The man who stayed true to his wife and bed-rode her for 10 years

Wambua and his daughter Patience at their house, holding her mother's potrait

By Simon Ingari
Simoningari7@gmail.com

In 2001 a confident Stanislaus Wambua met a fine-looking Esther Munzi at a friend’s house.

They then became close friends, a chance that Wambua would later use to pop the question to her in 2002. He opened his heart; and told her that he wanted to lock their hearts together and throw the keys in a bottomless pit.

Nonetheless, what Wambua didn’t know was that he would take the untrodden path if he had to walk the love of his life down the aisle and rediscover himself in many ways he had never before anticipated.

After a customary engagement as dictated by the tradition, the lovebirds decided to settle together in 2005, Nairobi city.

“We had our first born on May 7th, 2005 and we were all overwhelmed by the baby,” Wambua says.

Patience Nthenya, the baby was christened, the only kid Wambua will ever have with Esther as fate will have it.

“It was barely one and a half months since the delivery when I received a distress call from a neighbour on June 15th, 2005 informing that my wife had developed a complication and had been rushed at Kenyatta National Hospital,” Wambua says.

The concerned husband who works at an insurance firm, phoned his brother to accompany him at the Kenyatta National Hospital.

Esther was treated of a mere fever and discharged immediately from the hospital, with prescribed medicines from the doctor which she was required to take so as to ease her fever in a few days.

But the fever wouldn’t succumb to the medicines; she was again rushed to the hospital for the second time. 

Wambua with his wife Esther at home in Umoja estate

“The doctor said that she had developed an infection that was undermining her nervous system,” Wambua explains saying that as a result, his beloved wife went into a coma a few days later.

Fortunately she came out of the coma, but she couldn’t speak nor walk as usual.

Her condition further got worse even after being admitted for four and a half months at the same medical facility. The doctors’ prowess proved nothing, he says.

In that admission period, Esther would undergo through a sequence of unbearable medical prescription where she was poked with needles, pumped with toxins and put through whirling medical examinations.

As the wedding time ticked closer, Wambua got even more vexed especially when he remembered his promise to her.

“But I was lucky because we had planned everything about our wedding before she got sick, we only needed to kick off,” Wambua states.

“I thus planned to wed her when she regains the very little strength that could enable her speak and write,” he says.

The little conscience would enable her make her vow and sign the marriage certificate as a testimony. Wambua was convinced beyond doubt that Esther would have done the same if he was the one crawling on the bed.

The curtain rolled down on June 28th, 2005 and the duos were pronounced Mr. and Mrs. Wambua by Father John Kariba.

It was not your normal wedding however, that would be characterized with an expensive ring with the best gown in a deluxe environment.

“I only had a budget of sh. 40 for our wedding that was meant for two rings that cost sh. 20 each,” says Wambua.

He says that perhaps it was the cheapest wedding that the land will ever host though with a great value of love.

The knot that had been tied in the hospital had made Wambua’s heart pump with her love even more than before.

“I had just done nothing but fulfilled a promise I had made to her, I couldn’t afford to disappoint her because she had yearned for this day so much,” he says.

At home, Wambua was not resting either since a cloud of teething problems had engulfed his house.

“It wasn’t easy for me to look after one-and-half month baby, go to work and check on my wife in the hospital, but I tried my best that I could,” Wambua says.

He felt a weight lifted from his shoulder when his relative, Eunice Ndunge chipped in to help while he was at work. Eunice could stay with the baby as he attended to other duties.

Three months after wedding had barely gone than the doctor who had been treating Esther phoned Wambua again.

As he made his way to the hospital to see the doctor, a couple of negative premonitions couldn’t stop crisscrossing his mind.

“The doctor told me that Esther had paraplegia which was as a result of post-meningitis which he explained that it was a brain disorder that was complex to treat,” he says.

Wambua was thus advised to take his wife home by the doctor since her new condition was seemly untreatable.

“The doctor further advised me to take my wife home so as to save hospital bills and let the daughter also have Esther’s time,” he says.

The doctor was just hiding the worst news in his filibuster, as Wambua explains; he was silently shouting that Esther was going to die.

Esther Munzi

Esther –a skilled in beauty and hairdresser therapist-wasn’t going to return to her previous work she had left before giving birth. It also meant that Patience will never get her motherly care. Something that unwavering and buoyant Wambua couldn’t let it go down just like that.

Wambua took her home yet he couldn’t give up, he kept praying for her and doing all the best he could.

Days graduated into months which ushered in years, and with time, he had mustered and reorganized himself in a way that he could attend to his job, his daughter Patience and Esther.

“I usually woke up at 4:30 am so as to clean the house, prepare the breakfast, prepare Patience and take her to school before preparing myself for work.” he says.

Wambua also notes that he also had to clean his wife which involved washing-and-dressing her up and changing her diapers because her lower muscles had become uncontrollable.

“I would also leave at my work earlier to pick Patience from school, clean my wife and take her outside for fresh air then prepare our supper,” he says.

He employed house helps but they took to their heels once they couldn’t bare the process.

He cites an incidence where his new house help took off the very morning she had reported to work on the first day after discovering what was happening in the house.

He had gone for something at a nearby shop but only to discover that the house help had followed him incognito and taken off.

“Some house helps would frustrate my wife something I learnt from Esther’s reaction towards them, she could refuse taking their food or their services which was her only means of communication,” he says.

Wambua remained hopeful and faithful to his wife and did everything that he too, would have expected from Esther if he was the one in Esther’s shoes.

For ten years, he had bedridden his wife with unending love and passion that wasn’t relenting. His social life had observably changed.

Money-hunting cronies had sub-merged long before he could imagine; some of them were quick to tell him that he should take his wife back to their parents and end the marriage.

He only gave them cold feet and rather paid attention to those who could assist him in whichever way possible.

Others would advise him to try sorcerers’ power where science has failed.

Unlike before, he could no longer hang out with friends or even go away for more than a day; the time would rather be compensated to Patience who lacked her motherly care at the moment.

“I would visit my upcountry for a single day and come back the following day after inspecting my garden,” he explains.

“I would have left someone to take care of my wife and daughter before dashing back quickly,” he says citing an example of Daniel Maluta, his nephew who has been of worthwhile help to him.

Daniel would carry his wife in and out for some fresh air, feed her and keep an eye on her while he was at work.

In late 2007, Wambua afforded a smile when Esther seemed to respond to medicines; Esther could eat, talk and walk with the aid of clutches. It made Wambua limb with joy but that joy only lasted for a few months before her condition began deteriorating again.

“I wish you could have seen how I was happy,” Wambua says with a smile playing on his lips.

One of the biting problems as a result of Esther’s strange disease is that it has left Wambua a financially handicapped man.

For instance, a physiotherapist would visit once every two weeks and would cost Wambua sh. 1000 out of his pocket but later he would use sh.5000 to take her at Kenyatta National Hospital for therapy instead when the physiotherapist stopped coming at the house.

He also had to get her diapers which cost Wambua sh. 1,400 after every three days.

Last year 2013 in June, Wambua says that Esther was diagnosed with myelytis which the doctor explained to him that it was a neurological disorder caused by inflammation on the sides of the spinal cord.

It therefore required an operation that would cost sh. 2.5 million; money that was only a pipe dream at that time.

Wambua couldn’t stop fighting, he went on to raise amount in vain, the small donations he got wasn’t even enough for her upkeep.

On November 28th, 2014, was not like any other day she was being taken for a checkup at Kenyatta National Hospital. Wambua had noted enough convincing evidence.

Her serious condition than before had betrayed her that she wasn’t this round coming out of the bed, Wambua says that he had even prayed for her for a safe journey just in case.

“I knew that she needed a rest because being on a hospital bed for ten years was too tiring for her,” Wambua says.

On the day, she had drunk a huge unusual volume of yoghurt and porridge, something that was very unusual.

The very day, Patience had run to her and whispered a secret to her, and because of time, she was pulled away by an attendant who was on duty.

Then came on the Tuesday of December 2, 2014, when he received a call from the hospital. He says that he was ordered to rush to the hospital immediately.

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong on that morning,” Wambua says trying to fight back tears.

Walking to the hospital was the longest journey he took from his house in Umoja estate to Kenyatta, the journey that was punctuated with traffic mayhems.

Though this was one of his worst expectations; the news of his wife’s death cut through his heart like a hot knife through butter.

He just imagined how Esther had fought gallantly alone on the deathbed when the doctors had become helpless flies climbing across the granite face of death.

“End of marriage is not getting children but a completion of one another,” Wambua concludes the interview with his wise lesson.

Can you help Wambua settle his hospital bill and debts that amounts to about sh. 500,000? You can reach him through his email – dailycount99@gmail.com

What is your comment and reaction on this story? share with us.