Kyuso Knut official quits union to take care of ill husband

Ex-Kyuso Knut executive secretary Agnes Kambua says she has quit trade unionism to take care of her sick husband.

Kambua did not defend her seat at the polls held last Saturday. She said for the love of her husband, she wouldn't entertain seeing him die prematurely.

John Musee suffered a stroke last September. The right side of his body is paralysed and so he requires proper care until he recovers, she said.

"I have decided to devote my time to serving and giving my husband close personal care until he is completely healed. This is the time he needs me most and I have to pay him back for the immense support he has accorded me for years,” Kambua said on Monday.

Kambua could not compromise on her husband’s life and had to retire from Knut prematurely at 57 to concentrate on care management.

She said she could not come to terms with the thought of her almost-immobilised husband meeting his end early because of negligence or psychological stress due to her absence from home as she serves teachers and the union.

Speaking at her home in Kamuwongo area of Mwingi North, Kitui, Kambua said her husband has been a special person in her life and she has to forego everything else to stand by him.

During the Kyuso Knut branch elections at Kyuso Primary School on Saturday, Kambua told teachers she had opted to retire because she faced a serious challenge—the onerous task of giving her sick husband undivided attention.

Her deputy Onesmus Nzau is the new executive secretary. He won by garnering 254 votes against his sole challenger Kimwele Mwasya's 208. Mwasya had been branch chairman until the polls.

In the 2017 general election, Kambua was the running mate of then-Kitui Governor Julius Malombe. Malombe was outvoted by Narc candidate Charity Ngilu.

On Monday, Kambua said although teachers were eager to reelect her, she told them categorically  that she could not abandon her husband at his hour of great need.

“Unionists are free to ask the TSC to post them back to teach in classrooms whenever they leave union affairs for whatever reason, but as for me, I am not going back to class but will stay with my husband until he heals. I write to the TSC to give me early retirement,” Kambua said.

She termed it evil that some women abandon their husbands to die when they are terminally ill. As for her, she is abandoning everything else to be by her husband's side until he is fit again, Kambua said.