On March 30, 2025, Felista Njeri spoke to the Daily Nation about the unbearable loss that had turned her life upside down.
She had lost her husband, her three children and two brothers-in-law in a road crash along the Mai-Mahiu–Naivasha highway. A young boy who belonged to the family’s farmhand had also died in the accident.
She was referring to her husband Francis Muturi, their children Fidelis Waithera, Catherine Wanjiru and Vitalis James Kirubi and Muturi’s brothers Peter Kirubi and George Ngugi. Also among the dead was Limwell Munyaka, the young son of Hannah Wanjiku, a farmhand who had worked for the family for eight years.
“My womb has been taken away, my husband who was providing for us is gone, my three children have also died and my two brothers-in-law died a few days ago in an accident. How can you explain that and where do you even start to explain?” Ms Njeri questioned.
The seven had been travelling from Nakuru to Naivasha to console a family member who had lost a relative when their vehicle was involved in a head-on collision along the Mai-Mahiu–Naivasha road.
As she recounted the tragedy, Ms Njeri broke down in the middle of the interview and had to be rushed to a nearby dispensary.
Her grief was compounded by a painful thought that she was supposed to have been in the ill-fated vehicle.
She had given up her space at the last minute, a decision that saved her life but left her carrying the anguish of being the one who survived.
“I wish I was in that vehicle. The pain is too much to bear and I have been left alone and I feel lost and depressed,” she said in a low voice.
She was buried on Wednesday, just 17 months after she stood at the graves of the six members of her family and her friend’s son.
Family and friends say the loss devastated her and believe the grief took a heavy toll on her health, as she battled depression and cancer before her death earlier this month.
Limwel Munyaka, the farmhand's son who had accompanied the family of Francis Muturi when the accident happened. Also pictured are Muturi’s brothers George Ngugi and Peter Kirubi who perished in the fatal road crash of March 2025.
Photo credit: Pool | Nation
“The death of the six family members took a toll on her. She was devastated and, since the burial of her husband and children, her health deteriorated. Sadly, she passed away early September,” Agnes Wanjiku, a family friend, told the Daily Nation.
Ms Njeri’s death has reopened the wounds of a family that had barely begun to come to terms with the March 2025 tragedy.
The family lived in Kamirithu, Limuru, Kiambu County, where the six family members had been part of the fabric of everyday life.
When they died in the crash, Fidelis Waithera was a Form Two student at Uthiru Girls Secondary School. Catherine Wanjiru was a Grade Seven pupil at Rock Preparatory School, while her younger brother, Vitalis James Kirubi, was in Grade Two at the same school.
Limwell Munyaka, the son of Ms Wanjiku, was a playgroup pupil at a nearby school.
For Ms Wanjiku, the memory of the day her son died remains painfully vivid.
March 30, 2025 had started like any other Sunday. The family expected a routine journey to Naivasha to visit someone who had lost a relative.
Mr Muturi had told Ms Wanjiku that they would be travelling and wanted her son to accompany them rather than remain at home alone.
Later came the devastating news that the vehicle had crashed and that Limwell was among those killed.
“I feel completely crushed. He left here a happy child and he was in a jovial mood, only for me to learn that he was no more,” Ms Wanjiku said.
She spoke while accompanied by her other two children, the three of them seemingly struggling to comprehend how quickly their lives had changed.
The tragedy also left the surviving members of the Kirubi family confronting the cruel randomness of survival.
Esther Wambui Kirubi, a sister of Mr Muturi, was among those who had travelled in the Toyota Prado on the fateful day.
They had left Limuru in the morning. But as they prepared to return, something made her decide to stay behind.
Had she returned with her brothers and the children, she believes she too would have been among those being mourned.
“I am lucky to be alive,” she said.
She lost her brothers, her nephew and nieces as well as Limwell, the son of a farmhand who had become part of the family’s daily life.
“My brothers were very friendly, including my nephew and nieces. Not forgetting Limwell Munyaka, the deceased son of a farmhand working for the family. He was very jovial,” Ms Kirubi said remembering learning of the deaths through social media.
