• County to build decent house for the family, employ widower, provide milk for the remaining three children
• Namukhula's NHIF cover extended to her widower
The Kakamega county government of Kakamega has taken over the funeral arrangements of the 28-year old woman who gave birth to quintuplets a month ago.
Two of the babies died; the other three are doing well. There are four other children and a widower at home.
The county government will pay the hospital and mortuary bills of Everlyne Namkhula, including transportation of her body from the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret to her Sisokhe home for burial.
Governor Wycliffe Oparanya said his government will proceed with earlier arrangements to support the family after the birth of the quintuplets made headlines. They were born on March 12 at the Kakamega Referral Hospital on March 12.
“We are thinking of identifying an organisation that can take care of the children because the father is deaf and jobless while the grandmother is too old for the task,” Oparanya said.
The county government committed to meet the cost of milk for the children for one and a half years, build a decent house for the family and enrol the mother in Oparanyacare to get a stipend of Sh 5,000 monthly until the children reach 18 months of age.
The county will also offer a job to the widower, Herbert Wawire, under the County Youth Service (Kazi Mashinani) programme. He will earn Sh8,000 per month.
Namukhula died on Sunday after she complained of chest pains. Doctors said she had a swollen heart and died while being taken to the ICU.
She and the babies were admitted to Moi Referral Hospital on March 12.
Namukhula, from Sisokhe village in Navakholo subcounty, gave birth to three girls and two boys through Caesarean section.
Doctors had said the children needed to undergo what is known as zipap in medical terms to improve which is the improvement of circulation of oxygen in their bodies.
County health executive Rachael Okumu said the three remaining children will be taken back to KRH to ease access by the father and other family members.
“We are of the feeling that now that the remaining children are out of danger they should be brought closer to the family members because Eldoret is far away considering their financial status,” she said.
Okumu said the county government had already enrolled the Namukhula in NHIF. The registration will be transferred to Wawire.
Yesterday, Oparanya said a pay bill number had been created and linked to an account opened for her husband for well-wishers to contribute for the family support. The pay bill number is 453739.
He said the Building Bridges Task Force had contributed Sh43,000.
Oparanya asked communities within Western to discard outdated traditional practices that do not benefit the community.
There has been controversy after a section of elders from her community indicated that two of her five children had to be killed so that the three could live.