A mother's love knows no bounds, and Rose Mueni is a true testament to this.
When floods ravaged her home in Mathare, Nairobi, she refused to let go of her two children's bed, even as her neighbours insulted her and told her to abandon them
Mueni said some neighbours called her names as she held on to the kids’ bed while crying for help.
“People were shouting at me and warning that I would drown with the children. Some were saying I lacked brains but I was ready to die with my two children,” she told the Star.
Mueni said she told the neighbours she would not let go of the bed and was ready to die with her two children,
“I told my children to hold tight as I asked God to remember me,” she recalled.
She added that luck was finally on her side as the bed stuck on a section of the wall but the intensity of the flowing water was ever increasing.
“Then a man came from nowhere shouting ‘Where is that woman’. He also grabbed the bed and we managed to prevent it from being swept away together with the children,” she said.
Mueni said she was shocked that some neighbours told her she would get other kids if the two died.
“I was told to let them go because I would still have other kids and I still had their siblings that I was raising,” she recalled.
Mueni said it had rained the whole night, which kept her awake throughout.
“I went out and found water had surrounded our plot and it was already coming in and getting into our houses. I started waking up the neighbours and I started with my children at around 2. am,” she added.
Mueni said she took two children outside and left two others in the house.
“I then went to knock on the doors of neighbours to alert them of the danger. One neighbour woke up and I asked him to also help me alert the others,” she added.
“We went outside and found vehicles being swept away and then a wall collapsed and water rushed into the plot and began to sweep away everything.”
It is then that Mueni remembered she had left two children in the house.
Mueni said her bravery and determination paid off, and she was able to save her two children from the floods.
