby brother Satrin after the tragedy to hospital.

It is during the evening meal that sons Erick, 20, and Peter, 23, reminiscence about their mother and strongly, painfully, feel the gaping hole she left.

“It is frustrating,” they say in unison, as they prepare the evening meal — ugali and managu.

Says Peter: “Many evenings, as we cook, we wish our mother was here to prepare our favourite meal - stew and chapatis. During that time she would comfort us when the going got tough and motivate us when things seemed to hit the dead end.”

With no girl in the family, Benson, Peter and Erick have learned fast how to plan, save and execute chores in the house, a job they entirely depended on their mother to do.

“Without a sister in the family, we were compelled to help out when mum went out to the market to sell her stuff,” says Peter. He says presently they usually share house chores among themselves with everyone, including their father, having his day to cook.

Their home, a two-roomed brick Swahili house for which they pay Sh3,000 rent, serves as a kitchen, bedroom and living room. It is clean and well maintained. The tiny sitting room is partitioned to create space for a bed where Benson sleeps.

The white walls brighten the room, and rhyme with the two couches in the living room area covered in white covers, the bed too is well straightened and clothes neatly folded.

Today is Peter’s turn to cook. Although tiny, the kitchen too is well-organised and utentils neatly arranged on a rack.

With no regular source of income to fend and settle bills, life has been an uphill task for them. When the mother was around, she took care of feeding the family through her small scale business. Besides, Benson says, they would share ideas and raise money to foot bills together.

“By the time my wife died, I had no permanent job and we used to help each other out with me doing masonry jobs and she would engage in her business of selling foodstuff at the market and the little we collected, we would use it to pay rent and pay fees for the boys,” says Benson.

He plans to resume his masonry job and open up the food and grocery stall that his wife used to operate while he waits for the jobs he was promised, especially the one by Joshua Kutuny, the president’s adviser.

Part of the Sh100,000 funds he received from The Standard Group and Red Cross will be channelled to Erick and Peter’s college education. The two have finished high school and hope to join college soon. However, there is a problem; they are eating into this money to buy food, pay rent and deal with other emerging needs.

“This complicates matters since if you use money without generating more, it will be used up no matter how much it is. Hence I pray I get a job as promised,” says Benson.

Benson says that most of the time he travels from Mombasa to Nairobi to see how Satrin and Gift are progressing and as a result, he has not had time to settle down.

He says he has thought about moving back to his rural home in Namboboto Samia, but dismissed the idea as there are no opportunities there and his land is too small for any meaningful farming.

Benson says that Erick who was promised a job at Brookside Company by Mombasa County Commissioner Nelson Marwa is yet to be employed hence they are just banking on promises. As they move on with their lives, there is that psychological scar that hurts them daily. Benson says after the attack, Gift was severely affected psychologically by his mother’s death.

What he keeps recalling are the moments when his mother was lying on Satrin, protecting him from bullets. Gift kept calling his mother to stand up they go home as the gunshots had gone silent. Then, the boy realised the mother had died.

“Thanks to the counselling by the Red Cross and the boarding school, he is now coping well and concentrating on his studies,” says Benson.

The ever smiling, Erick says he is slowly accepting the fact that his mother is gone, though too soon, and he has to gather all his courage and will to be strong.

He reminisces how they would sit together sharing ideas and planning his future, part of which was to join college starting September this year to pursue a business administration course. He misses how their mother used to help them whenever they got stuck while doing something, as she would motivate them and ensure that they had fulfilled their plans.

“Our mother used to struggle to ensure that we get everything we needed. We had planned that I would be joining college in September and she had started saving for my college, but now that she is gone almost everything is paralysed,” says Erick.

Erick shows a toy gun that hangs on the living room’s wall that his mother had bought him when he was younger as a gift. Ironically, it was a gun that ended her life, plucking a flower from their lives.

“I have kept this gun to date, so whenever I look at it, it brings the memories that it was a gun that killed her, yet I cannot throw it away since it is a gift she gave me,” says Erick.

Benson explains how he misses his wife dearly and sometimes when he comes home and sees the way the house is neatly organised, he thinks that the wife is out at the market and she will be coming back later only to remember that she is no longer with them.

He misses Satrin too especially the noise, cries and hugs. When he looks at his empty pink chair and the couch where Satrin’s mother used to sit, he cannot help but drift into a train of thoughts wondering how his son is getting on.

“I miss Satrin’s hugs and noise because whenever I came home, he would jump on me laughing. So I call from time to time to know how he is faring,” says Benson.

As the family picks up the pieces, Erick has a constant fear. What if his father remarries? Will there be conflict in the family? Will the new wife mistreat his younger brothers? His worries are valid as many horrifying stories of evil step-mothers are plenty.

But Peter is more positive. He says his father will obviously get lonely at some point and marrying another wife will be natural, even logical. She will help him cope with his tremendous loss and pull him out of many sad thoughts about Veronica, argues Peter.

“He also needs someone to share ideas with and help him raise Gift and Satrin who desperately need motherly love.”

Erick says that he has a strong desire to help the family, stand up strong and keep his mother’s legacy of seeing the boys shine and become better persons in life.

Peter usually plays the piano in church to keep busy and find consolation after his hopes and plans to join automobile wiring course stalled for lack of fees.

Benson urges everyone to be their brother’s keeper to ensure that their security and safety is guaranteed.

And he knows better. Insecurity robbed him of a wife and changed his life and that of his children forever.