Woman loses eye to tumour, can't afford school fees

When Eunice Katiwa’s right eye started aching in 2018, it was  excruciating.

However, in 2020 when it was discovered the pain was not from her eye, she wished that it were.

“When you have pain at a specific place, you have hope of recovery. There is so little to hold onto when groping in the dark, feeling pain everywhere,” she said.

Katiwa was diagnosed with meningioma, a tumour that grows from the brain. She needs surgery to remove it.

Though the 37-year-old mother has been trying to get bed space at Kenyatta National Hospital, she cannot afford it.

At the heart of Mathare slums, past open sewers, a dingy street leads to a dimly lit apartment where Katiwa and her family live.

Inside a neatly arranged single room, Katiwa sat on the bed separated from the living area by a curtain. One wooden chair dominated the room.

At a corner in the living room stands a blue metal box. On top are medicine packets and a few papers.

“Just when I was about to lose hope, you came. The pain in my body makes me immobile and my family watches me with pessimism. It’s difficult to remain hopeful," Katiwa told the Star.

For three years, Katiwa has been getting treatment for the eye before the doctors found out what had been causing the  pains.

The tumour has  been growing, causing her to lose her right eye.

“I have been feeling so much pain in my eyes. It kept getting worse so I sought treatment but nothing changed,” she said.

Katiwa said her condition started with constant headaches before the excruciating pain in the eye set in.

It was the pain in the eye that started her numerous trips to different hospitals but her condition only worsened.

It was at the Lions Eye Hospital where doctors sent her to KNH for a CT scan.

“I went to a number of hospitals before I was eventually referred to Kenyatta National Hospital, which found out I had a tumour,”  Katiwa said.

“It showed I had a growth in my brain," she said.

“My eye was now swollen and started popping outwards. Eventually, the right eyesight was gone,” she said.

To raise money for the tests, Katiwa who stays with her two daughters in Mathare, appealed to her church which funded the scan, medication and bus fare.

For close to a year, Katiwa has been visiting the hospital, hoping to be admitted and commence treatment.

"I go to the clinics monthly and every time the doctors give me drugs to ease my pain. I survive on the drugs which are too expensive and most of the time, I am not able to afford them so  I constantly live in pain,” she said.

Katiwa had been the sole breadwinner for her family, doing odd jobs. She couldn't continue.

Her first-born daughter was forced to drop out of Form 3 due to lack of school fees. She has since taken up her mother’s position, doing laundry and general cleaning for people to eke out a living.

“Before, I was able work for people to pay my Sh3,000 rent and pay school fees for my daughter, about Sh15,000 monthly. With one eye and constant pain, I can barely do my own things,” she said tearfully.

Katiwa’s 20-year-old daughter Irine Mbula scored 337 marks in the KCPE examination in 2015 but due to financial problems, she was taken to a secondary school in Huruma.

She  had to drop out in 2019 for lack of fees.

Her younger sister scored 311 marks in the 2020 KCPE exam but is yet to join any school.“I definitely cannot afford to take her to school," Katiwa said.

We are waiting for a miracle. They both love school and have been performing well. I hope one day, they get to finish,” their mother said.

After separating from her husband, Katiwa moved to Nairobi with her two daughters.

"I took up odd jobs, especially around Eastleigh, and for a while, I was managing just fine. This disease came in to break everything I have worked so hard to build," she said.

Katiwa said sometimes the whole right side of her body feels numb. She cannot get around on her own after losing sight in one eye.

“I can only move around here but where there’s so much human or car traffic, I have to be helped,” she said.

Going back to her village is not an option as her mother and father have died. 

“There’s no one at my home who can help me. Only my brother was left at home but he is struggling financially and will not be able to support me,” she said.

Katiwa also said in order to get treatment at KNH, she needs to stay in the city.

The family is appealing to well-wishers to help them raise the money for her surgery or to send her daughters to school.

(Edited by V. Graham)