Mr Darwin Deleon is mourning the loss of his children. He was married to Ms Wangui Ndirangu and is the father of her first two children, Njeri and Emmanuel, who died in a car accident alongside their brother, Kairo Winkelpleck.
What should a preacher say to console a gathering with blank stares and moist eyes as three children’s coffins lie between the altar and the congregation?
This is the lingering question at the International Christian Centre (ICC) in Nairobi during the final prayer service before the bodies of siblings Njeri Deleon, 16; Emmanuel Deleon, 13; and Kairo Winkelpleck, 6 – who died following a January 4 road accident in Gilgil – are cremated.
Mr Darwin Deleon mourns the loss of his children. He is Ms Wangui’s ex-husband and is the father of her first two children, Njeri and Emmanuel.
It is Friday, January 23. Had all gone to plan, the three children would have been in the United States on this day, telling their friends how “lit” their December-January trip to Kenya was. They were to return to the US on January 7, only for the crash to halt everything.
Going by the photos being beamed on the church screens, they would have had loads of stories to tell their friends in the US, as they had visited various areas in Kenya. Yet, one of their final engagements in Kenya, which was visiting a children’s home in Bungoma that their family supported, ended up becoming their final road trip on the planet.
Wangui Ndirangu (right) with her children Emmanuel, Njeri and Kairo. The four were in a van involved in an accident in Gilgil on January 4, 2026. All the children died following the crash while Ms Ndirangu and her husband, Christopher Winkelpleck, sustained minor injuries.
Weather tools say the temperature around the church is in the region of 20 degrees, but it feels much, much colder. The white coffins, white flowers, black dresses and lost looks lower the temperature to the negatives. This is the chill of death.
10.30am: ICC’s bishop, Dr Gibson Anduvate, pre-empts the feeling in the room.
“When you come into a moment like this, many of us have many questions,” he says. “And we ask why. And we ask how.”
“There are moments that we go through that no human being can understand,” he goes on. “But the thing that you are ready to remember is that when we go through those moments, we have the promise of God that he will never leave us; that he will never forsake us.”
The gathering listens quietly. Ms Wangui Ndirangu, the mother of the three children, sits next to her husband, Mr Christopher Winkelpleck, on the front-most pew, staring in the same direction for long periods.
Family and friends hold a requiem mass for Njeri Deleon, Emmanuel Deleon and Kairu Winkelpleck at the International Christian Centre, Nairobi. They died after an accident on January 4, 2026, in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
She is in black, and you can tell she needs that husband’s arm that keeps wrapping around her. That arm is Mr Winkelpleck’s, and one wonders whether they are flashing back at how they came out with just minor injuries while travelling in the same van that was hit by a trailer, killing the three children.
Also on the front pew is Mr Darwin Deleon, Ms Wangui’s ex-husband, who is the father of her first two children.
Family and friends hold a requiem mass for Njeri Deleon, Emmanuel Deleon and Kairu Winkelpleck at the International Christian Centre, Nairobi. They died after an accident on January 4, 2026, in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
Rev Anduvate preaches on: “It’s immense, the weight of losing one child. And so, to be at a place where we’re looking at [three] children, it puts us in a place where our words seem so small. And it can almost seem like even the words that we speak are swallowed up by this sense of emptiness.”
He picks a verse from here and another from there. He tells of Biblical personalities like Job and David who suffered loss. He explains, pauses, prays.
“I don’t bring the answers that you’re looking for,” Rev Anduvate says. “Maybe even more questions than I have answers. But we come to stand with you. And that is our prayer that this family is going to stand; that beyond this moment of today, this family is going to stand.”
Family and friends hold a requiem mass for Njeri Deleon, Emmanuel Deleon and Kairu Winkelpleck at the International Christian Centre, Nairobi. They died after an accident on January 4, 2026, in Gilgil, Nakuru County. Their bodies were cremated at the Kariokor Hindu Crematorium.
He later says: “As difficult as this season has been, I pray that you look back at this time and you will testify of God’s grace that carried you through this season.”
12pm: Old girls of Kenya High School, where Ms Wangui was once a student, take up to the altar and sing “Goodness of God”. It seems to warm up the room a little.
Soon after, family tributes follow, and the microphone has to cope with the tears and breaking voices of those too overwhelmed to read their speeches.
A lot emerges about the siblings. Kendi Nkatha, speaking on behalf of the cousins, recalls the chats she had with Njeri. She flashes back to the online games played with Kairu and Emmanuel on Roblox.
Their aunts and uncles remember them for “touching us with laughter, smiles, hugs, words of encouragement, and the grace with which you lived your young lives”.
The Deleon family says the three are “angels in heaven” who “touched the hearts of many like only angels can do”.
12.10pm: It is the turn of Ms Wangui to pay tributes to her children, and she amazes the gathering with the fact that she can rise on her feet. Not just that, she can read her tribute without breaking. Mr Winkelpleck stands next to her, just in case.
“If I had known I would lose you all in one day, I would have turned back the clock of time and done a million things differently,” she says before a dead-silent audience. “I would have laughed with you more, listened more. Spend even more time with you. I would have been more careful, more attentive, pushed you more, said ‘I love you’ even more.”
“I’m glad God gave me only joy, laughter and the security of loving you 100 percent, so that when it was time for you to go, I wouldn’t have negotiated, wouldn’t have screamed or written this heartfelt message with tears, just wishing for a time I would see you again and learn to breathe again.
Family and friends hold a requiem mass for Njeri Deleon, Emmanuel Deleon and Kairu Winkelpleck at the International Christian Centre, Nairobi. They died after an accident on January 4, 2026, in Gilgil, Nakuru County. Their bodies were cremated at the Kariokor Hindu Crematorium.
“Your memories hold me up. Your faces, as I knew you. The way you championed me taught me that you came from somewhere made by someone special, because you already knew more than I did.
“If I could turn back the hands of time, I would,” she says.
12.41pm: Body viewing is underway outside the church, and the congregation passes by the three coffins to pay their respects. As the children’s remains lie in their caskets, the horror of the day their lives were snuffed out registers on their still faces. Even with make-up and all the morticians’ best efforts, one can tell the battering their heads suffered on impact. Their caskets are arranged by their order of birth: Njeri first, Emmanuel in the middle and Kairo at the end. Mourners file past; some with flowers, others just lost. Some go to hug the relatives, others just pass by. Some go after the condolences book, and what they write captures their thoughts succinctly.
“May God comfort, strengthen, uphold and restore you and your family. It is well,” one has written.
“In all situations, God remains to be God and we praise his name,” another has scribbled.
Another has simply written: “BE STRONG!”
Then there is another who has jotted: “We shall overcome! We are victorious!”
12.50pm: Mr Deleon simply can’t stand the sight of his daughter in a casket. He cries beside it, inconsolable, then bends to cry. Out comes a sad lamentation of a man torn, a man robbed. He suddenly moves to Emmanuel’s casket, and he simply won’t stop weeping. What will bring him succour? The team behind him watches helplessly. He bows again and cries.
“I’ll miss you,” he mutters at the body of his son amid sobs.
The instruments sound out the hymn “It is Well with My Soul”.
Family and friends hold a requiem mass for Njeri Deleon, Emmanuel Deleon and Kairu Winkelpleck at the International Christian Centre, Nairobi. They died after an accident on January 4, 2026, in Gilgil, Nakuru County. Their bodies will be cremated at the Kariokor Hindu Crematorium.
12.58pm: Mr Winkelpleck and Ms Wangui stand before the shortest casket of the three, the one bearing the remains of Kairo. Mr Winkelpleck is a study in stillness. His gaze is fixed on the boy’s body, perhaps with tonnes of questions crossing his mind. Ms Wangui, who is ahead of him, places her left hand on the coffin as she stares at the boy’s remains, perhaps wondering if her youngest child has been well taken care of even when he was long snatched from her care. Despite her initial stoicism, she can no longer be calm when she finishes viewing the bodies of her three children. She sobs.
Still, the instruments sound out “It is Well”.
1.15pm: Police outriders lead the convoy of three hearses and other vehicles from the ICC on Mombasa Road, with the destination being the Hindu Crematorium. Traffic has been stopped at various intersections to let the vehicles pass.
1.51pm: The body of the first child in the order of cremation is wheeled into the crematorium. Seven minutes later, the chimney above the building roars. No one is ready for this exit. Tears roll.
In that billowy signal, the world bids farewell to Njeri, the girl described as having a gentle way of caring for others and who had grace beyond her years.
Out goes Emmanuel, described as a gifted athlete who played soccer, baseball, American football, and wrestling. His days as a school band player in Iowa are now gone forever.
In that smoke also departs young Kairo, who was just starting primary school in the US and who loved nerf gun battles, hide-and-seek, and anything that brought cheer.
Quite literally, it all goes up in smoke.
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