Kenyans Online Raise over Sh500,000 for Man Who Spent Rainy Night with Wife's Corpse

Kenyans online have raised more than Sh500,000 for Charles Mwenda, a Meru widower who suffered in the hands of police officers last month.

Mwenda spent a rainy night with his wife’s corpse under a truck after police officers abandoned him outside Kianjai Police Station in Meru.

His wife died of cancer in Malindi, Kilifi County where he works but decided to bury her at his rural home in Tigania, Meru County.

Due to the restrictions on the movement of people over Covid-19, Mwenda obtained all the relevant documents required for him to travel all the way from Malindi to Meru to bury his wife. 

He left Malindi for Meru on Wednesday, May 27th in the company of family members and mourners. Their journey was smooth as they were allowed to pass all the police barriers from Malindi until they reached the Meru-Tharaka Nithi border.

Here, they were stopped by police officers manning the blockade, and everyone on the bus was ordered to return to Malindi except Mwenda and his wife’s remains.

“We were at the final police barrier at Meru-Tharaka Nithi border at a place called Keeria, where we were stopped by police and forced out of the car. What I saw there was so inhuman, upon a lengthy discussion all my family and friends were forced back to Malindi,” Mwenda narrated.

Mwenda was then put into a waiting police vehicle together with the coffin containing his wife’s body. The officers threatened to send him into quarantine for 14 days if he failed to comply.

He was then dropped off outside Kanjai police station, several kilometers from his home. His late wife’s body was also removed from the police van and placed by the roadside.

“I pleaded with the police to help me get the body to my home which is 5km from the police station, but they refused,” he said.

“I was forced to spend the night with the casket to make the matters worse it was raining I had to pull the casket under a lorry which was parked at the station.”

“I didn't know what to do, it was the darkest day of my life. I was picked at 6.00 am by a friend who ferried me and the casket home. I think I didn't deserve that," he concluded.

Mobilized by philanthropist Ndung’u Nyoro, Kenyans on social media contributed Sh570,000 in the last three days to support the 29-year-old widower and his three young children, including a six-month-old baby.

Further, an unnamed volunteer has offered to pay a house help for a year to help Mwenda raise his children.