Edgar Ogutu, a radio presenter, lost his wife to cancer last year.
Only months later, Mr Ogutu has received devastating news from the same doctor who told him about his wife's impending death. Now he has been told his son may not live beyond his 12th birthday.
Ogutu lost his wife to leukaemia last December. The disease is a cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. Their eight-year-old son's life is also under threat from a blood disorder.
The boy, named Kunta Kinte, has severe anaemia and needs a bone marrow transplant before August 2018.
“We have been struggling and we are struggling to keep him alive," said Ogutu. "The doctor already told me that Kinte may not live beyond his 12th birthday. The same thing that the doctor told me about my wife,” he said.
Kinte has been on treatment under insurance but the medical cover is now exhausted.
Medical attention
“Since my wife's burial, Kinte has not received the required medical attention because I do not have insurance. My children are not at home because my house was locked by the landlord,” Ogutu said.
His children are with his mother-in-law while Kinte lives with a friend around Nairobi Hospital because of his condition.
“Every time my children remember and talk about their mother, they cry and I don’t know what to do,” he said.
His wife's medical bill at Nairobi Hospital amounted to Sh1 million before she was transferred to Kenyatta National Hospital, where she died.
“My son is taking the strongest antibiotics and must take these medicines for the rest of his life,” Ogutu said.
He plans to have Kinte travel to Germany in August for the bone marrow transplant - if he gets the money required.
