Family in agony following kin's mysterious death in Iraq

Lucy Wambui

The late Lucy Wambui who died under mysterious circumstances in Baghdad, Iraq on December 22, 2020 where she had been working since August 2019.

Photo credit: Courtesy

What you need to know:

  • The family of deceased learnt of her death through social media pages.
  • Family wants the government to expedite process of bringing the body home.

The family of John Muigai Nga’ng’a from Ol Joro Orok in Nyandarua County is living in anguish after their daughter died in Baghdad, Iraq where she was a domestic worker.

The late Lucy Wambui died under mysterious circumstances on December 22, 2020 at her employers’ house, with the family learning of her death through social media pages.

Speaking in Naivasha, the family’s spokesperson, Harun Muigai, who is also a brother to the deceased, said efforts to bring the body home was being hampered by the lack of a postmortem report.

Muigai spoke about the family frustration while following up the matter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs giving scanty details regarding the death.

Cause of death

“I have written several correspondences to the ministry officials but they have remained mum over the issue,” said Muigai.

The family last wrote to the ministry in the month of January, requesting help, with little success.

However, a letter dated January 21 and duly signed by a senior official indicated that the Embassy of Iraq in Nairobi had written to the Ministry confirming the death, stating that the cause of death was undisclosed illness.

The letter further indicates that the deceased employer had been trying to get her documents from the agent with little success, consequently unable to contact the next of kin.

“In this regard, the authorities of Iraq have requested a family’s representative to visit Iraq in order to conduct a postmortem to establish the actual cause of death as well as aiding in logistics to help ferry the body home,” the letter reads in part.

Postmortem

But Muigai said no family member was willing to visit the foreign country, further complicating the situation.

“We have given (them) Embassy a go ahead to facilitate the conducting of a postmortem even without the family’s presence. And we wrote a letter to that effect,” added the family spokesperson.

He said the family last spoke to the late Wambui on December, 20, 2020.

“She spoke with my sister and she never complained of being unwell, only to die two days later,” Mr Muigai said.

He said her sister's death continued to distress the family, especially her aging parents and her four children aged between 12 and 20 years.

Sudden death

Mr Muigai said his sister left for the Middle East country in August 2019, to seek greener pastures.

“Throughout her stay in the foreign land she used to send money home to help our parents and for her children's upkeep,” said Mr Muigai.

The family called on the Kenyan government to expedite the process of bringing the body home.

“We want to bring to a closure the sad episode caused by her sudden death. Burying her at home will bring relief to the family and friends,” he said.

“My dad and mum have become hypertensive since the incident, which was, unfortunately posted on the social media pages on December 30, even before we learnt of her death through official communication,” added the grieving brother.