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Wallace Wairimu: In death, both his town and village deny him
Mr Samuel Nduati Wanja, 41, a Facebook and WhatsApp group administrator in Maili Kumi, Nakuru County, during the interview on February 11, 2023. Inset is Wallace Githinji Wairimu.
What you need to know:
- Maili Kumi, a small town in Nakuru County 175 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, is where Wallace Githinji Wairimu called home. Born to Jane Wairimu Ndung’u, the 31-year-old is now dead, but neither the town nor the village knows him.
Maili Kumi, a small town in Nakuru County 175 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, is where Wallace Githinji Wairimu called home.
Born to Jane Wairimu Ndung’u, the 31-year-old is now dead, but neither the town nor the village knows him.
Wallace’s body is among the unclaimed dead that the Nairobi City County has listed for disposal. He was unemployed.
At the time he took his national identification card, Wallace’s village was under Naivasha Constituency. His ID, the records show, was issued on October 24, 2017.
The boundaries agency has since divided and renamed the constituencies and wards in his hometown.
In an attempt to reunite him with his people, Nation obtained his details as captured by the Registrar of Persons. The mission was to break the news of his death to his relatives.
Maili Kumi is now a sub-location under Bahati location. Maili Kumi “village”, therefore, could be as big as the size of the sub-location, making it difficult to trace Wallace’s people.
For more than 24 hours, the team followed different leads, and spoke to different area leaders and administrators, but hit a dead end. All the searches and efforts were unsuccessful.
No trace of family
His townspeople never acknowledged the name or the photo. His family could not be traced.
“This is the second time we’re trying to connect this man to the family. We have shared this information on our social groups but nobody has ever claimed to know Wallace,” said Mr Samuel Nduati Wanja Kamiruri.
He manages WhatsApp and Facebook groups that bring together people from the area. And the local administration has hailed his efforts “because, through social media, information spreads tenfold faster”.
Wallace’s body is lying unclaimed at the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital mortuary, his fate hanging on a court order.
In the same mortuary is the body of Silas Muthee Mwebia. The 56-year-old hailed from Kijijone village in Gathirangu sub-location, Meru County.
His family does not know exactly when he left home, nor where he went to.
His stepmother, Jelius Kanyiri Mwebia, said she last saw him in the 90s.
“All else matches, except the photo,” she said of the identification report details.
Silas was a man with a thin frame. When he left home, he was young and agile. But nearly 30 years of not getting in touch is a lifetime.
The photo on his ID shows a wrinkled face.
“That is not close to the Silas I knew," said Ms Mwebia.
She said when his father died, the family hoped that Silas would show up for the burial. He never did. And they never heard from him.
He was raised by his grandmother after his biological mother remarried.
“I cannot say I do not know him. The name and bloodline place him in our family. He is ours. He is our brother. We’ll check the mortuary,” his step-sister, Mercy Nkatha, said, adding that they had hoped he was still alive and would show up someday.
On January 27, Nairobi City County published a notice to dispose of 292 unclaimed bodies. On February 10, nearly two weeks later, 250 bodies that lay unclaimed in various county mortuaries had been buried.
The county’s Health executive, Ms Anastasia Nyalita, in a letter dated February 11, 2023, said the court had granted the devolved unit the authority to dispose of the bodies. Some 40 bodies had been identified.
Curiously, an analysis of the published names reveals that most unclaimed bodies are male. Is the county doing enough to reunite the deceased with their relatives?
