Children of the late President Mwai Kibaki’s sister Esther Waitherero, who died on Thursday aged 115, have attributed her long life to eating traditional food.
Her eldest son John Macharia describes her mother as an industrious woman who worked round the clock to raise seven children single-handedly after her husband's death in 1952.
"She would sell tobacco to place food on the table, and despite the challenges she faced, she managed to put us in school. We are what we are because of her," Macharia said.
He added that the mother preferred traditional food to modern-day delicacies throughout her entire life.
“My mother always liked to feed on traditional food and vegetables. She particularly liked to eat cassava and arrow roots, among others,” Macharia told Nation in an interview at their home on Thursday.
“She has never complained of any serious disease despite her advanced age. We believe this is why she has lived that long.”
Her other son Boniface Githinji revealed that Waitherero’s lowest moment, according to the family, was when she was informed about the death of his brother, President Kibaki.
“From that time, her health started deteriorating. It seems his brother’s death affected her," Githinji said.
"She was being treated at home after doctors recommended that she be taken care of at home instead of being admitted to hospital,”
She died three months after his youngest brother, the late President Kibaki, was laid to rest. Kibaki died aged 91.
Waitherero was just three years shy of catching up with the oldest living female person, according to the Guinness World Records, Ms Lucile Randon, who is said to have been born in France on February 11, 1904, now aged 118 years.
