Until September 1999, Joseph Kimani Mwangi was leading a normal life and fending for his family as a barber in Gatundu town. All this changed one day in Nakuru town, when a boda boda he was riding on as a passenger was struck by a car in a hit-and-run accident, damaging his hip joint.
The accident left Mwangi, 52, hospitalised for three years at the Nakuru Provincial General Hospital. His left leg became immobilised since the doctors concentrated on the right leg, where the injuries were more visible.
After visiting various hospitals from Kijabe to Kikuyu, it was at Voi that he was diagnosed with a hip joint problem and a crack. The doctor consulted his colleagues in Britain, who in turn recommended a hospital in Haifa, Israel, with the facilities to treat Mwangi’s condition.
Speaking at his Gatundu home, Mwangi showed the Star a copy of a medical report signed by Barry Varkel, the patient care manager of Shemer Medical Care in Israel. The treatment required Sh1.7 million, including travel and admission expenses.
Mwangi has been living with pain and raising the required amount has been difficult. Two fundraisers have only succeeded in raising Sh31,000. Former Gatundu MP Jossy Ngugi had promised to take care for his treatment before his sudden death in 2014, Mwangi says.
Now the father of eight is so desperate, he is offering to sell one of his kidneys to meet the expenses of replacing the damaged hip joint. “I am ready to offer one of my kidneys to any willing buyer since I have gone through a lot of suffering and I'm forced to rely on well wishers for support,” Mwangi says.
Mwangi’s wife Jacinta Njeri says the family has gone through tough times since the accident. Njeri, a housewife, says she has been had to become the family’s sole breadwinner. Life gets harder when her husband experiences unbearable pain, as the whole family is forced to spend the night at his bedside, comforting and praying for him.
“I was initially reluctant when he disclosed to me his wish to sell one of his body organs but if this will give us relief as a family, then I have no objection,” says Njeri, who has now developed stomach ulcers due to the stress she has gone through for 13 years.
The housewife, who maintains her family through menial jobs in neighbouring farms, says two of her children were forced to drop from school at class six due to the overwhelming burden of maintaining the family and meeting the medical expenses of her husband, who has to attend clinics regularly.