Spells of silence amid conversation and a forlorn look on her face leave little doubt that she is living a nightmare.
Her husband, killed in a war not of his country, has left her to care for four children, all in the most delicate stages of life. The eldest, James Mutonga, 17, is on the cusp of adulthood, while the youngest, Favour Nyambura, four, still waits for her father to fulfil his promise of a bicycle. In her troubled gaze, one can read the immense burden she bears alone.