Diana Wanjiku walks as though she is counting her steps, deep in thought, as she settles to narrate the nerve-racking puzzle of her daughter’s death two years ago.
Since the death of Esther Nyaguthii, her life has revolved around the offices of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation, chief and General Kago mortuary as she seeks answers as to what caused the death of her 31-year-old daughter and bring the body home for burial.
But matters took a twist after she learnt that the morgue had already buried her daughter in a mass grave in Kiambu without her consent.
“I was ready to bury my daughter, but when I presented myself to the morgue to inquire about the bill and check on the condition of my child, they told me they had buried her in a mass grave. Nobody cared to notify me despite having all my details,” she said.
Her troubles began on June 19, 2020, when Nyaguthii left her rented house in Skuta area in Nyeri for a weekend visit to her boyfriend Daniel Nderitu in Thika. She was to return home after three days but decided to extend her stay.
But on June 23, two of Ms Wanjiku’s other children visit her at their home in Tambaya, Mukurwe-ini constituency bearing sad news – Nyaguthii had died that morning.
A day later, Ms Wanjiku and her two children travelled to Thika and met with Nderitu. He told them that Nyaguthii had been well in the morning before he left for work.
“He told us that … upon getting to his workstation, attempts to reach her on phone were futile. Alarmed, he sought the help of a neighbour,” she says. In Nderitu’s account, the neighbour discovered Nyaguthii’s body inside his bedsitter after peeping through the window.
Police officers from Thika were called and took the body to General Kago mortuary. After six days, a postmortem examination was conducted and revealed that her daughter had died of complications from inflamed lungs. Discontent, Ms Wanjiku sought a second opinion by filing a request at the Thika police station.
The second post-mortem never happened, marking the beginning of a protracted battle over the custody of the body, which led to the body remaining in the mortuary for two years.
In May 2021, Ms Wanjiku wrote to the morgue through a lawyer requesting that her daughter’s body be released for burial at their rural home in Mukurwe-ini. She was slapped with a Sh225,400 huge bill that she could not raise fast. In their pursuit for justice, her husband died, worsening the situation.
Later, the mortuary, in a letter to Ms Wanjiku, stated that it buried the body after getting permission from the police and court in Thika. It added that it issued a public notice on the disposal of Nyaguthii’s body together with others.
She is now seeking help to raise and settle the Sh700, 000 mortuary fee before she is allowed to did up the mass grave in the hope of locating her child’s remains.
“It is a difficult quest and I am hopeful that I will get the help I need … as a parent, all I want is to be able to bury my child here in Mukurweini,” she says. BY DAILY NATION