The Peninah Bahati Committee has identified some land in Junda where it plans to put up a 10-room Swahili-style rental house for the widow.
Bahati is the widow who boiled stones for her eight children due to hunger.
On Thursday, the committee was set to meet and sign agreements with the owner of the land. The land was bought at Sh280,000.
Committee secretary Esther Ingolo told the Star they are working on temporarily relocating Bahati and her seven children over the weekend.
Her four-month-old lastborn died in March a few days after her story went viral on social media and was picked by local and international media houses, prompting well-wishers to donate food, household goods and cash.
The committee was then formed by the state to help manage her newfound wealth.
“We are now headed to the house that was donated by Mombasa Woman Representative Asha Hussein where Bahati and her family will temporarily live as her original house is renovated,” Ingolo said.
Kisauni MP Ali Mbogo, who is a member of the committee, told the Star on Thursday, that the deal for the land took longer than expected because the landowner was locked out of Mombasa county.
“She lives in Voi and we had to organise paperwork for her to come so we can sign the agreement over the 65m by 60m land,” Mbogo said on phone.
The land was the cheapest that could be found in the area.
Mbogo said renovation of Bahati’s current two-room house at Mleji village in Junda will be undertaken concurrently with the construction of her new rental house.
The MP is also talking with contractors doing business with the government in Kisauni constituency so they could oversee the construction of the house as a Corporate Social Responsibility.
“This means they will not charge for the work because we will be buying all the materials,” Mbogo said.
He also called on corporates to donate building materials for Bahati’s rental house where they can.
Bahati requested the committee to allow her to continue living at her current house which she said has sentimental value to her and her children.
Her late husband Charo Kaingu bought the land and built their house on it.
Bahati says it is one way through which she remembers her husband.
“I have fond memories of him in this house,” she said.
Edited by R.Wamochie
