Was last meal Nzamba Kitongas way of saying bye?

Eminent constitutional lawyer Nzamba Kitonga, who collapsed and died on Saturday, had lunch with his extended family on Friday, a day after travelling home for a long weekend of rest. 

The family shared a meal of fried fish, goat meat, ugali and rice before spending an entire afternoon together at Kitonga’s rural home near Mutito market in Kitui County.

That he uncharacteristically travelled home mid-week and invited them to share a meal, has left his family wondering whether he had a premonition of his death.

The former chairman of Committee of Experts on 2010 Constitution was eager to meet his family and strangely left Nairobi accompanied by his wife Carol on Thursday morning. The couple arrived in Mutito towards 3pm.

Usually, the 64-year-old senior counsel known for his humility and gentle mien would travel home on Saturdays and, with stopovers along the way to catch up with friends, he mostly arrived home late in the evening. But last weekend, which turned out to be his last journey, he invited his extended family — including his brothers, cousins and aunties — for a get-together. The invites were extended to his brothers-in-law.

As the firstborn in the family, his plans were to have three days of quality time with his family and relatives, before returning to Nairobi today. According to his younger brother Muthusi Kitonga, Nzamba, as he’s fondly referred at home, called him on Thursday evening and asked him to ensure all the visitors were taken care of.

Drinks for his brothers

“It was just a family get-together, and we were all happy to see each other, because some of the family members work outside the country and had not been in Kenya due to Covid-19 restrictions on foreign travel,”the former Mutito MP told the Nation in an interview yesterday.

Kitonga had arranged some drinks for his brothers and cousins who started making merry in his compound after lunch. The former Law Society of Kenya chairman, however, declined to join the, saying, he doesn’t take alcohol during the day and instead excused himself to go and rest. As the family gathering was dispersing at around 5pm, Muthusi said, they noticed that he was still sleeping and his phone was off.

“Around 7.30pm, we called his wife who told us he hadn’t woken up,” Muthusi recalled. After a short while, Kitonga drove into the pub and joined them for a drink, where they stayed until 11pm.

“He found us engaged in a heated debate about the Building Bridges Initiative report and we were excited to pick his mind, but he just ignored us,” he said.

He said they noticed he wasn’t talking much. At some point, they challenged him to state his stand, but Nzamba declined saying he had not fully read the report.

The following day, most of the family members were to meet at a funeral in the village and Nzamba was supposed to speak on behalf of the family, but this was never to be.

Developed some nausea

Soon after arriving at the burial, he developed some nausea and became unconscious which alarmed his wife, who summoned his brothers and a cousin who is a doctor. Upon checking him, they noticed that his heartbeat was abnormally fast and immediately agreed to rush him to hospital. He was declared dead on arrival at Shalom Hospital in Machakos.

Kitonga was the firstborn in the family of Kitonga Muthangya, a famous independence chief, who served in Changamwe area of Mombasa County, before being plucked by Kanu to run for Parliament in Mutito.

His family said that, as the eldest son, he was the father figure who provided leadership, while his friends mourned him as a down-to-earth lawyer, whose humility his high profile national assignments never changed. As a legal expert, Kitonga led in many positions, including membership of the Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry, president of the East Africa Law Society and Comesa Court of Justice.

He was among the shortlisted candidates for the position of Chief Justice of Kenya to replace Willy Mutunga. Recently, Kitonga criticised President Kenyatta for delaying the appointment of 41 appellate judges, whose fates remain in limbo to date.

Besides law practice, Kitonga, like his father, had political ambitions and in 2013, he vied for the Kitui gubernatorial seat but lost Julius Malombe.

He is survived by his widow Carol and four children: Ivia, Mary, Mukami and Martha. Two of his children are lawyers in his law firm.