• The disease strikes at the age of 20 and above and has left his only son and four daughters crawling.
• Doctors diagnosed Justine Keli, her second born with muscular epilepsy in 2000 but it was too late for treatment.
Image: MUTUA KAMETI
When a mother delivers a new baby, she has hopes that they will grow up in good health and be independent.
For Rosalia Katinda Muthenya, a mother of seven, this is not the case.
Five of her children have been struck by a mysterious disease that has left them disabled.
The 60-year old widow from Ioota village in Mbitini, Makueni County said the disease that leaves her children crawling strikes at the age of 20.
When journalists visited the family, they found Katinda seated by the side of her three bedroom house.
Two of her daughters were with her. One on her left cuddling a small baby, and the other one seated on a donated wheelchair.
Philip Mulingwa, a neighbour who led reporters to the homestead pointed to an adjacent house where Katinda’s only son and the second born Justine Keli was.
Beside his bed was an old wheelchair. “This is where he spends all his time,” said Mulingwa.
“What baffles me is that they are healthy until the age of 20, it is when they develop symptoms like dizziness, muscle aches, and body weakness that graduates to the disease,” Katinda told the Star at her home.
Katinda said her son Keli, now aged 39 was the first to be struck by the misfortune at the age of 20, before their elder sister, Magdalene Wavinya 41, was affected at age 23 .
The others are Annastacia Kambua (36), Margret Katunge (31) and Jacinta Wayua aged 29 and the latest victim.
Wayua left her job as a bar attendant in Mombasa and returned home after she developed complications similar to those of her elder sisters.
“I made a decision to come home after medical extermination results failed to reveal anything,” the mother of one said.
Wavinya, the oldest and a mother of five said she was a businesswoman before the decease that left her on wheelchair struck.
“I would move from the markets around selling vegetables before I completely lost strength. I have two children in secondary school who depend on bursaries from the Makueni constituency funds,” she said.
Mulingwa who has been monitoring the family said in 2000, he took Keli for an examination at a medical camp in Machakos organised by the Catholic Church.
The examination results from the doctors from Bethan, Nepal, showed that Keli suffered from a strain of epilepsy that weakens the knee joints then moves up to the hip joint making one unable to walk.
“They said his condition was beyond redemption since it was in the latest stages but advised to have all the young members of his family examined for timely treatment in case they are affected,” he said.
It never happened since the family is poor.
Keli’s nephew Alphonse Mwendwa aged 19 and a class seven dropout said he is afraid the decease could affect him in the future.
Mary Muthini and Jacqueline Kamene, the only fortunate members of the family free from the disease said they feared the disease will strike them in future.
Just like her grandmother, Mwendwa is appealing for intervention by the government to stop the disease before it spreads to him and the younger children in the family.
“I am even ready to go back to school so that when I get a job I would be able to assist my mother and the family members and other generations to come,” he said.
Katinda appealed to wellwishers to support her family with food, clothing and school fees for the grandchildren.
Two of her daughters also appealed to the government to compel the fathers of their children to support them.
The third born and a mother of three said her children’s father is a neighbour and a well off man, but he never takes care of them.
“He has abandoned me and the children, the other day I sent one of them for books but he chased away the child, it really pains me. I want the government forces him to support us,” she said.
Senator Mutula Kilonzo’s personal assistant Nicholas Nzioka led staff members from the senator’s office to deliver foodstuffs and clothes to the family.
Nzioka said the family was needy and called of relevant offices from the county government and national government to intervene.
“We have institutions that handle matters of people with disability both at the county level and the national level, they should ensure action is taken as soon as possible for the family to live better,” he said.