Nairobi, Kenya: Senator Beth Mugo moved the House Wednesday as she recounted her last moment with her nephew and the fiancé who perished in the Westgate attack.
Mrs Mugo, a first cousin to President Uhuru Kenyatta, further disclosed that the Kenyatta family could have had many other members affected as four others were in the ill-fated building at the time of the terror attack.
A distraught-looking Mrs Mugo moved Senators to tears as she narrated how Mbugua Mwangi and his lover Rosemary Wahito, had visited them on Saturday morning to break news of their engagement before they proceeded to the ill-fated mall where they met their death.
Mbugua, she revealed, was the only child of her sister, Christine Mwangi – Kenya’s ambassador to Ireland.
Besides losing the two, the Senator told the House that her niece, a professor at the Jomo Kenyatta University, had sustained serious gun and grenade injuries, which left her with three bullets lodged in her body.
“She is now undergoing operations at the Aga Khan Hospital and thank God the doctors have told us that she is now in a stable condition,” she said.
Mrs Mugo also revealed that another two of her granddaughters and a sister to President Uhuru, Ms Christina Pratt were also within the building at the time that the terrorists made their way in the mall. She however said that the three were among those first rescued from the deadly attack.
The nominated Senator said that her deceased nephew and the fiancé had visited her in the morning where they had breakfast. She said that he also wanted the family to organize when they would go to start formal customary talks with her lover’s parents since he had proposed to her.
Mrs Mugo said that her nephew reported to them that the father to his fiancé had consented to their relationship and wanted the family to start formal customary talks.
“They were in a jovial mood…He told us: “Rosemary’s dad gave me Rosemary”, said Mrs Mugo, who had requested temporary Speaker Elizabeth Ongoro to give a personal statement to thank the House for their tributes.
The Senators said that though the couple-to-be had other engagements, they had ended up at the ill-fated mall. She said they were informed of the love-bird’s presence at Westgate by the granddaughters who were rescued.
“As the rescue operations continued, we kept looking at the screens to see if we could see them make their way out, but all in vain. We later knew that the two had fallen to the terrorists gun shots,” she said, apparently fighting tears.
She added: “It is very difficult. We lost the child that we know his mother only had. Continue praying for us, especially in respect to the one who is still in hospital”.-standardmedia.co.ke
