Veronica Wambere could not have children so she asked her husband to get another wife.
Her husband Joseph Nyaga married Beatrice Wawira, now aged 68. They had three children, Patrick Waweru, Lilian Wanjiru and James Gichobi.
They all lived together in their home in Murinduko, Mwea, until 2003 when their husband died.
While he lived, Nyaga took care of them by doing menial jobs because Wambere, 90, is paraplegic and Wawira is blind. Wambere lost the use of her legs at the age of 10.
When Nyaga died, the widows were left with the children to take care of and themselves.
But times have been hard, and they have had to rely on well-wishers for food and other needs. They have a two-acre parcel of land which volunteers sometimes till for them to grow crops. Most times it lies fallow.
The Star visited their home with their neighbour Judith Wangechi on Tuesday.
The two women were outside basking in the sun, enjoying the company of each other as they have done for some time. One sat on the ground while the other was perched on a wooden stool.
Their dwellings are modest, a tin main house and smaller kitchen across from it. They live there with Gichobi and his son Raphael Kariuki. The 12-year-old boy runs most of their errands.
Wawira told the Star two of her children, Patrick and Lilian, left the family while they were teenagers. No one knows where they are. Both dropped out of primary school for lack of school fees.
Gichobi, the only other child, is also dependent on the widows. He had a drug addiction problem which appears to have affected his mental faculties.
“I think life has beaten hard on me. I only would have wished my children had a better life. What is worse is I don’t know where some are,” Wawira told the Star.
As she tells her story, Wambere calls out to Raphael who had all this while been sitting in the kitchen.
He comes out with Wambere’s wheelchair and helps her on to it. He wheels her into the kitchen where she makes fire to prepare breakfast. She puts water to boil on a sufuria and adds a half a cup of milk.
Wambere said she and Wawira have stood by each other for the nearly 40 years they have stayed together.
“We have related very well since she joined the marriage. I embraced her children like they were mine. We have gone through highs and lows together ever since our husband died. We share the little we get like sisters,” she said.
Wangechi told the Star she checks on the family once in a while and brings them some supplies to help them get by.
Other times, Raphael leads Wawira around the village to beg from neighbours and well-wishers. Wambere prepares whatever little they get.
Raphael is in Standard 6 at a local primary school. He is now the family’s hope.
Without a mother — she left because of her husband’s condition — and the squalor he lives in, Raphael’s life is also dogged with hardship. He has to juggle between his education and his family’s needs.
“My family relies on me to do most of the household chores so it becomes difficult at times to concentrate in class. My grandmother and I have to often go around the neighbourhood begging for food,” he said.
Wambere gets support through the government’s cash transfer programme to the elderly. It is never enough. Wawira, on the other hand, is not registered on the programme.
Alice Wanjiku, another neighbour, told the Star she occasionally mobilises foodstuff from neighbours to take to the family. She said most members of the community have pressing needs and cannot always support.
The family hopes well-wishers can help them make ends meet.
“We would plead with the government to help support this family,” Wangechi said. Well-wishers can support the family through Wangechi on 0721303041.