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Kenya: How Heroic Woman Died in Inferno
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The Nation (Nairobi)
21 January 2008
Posted to the web 21 January 2008
Samuel Siringi
Nairobi
A disabled woman who was a source of hope and inspiration in a village ravaged by poverty and despair was among 35 people killed in the single worst mass killing episode in post-election violence in Eldoret.
Ms Margaret Wambui Njau's 15-year effort to prove that 'disability is not inability' was cut short by the cold-blooded attack at the Kenya Assemblies of God in Kiambaa village near Eldoret Town on New Year's Day.
She died as she sat on her wheelchair as her twin sons made frantic efforts to rescue her from the raging fire.
Recently, four former African presidents had a chance to view metal bars of what used to be her wheelchair standing desolate in a pool of ashes, much of it human flesh burnt beyond recognition.
The former Heads of State were Joachim Chisano (Mozambique), Dr Kenneth Kaunda (Zambia), Benjamin Mkapa (Tanzania) and Ketumile Masire (Botswana).
After close to a week's investigation, the Nation has pieced together evidence to show that the 48-year old widow of 15 years was indeed among those who perished in the church.
After the ghastly incident, police had hinted that the dead included a disabled woman, although they did not know her identity.
However, the Nation has established that Ms Wambui, whose home is a stones throw away from the church, was among those camping in the church when post-election chaos erupted in the country, leading to hundreds of deaths and the displacement of thousands.
And when her twin sons learnt that the church had been set on fire, they rushed there hoping to rescue her from the inferno.
Instead, one of them, John Njau, was attacked by irate youths and sustained machete cuts on the head. He also suffered facial burns as he tried to defy the advance of the fire to save his mother.
When he saw that his brother was about to be consumed by the fire, twin brother Stephen rushed to his rescue. John was then taken to Eldoret's Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital where he is still undergoing treatment.
Sadder still, John has since lost his memory and cannot recall the fateful day's events.
"We were trying to save our mother who was taking refuge at the church when my brother sustained the injuries," explained Stephen.
"We have since tried to inquire about our mother, but we think she died in there," he added.
"I am now taking care of my brother who has since lost his memory," he said of John, who is a student at the University of Nairobi.
Stephen, himself a student at the Eldoret Polytechnic, said they were stranded as they did not know where to go.
"I do not know what to do with John since he has to travel to Nairobi to continue with his studies," Stephen said.
The Kiambaa and Kimuri villagers who had sought refuge in the Kenya Assemblies of God church were caught unawares by the hundreds of marauding youths who chanted war songs and surrounded the church in the fateful afternoon.
Those who tried to escape were waylaid and burnt in a nearby farm.
Lacklustre lives
The death took away a woman who was an inspiration for residents of Uasin Gishu who often streamed to her home to take lessons on how they can turn their lacklustre lives around.
She became more of an inspiration to the district's residents when a story published by the Nation early this month showed how she cultivated her garden even when she could not stand upright.
The woman, whose initial state of paralysis baffled medics to an extent of being sent to a lunatic ward when she was all normal, had struggled amid the disability to enrol her sons for tertiary education.
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John was the top student in Uasin Gishu District in the 1999 Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams. Stephen was ranked sixth best in the district that same year.
The youngest, Joseph Wanjohi Irungu, is expected to sit his Standard Eight exam this year.
Well-wishers, too, had from time to time stepped in to assist the late Ms Wambui offset some of the costs of her children's education.
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