Manhunt in New Zealand for Kenyan Man after Ex-Wife Badly Injured and a Man Dead
News update from Newzealand
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Injured Kenyan woman emerges from coma
The severely injured Kenyan woman, found next to the body of her friend in a Christchurch house, has opened her eyes after more than a week in a coma.
Lydiah Munene, 34, emerged from the induced coma in Christchurch Hospital’s intensive care unit yesterday, Kenyan community spokesman Mathenge Iratho told The Press.
Even the doctors were excited that she had opened her eyes and moved her feet, Mr Iratho said.
Ms Munene was found in her bed with severe head injuries on Monday night last week. She was lying next to Stephen Mwangi Maina, 39, a Kenyan freezing worker who lived in Ashburton.
More than 100 people attended a funeral Mass for Mr Maina in Ashburton on Saturday. His body is being readied for return to Kenya, hopefully next week.
Ms Munene’s estranged husband Samuel Ngumo Njuguna flew to Kenya last week after leaving the couple’s two sons with a friend.
Police want to talk to him about the slaying and assault.
News update from Newzealand
Police Release the name of Kenyan killed in Newzealand
09/16/09
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Police in New Zealand have named the dead Kenyan man whose body was found in a house with Lydia Muthoni Munene who is still in a coma. His name is Stephen Mwangi Maina, a 38 year-old meat worker from Ashburton.
His mother in Kenya and brother in Australia had been notified. Stephen’s mother said that Stephen was the third son she’d lost. So it’s obviously pretty hard for the family.Maina’s friend, Munene, was found with serious head injuries and had been lying on the floor of her new flat, possibly for days.
She had moved to the flat when her marriage broke up a month ago and was working as a trainee nurse, having finished her Bachelor of Nursing. Her tutors say she was due to graduate this Friday. Munene’s estranged husband Samuel Njuguna flew out of New Zealand on Sunday and is being tracked in Kenya.
Detective Inspector Greg Williams says Njuguna removed his children from the family home sometime in the early hours of Saturday morning and took them back to his house.
“It appears that it’s possible the same time that the two people were attacked in the house. He had worked at a Christchurch car dealers where his previous employer Paul Kelly is shocked at the news.”(He was) just a very quiet natured chap, good worker, very popular with other staff, very kind mannered,” says Kelly.”I know Sam was really very proud to have his children here growing up in New Zealand.”
Police have alerted Interpol and Kenyan police to try to track Njuguna down. New Zealand does not have an extradition agreement with Kenya. However, Kenya has an Extradition Commonwealth Countries Act which would give its Attorney General the right, if he was asked, to begin the extradition process.
Njuguna could appeal against the order and New Zealand police will need to present strong evidence.
What can we do as a community to help one another to overcome such incidences that has become too common.Click the Reply button
Police hunt estranged Kenyan husband,wife in a coma
Lydiah Muthoni Munene,34, Picture-3news.co.nz
More details have come to light concerning The injured Kenyan woman found next to the body of a friend in Christchurch.Report from Newzealand says that she is in an induced coma as police try to track down her estranged husband, who has fled to Kenya.
The lady’s name is Lydiah Muthoni Munene, 34, and Police are waiting to speak to her as soon as she comes out of the coma. They are not naming the dead man, also a Kenyan, until a post mortem has been completed.The dead man was a friend of Ms munene and police hope to formally identify him and release his name this afternoon.
Police say a weapon was probably used in the killing, but are not saying what it was or if it has been recovered.
Ms Munene’s estranged husband, Samuel Ngumo Njuguna, 39, flew to Kenya on Saturday, shortly after dropping off the children, aged nine and 13, at the home of a friend.
He is understood to have arrived in Kenya yesterday morning and police have alerted Interpol and Kenyan police to try to track him down.
Police have spoken to the children but have not yet spoken to the mother who is still in Christchurch Hospital in stable condition but with severe head injuries.The police said that they contacted the families of the deceased and Ms Munene and that they were devastated by the news
Police are now focusing the investigation on events on Friday night and early Saturday.
“We believe that the children were removed from Burrows Place sometime early on Saturday morning between midnight and 6am, by their father.
“It appears that this is also the likely time the two people were attacked in the house.”
Police are also trying to track the movements of Mr Njuguna’s red 1995 Peugot Saloon, registration TH438.
Investigations will also continue at Burrows Place and at Mr Njuguna’s house in Patrick St.
Police expect to be there for the next couple of days, Mr Williams said.
“The small Kenyan community in Christchurch has bonded together in support of each other and we are working closely with them as are support agencies,” Mr Williams said.
Yesterday Interpol contacted the Kenyan High Commission in Canberra.
Mr Njuguna and Ms Munene have lived in New Zealand for many years.
Police may have difficulty in bringing Njuguna back to New Zealand because there is no extradition agreement with Kenya.
Mr Williams said it was unclear whether the relationship between the woman and the dead man had been beyond a friendship.
Ms Munene had recently started work as a nurse at Christchurch Hospital, The Press reported.
She was described as a “lovely, sympathetic” woman who had recently graduated as a nurse from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology.
“She seems really, really nice and is making such a fantastic go of things,” landlord Margaret Dawson said.
“I just feel so terribly shocked because she has made so much of an effort to make such a life for herself and her children. Her two boys are very tall, good-looking, charming, lively, intelligent and lovely.”
Ms Munene had spoken “unfavourably” of Njuguna, she said.
A friend from the Kenyan community, who declined to be named, said it was shocked at the incident.
“We last met in December and had a laugh and were having fun happy kids, happy mother and happy father.”
Source-3news.co.nz
Manhunt in New Zealand for Kenyan Man after Ex-Wife Badly Injured and a Man Dead
Tuesday September 15, 2009
Police in Newzealand have launched a manhunt for a man believed to be Kenyan after the body of a dead male and a badly injured woman were found in a home in Christchurch on Monday evening. The woman’s current condition in Christchurch Public Hospital is serious but stable.
Police were called to Burrows Place in the suburb of Ilam after there were concerns from friends who had not heard from her or her husband. The dead man is not believed to be the woman’s husband.
Detective Inspector Greg Williams says that the woman and her two children, all of Kenyan descent, moved to the address four weeks ago after she separated from her husband.
“There are indications that the husband may be involved, “Says William. Inquiries have been made to locate him but it appears that he left New Zealand on Sunday morning and travelled to Kenya. Williams says police have requested Interpol help to establish the whereabouts of the man.
The body is still at the house and the post mortem expected to be either later on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The woman’s two children are with family friends.
BRATISLAVA – A 24-year-old Kenyan student in Bratislava said on Tuesday that he spent four days in hospital with a head injury after he was wounded during what he claims was a racist attack last week.
“I was returning to my dormitory with a friend early on Thursday when a group of people hidden in the trees started throwing stones at us,”Kiboi said.
“One stone hit my head and I started bleeding,” said the man who studies management and social work at Bratislava’s Comenius University.
“I think they attacked me because I’m black as I have been attacked verbally several times since I moved here, people have called me ‘a monkey’,” he added.
The security service at the dormitory called the police, who went looking for the attackers, while he was taken to hospital, said the student who has been living in Slovakia for four years.
“I wanted to file a lawsuit at first but I don’t think it would make any difference now,” he noted.
Amnesty International has repeatedly criticised the former communist country, which joined the European Union in 2004, for discriminating against Roma people and for “racist attacks” on minorities and foreigners.
A 25-year-old US female basketball player with dark skin Wilhelmina Wilson was attacked by two men last year in Kosice, the centre of east Slovakia.
Source-news.za.msn.com
Lorna Irungu Kidney odyssey
Tue January 27, 2009
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Lorna Irungu, 35, had to travel from Kenya to India to receive her third kidney transplant.
NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — Lorna Irungu sits on a hospital bed looking extremely frail. She has lupus and her kidneys continue to fail.
“At some point I just wanted it to be over,” said Irungu, 35. “I was just tired. I was really, really tired of the fighting, of the struggling, of being sick.”
But Irungu did decide to fight, with the help of a very giving family. Three times she has needed a kidney transplant, and three times her family members insisted on donating. First her father donated, then her sister, and then her brother.
Irungu says what she couldn’t find was a doctor who would do the tricky third transplant in her own country of Kenya. When she checked in neighboring countries, the cost was impossibly high. Irungu, who’s single and has no children, has no insurance. So the former television host was paying for the surgery and medicines out of her own pocket.
“When we looked at the price of getting things done in South Africa. I’m like, ‘We’re never gonna get there.’ It’s $45,000. Where do I even begin?”
The cost of a kidney transplant in the United States can be $25,000 to $150,000, also out of Irungu’s price range.
So she began looking elsewhere, sending out e-mails and making phone calls to hospitals in other countries. Doctors at Fortis Hospital in New Delhi, India, were the only ones who responded to her somewhat complicated case.
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Dr. Vijay Kher, the hospital’s director of nephrology, first talked to Irungu by phone.
“When she called me from Kenya, she was very sick,” Kher said. “She had uncontrolled blood pressures, and she was having fever. She had been in ICU for about three weeks.”
But Irungu made it to India. Once her condition was stabilized, doctors performed the third transplant, which is a rare operation in India.
Of the 1,500 kidney transplants performed at Fortis Hospital, doctors remember having done only two in which the patient was having a third transplant.
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Doctors had to remove one of the previously transplanted kidneys to make room for the new kidney, Kher said. Doctors said it was unnecessary to remove the three other kidneys because they were not causing harm and they didn’t want to subject her to more surgery than was necessary.
Even with the complications that can arise during a third transplant, the cost of it and the weeklong hospital stay in India came to about $8,000. It’s a fraction of the price she was quoted elsewhere, as is the cost of the post-transplant medication.
“This last surgery, I keep saying, has been remarkable.” Irungu said. “I haven’t felt as good post transplant as I did this time around.”
After three months in India, Irungu is leaving with four kidneys inside her. Irungu says for now the newly transplanted kidney seems to be working great.
“From my experience, the cost here and the quality of care is worth it,” Irungu said. “It’s worth it because instead of you sitting wherever you are, thinking, ‘This is the end for me,’ or just getting depressed or getting into this struggle, (you can) just pack up and go.”
Source-cnn
A will to live: Lorna’s kidney odyssey
Monday, 2nd March 2009
The name Lorna Irungu rekindles memories of the 1990s TV game show Omo Pick a Box, the Vijana Tugutuke voting campaign and an upbeat, energetic and feisty young woman who is always ready to use her talents to champion a cause.
But Lorna’s life is not all fun and games. The 35-year-old has had more than her fair share of pain and suffering. She has battled lupus and kidney failure for more than 10 years, and her most recent ordeal has left her asking what God really wants of her.
Having already undergone two kidney transplant operations, Lorna never imagined she would need a third.
“What started as a minor infection, towards the end of 2007, became tuberculosis of the spine and I had to be admitted at Nairobi Hospital,” Lorna told the Sunday Magazine.
Cast her vote
This was a great disappointment for someone who had worked so hard on the Vijana Tugutuke campaign, urging the youth to turn up and vote in the 2007 General Election. But when voting day, December 27, rolled around and she was still hospitalised, Lorna negotiated her way out of the hospital for a few hours in order to cast her vote.
But this was to be the last time she would walk for many months. Her vertebrae collapsed and she had to be rushed to the ICU where she stayed, in a coma, for three weeks and only regained consciousness on January 27, last year.
“During this time I was put on some strong medicine and I needed to drink one and a half litres of water to flush the medicine out of my system,” Lorna says.
However, because her kidney was already compromised, she started reacting to the medicine and this affected her lungs, liver and kidney.
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| Lorna, weak, but in high spirits on Christmas Day last year. |
“When my kidney started to act up, my blood pressure went out of control. It also affected my heart and this is when I realised that kidneys are central to everything in the body.”
At this point it was evident that a third kidney transplant was necessary, but Kenyan doctors were unable to perform it.
“When my sister and boyfriend heard this, they started looking for help on the Internet. They found a promising option in South Africa, but it was very expensive.”
They then looked to India, which they had heard was promoting medical tourism. They sent a request through the Internet and, within 48 hours, got a response from Fortis Hospital, New Delhi. Dr Vijay Kher, the hospital’s director of nephrology, talked to Lorna by phone and made travel arrangements for her.
Renown for specialised treatment of kidney diseases, Fortis Hospital has performed over 1,500 kidney transplants, but in only two cases was the patient having a third transplant. Lorna was in bad shape — collapsed vertebrae, a weak heart, uncontrolled blood pressure and other complications. She needed to be stabilised before she could travel. After two weeks, Lorna made it to India.
She went in for the first surgery to remove one of her four kidneys to create room for the third transplant.
The second surgery, the transplant operation, lasted five hours and was a great success.
“I spent the shortest time in hospital, even with the complications that can arise during a third transplant.”
Surgery made headlines
The cost of the surgery and the weeklong hospital stay came to about $8,000 (Sh480,000) — a fraction of the prices she was quoted elsewhere.
The success of the operation made the headlines throughout India. CNN also run a lead story, Kidney odyssey takes a Kenyan to India.
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| Lorna with her brother Jomo I4 days after surgery. Jomo donated the third kidney. Her sister, Tata, who donated the second was with her throughout her stay in India. Photo/Courtesy and file/standard |
But what Lorna remembers most about her three-month stay in India is the relationship between the doctor and the patient. She says money was not an issue to the doctors, who were more focused on their work of healing. She had almost 20 doctors at her disposal.
“Any time they came to check on me, they came as a team, and in case there were any reports about me they needed to know, the nurses, who are also specialised in taking care of kidney patients, would send it to them at once.”
Looking back, Lorna says her ordeal with kidney problems has shown her how blessed she is to have a loving, giving family.
“My family came through and encouraged me to take a step of faith even though third transplants are very rare. They were there for me because in such cases, even if you can afford the treatment, getting a willing donor might be a problem.”
Lorna, who got her first kidney donation from her father and the second from her sister Tata, was concerned that she was becoming a burden to her family.
“When my brother offered to donate his kidney I was touched, but I felt guilty. However, he told me it was his decision to give and my duty to receive. I am really blessed to have such a family around me.”
Questioned God
Lorna says she would not have gone through the ordeal if it were not for her family, friends and close colleagues who kept urging her not to give up.
“But mentally, I had lost hope of getting better and the mere thought of going through another surgery was too much to bear.
“I was tired of always being in the hospital, asking for money for treatment and always on medicine. I asked God why I was the one who was always struggling to stay alive.”
But, she says, she snapped out of it and realised she had to accept her situation, change her attitude and deal with it. The rest, as they say, is history.
And Lorna says she has never felt so good after surgery and feels God has given her another chance in life.
“What God did for me was like he was telling me, it is not for you to get fame since all the media houses in India wrote my story, but I think God used me to show that what he did for me others can also benefit from and that with hope and a strong faith nothing is impossible for God.
Kidney patients
Lorna says she had supportive family and friends who went out of their way for her, even setting up a Facebook account called ‘Friends of Lorna’ to raise funds for the surgery.
“However, the majority of Kenyans who find themselves in a similar situation die because they cannot afford or cannot access hospital care,” she laments.
This situation has prompted her to join hands with Jean Banda, a founder member of the Kenya Kidney Foundation, who has also suffered from lupus, to make a difference in the lives of many thousands of Kenyans who do not have anywhere to turn when diagnosed with kidney problems.
“Some of the issues we are pushing for are affordable medicine for people suffering from kidney diseases and affordable dialysis,” she says, recalling that these issues are not problems in India.
She says that when one is suffering from kidney failure and has undergone a kidney transplant, medication alone costs Sh30,000.
“How many Kenyans can afford that?” she asks.
Lorna hopes to leave a legacy as a woman who fought for better, more affordable treatment for kidney patients, thus enabling them to live longer, happier lives.
“I want us to live lives free from exploitation from drug companies and health care systems, which make it hard for ordinary people to get help.”
Source-The Standard
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This may not be relevant but $8000 especially USD I NOT ksh480,000… just saying.