Mystery of Kenyan’s death in US as family gets conflicting reports

By Chris Wamalwa in US

Mystery surrounds the death a Kenyan woman aboard an American plane on her way to the US for her daughter’s graduation.

Mrs Mary Njema, 45, from Nakuru, left Kenya for the US via Europe on Wednesday, in what those who saw her off at JKIA described as "normal health". But, for some reason, she fell ill on the way and died on reaching the US.

"I was waiting to pick up my mother at the airport in St Louis, Missouri, when I was told the plane she was in had an emergency landing in Houston, Texas. Initially, I thought there had been an accident," said her daughter, Ms Esther Wangari Njema.

Emergency care

She says there are conflicting accounts of exactly when, where and how she got ill from the Continental Airline, and the hospital where she was taken for emergency care.

Wangari has reached out to the Kenyan embassy in Washington, DC, for help. She says while an official from Continental Airline said her mother got sick at Hobby Airport in Houston, while waiting for her connecting flight to St Louis, a nurse at Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital said she fell ill on the plane.

"I am getting conflicting accounts about what happened to my mom and I am greatly concerned. What makes it worse is the fact that the hospital is refusing to release the medical records," she says.