Mother who cooked stones gets help after Radio Maisha airs her plight

Ms Peninah Bahati Kitsao, 45, a mother of eight children who resorted to boiling stones to convince her two-year-old child that there was food for the family can now rest easy for some time.

Good samaritans have been trooping to the widow's two roomed house in Mleji village, Junda ward of Kisauni constituency, Mombasa county after her story was highlighted by Radio Maisha.

The first person to respond to her pleas was Radio Maisha's News reader, Mike Nyagwoka whose financial injection enabled the family of nine to have a decent breakfast meal on Tuesday morning.

''I am grateful to all who have chipped in to support us. We now have meals on the table that can take us for the next couple of days,'' Peninah said.

She had just returned from opening a bank account with the aid of a social worker, Mrs Priscah Nyakerari Momanyi after well-wishers who wanted to send her money encouraged her to do so.

Peninah took reigns of her large family after the death of her husband in the hands of armed robber last year in their native village of Gururu in Kilifi county.

''I had to devise a way of making my last born child know that there was food being prepared after she started to cry over hunger. The rest of my children are a bit older and when I told them we had nothing to eat, they understood,'' she said.

She added that she did it twice before Priscah who is her immediate neighbour got wind and sought help for the family.

''When I heard what had transpired, I provided food for the family before I sought the intervention of County officials. I later put the message across on social media. Radio Maisha took it up and aired the plight of the family,'' Priscah said.

Priscah said that the response has been overwhelming with donations trickling in.

She, however said that none of the children in the homestead go to school and appealed to well-wishers to consider this after the schools reopen.

''There is need to give the mother some decent jobs to do and offer support to educate the children,'' she said.

Peninah's eldest child, Dama, 24, used to do menial jobs in homes but after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, she has nowhere to go.

Mleji village elderman, Mr Onesmus Jira said that they have forwarded the plight of the family to the Mombasa county administration and hoped for some interventions.