Rachel Muthiga is yet to come to terms with losing her two daughters in a night accident along the Kisii-Kilgoris road on Friday.
Vinnah Morangi, 21, and Valeria Wangare, 20, were among the eight people who died in the grisly accident while heading to their friend’s party in Magena, almost 30 kilometres from Kisii town.
Ms Muthiga now says she blames her decision of denying her girls the opportunity to attend the burial of their cousin who was buried in Meru on Friday.
According to Muthiga, her daughters would be alive had she allowed them to attend the burial.
“I have lost two flowers that had begun to flourish. This is the most painful thing to happen to any parent. I have single-handedly struggled to educate them since their father died in 2001. They have schooled together in primary, secondary and now in university,” said Ms Muthinga.
She narrated how she convinced her daughters not to attend the burial of their cousin in Meru.
She said that her daughters were too close to their late cousin and the family felt it would not have been easy to control them.
Apparently, Morangi’s last social update on Facebook was on the death of their cousin Abel Ndirangu, whom she described as a brother and friend.
Muthiga said the two girls informed her of their plans to travel to Kisii to attend a friend’s party but she didn’t know the specific place where the party was to be held.
“I know a majority of their friends and the best thing I have always is to allow my girls socialise with their friends. However, I always monitored them and sometimes kept them off bad company,” the mother said.
She said she knew Morangi had a boyfriend, Duncan Nyanaro, but they had not sat to discuss any plans to formalise the union.
“I know she had gone for introduction at her boyfriend’s home but she was yet to inform me about her next course of action. It is unfortunate that she died together with her boyfriend in the accident,” said the mother.
The two sisters schooled at Nyabururu Boarding Primary before joining Nyabururu National School for their secondary education. They later moved to St Michael Girls in Kisii where they sat their KCSE in 2014 and 2015.
Murangi, who was the eldest, joined Kenyatta University to study Education Arts and she was in third year. Wangare was to join the same university to pursue journalism but had been staying with her sister in the private hostels in Nairobi.
“They have always been living together. We nicknamed them ‘twins’ because of their closeness. We always sat together to discuss about their lives. I had very reasonable girls with a promising future,” she said.
The two girls will be buried on Friday at their home in Kisii County.
Meanwhile, Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital CEO Enock Ondari has said that the three casualties from the Friday night accident are stable and will be discharged from hospital after the Kisii County government waived all their medical bills.
The only survivor student said she was grateful to God for giving her a second chance in life.
“It is a miracle that I am alive. I will turn to God and give my life to him,” she said.
