Joyce Ong'ombe, who is undergoing treatment at the Fortis Hospital in Delhi, India. Joyce sustained burns after a boiler exploded at a short-stay apartment in Mombasa on December 31, 2024. Her daughter Georgina succumbed to burns on January 14, 2025.
Social media has been both a source of support and, sadly, cruelty for Joyce Ong’ombe — a mother now fighting for her life in a hospital bed in India after enduring unimaginable loss.
Joyce, who has lost her entire family in two separate tragic accidents over 14 years, has seen encouraging messages drowned out by hurtful and insensitive comments online. Still, from her hospital bed in New Delhi, India, she remains unwavering in her faith — drawing strength from scripture and the belief that even in suffering, God’s purpose prevails.
“[I’m still] thanking God despite the several challenges,” she told Nation in her first interview since being hospitalised.
For starters, Joyce is the woman who lost her 32-year-old husband, George Ong’ombe, in 2010 alongside two of their children—an eight-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. The three were in a car that was washed away by flash floods in Suswa, only to be found days later.
With those deaths, Joyce was left with Georgina, the lastborn in the family, who was just months old. She raised her single-handedly.
However, Georgina also died young. As she and her mother were in a short-stay apartment in Mombasa while on holiday on December 31, 2024, a kitchen boiler exploded, leaving them with severe burns as hot water and steam splashed on their bodies.
Joyce Ong’ombe (left), a patient who is currently admitted at Kenyatta National Hospital, with her daughter Georgina Ooko, who died on January 14, 2025. The two suffered burns when a boiler exploded on in a Mombasa apartment they were staying in while on vacation. Pool
The mother sustained 45 percent burns while the daughter had 65 percent. They were urgently airlifted to the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), where a doctor explained to the Nation that a one percent burn covers roughly the size of your palm on the skin.
On the morning of January 14, Georgina – who was a Form Three student at Alliance – died at the KNH, leaving her mother fighting for her life.
Georgina was buried at their Migori County home on April 17, joining her father and siblings in their eternal slumber.
Joyce has since been flown to India for advanced care after spending months at KNH. When she spoke with Nation on Sunday, she sounded feeble yet upbeat.
Keeping hope alive
“We are still grafting, waiting for other parts of the body to get the skin that can again be removed [to be patched to the burnt area],” she said.
Asked how soon she may complete her treatment, she replied: “With the wounds, it is not so easy to be very definite with the timings…You can see a wound that is already doing well, but the following day, when you open it, it has an infection. It, therefore, means that you have to start all over again. But despite all this, they are optimistic that in the next month, we can be out of this place.”
She said her life for the last half a year has been about pain and more pain.
“Pain is part and parcel of the journey. It’s only managed by painkillers,” she noted, adding that she gets to confront the actual pain that is within her body when the painkillers wane before the time for the next dose comes.
“There are periods when a painkiller is expected to be taken. At times, you start feeling the pain before that particular period ends,” said Joyce.
A maths and accounting teacher who had transitioned into the clothes business by the time of the accident, Joyce is a deaconess at the Lavington station of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church.
“The church has been a home to me since 2010, when I joined,” she said. “It has been a second home to me.”
Due to her faith, she is not fazed by the tragedies that have befallen her.
“There was this blind man whom Jesus made to see again. Then the disciples were like, ‘Why was this man born blind? Was it because of the sins of the [parents]?’ What really [heals] my heart is the answer that Jesus gave: that this man was born blind so that the word of God could be manifested,” she said.
She went on: “Many are the times when things happen to you, and people look at why they’re happening. But they don’t have this other version, which says that they happen just that by the time you become victorious, the word of God can be manifested to many, and more people can come to know about God. Especially when they happen to you, and you continue just trusting in God, even if you are just trusting stupidly, at the end of it all, the name of the Lord is being glorified.”
She also said that she draws inspiration from the book of Job, the man who lost everything but was later restored by God.
“Job said that naked he came from the mother’s womb and naked he shall go back. God gave, and God took. Let his name be praised,” said the patient.
Joyce also gets inspiration from the words written by Paul in the book of Romans, which asks: “Who can separate us from the love of God?”
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“So, who can separate us from the love of God? So me, I would say: is it my burnt legs? Is it my burnt hands? Is it every part of my body where the skin has been harvested to take care of the burnt parts? Is it the lack of finances to complete the treatment that will separate me from the love of God? I would say no; none of these,” she said.
By the time we were having the interview, the Sh13.7 million that Kenyans had raised towards their treatment was running out. The money was raised due to efforts by Alliance and Asumbi Girls alumni, the Lavington SDA church, fellow traders at Gikomba market, and the online community at large.
According to Mr Ben Omollo, an elder at the Lavington church who is in the committee marshalling resources for Joyce’s treatment, the medication has not been cheap.
“Previously, we raised a total of Sh13.7 million. Initially, they were both in the hospital – both Joyce and Georgina – and then we lost Georgina on January 14. Joyce has continued to be treated. By the time she was transferred to Fortis Hospital in India, nearly Sh8.2 million had been utilised in Kenya, both for direct medical costs and auxiliary costs: the medical supplies, among others. Then it was decided by the family and friends, the church and herself that she be transferred to India to continue medication and treatment. We have so far spent about Sh5.5 million [in India]. So, if you put that together, the entire amount of Sh13.7 is nearly used up,” he said.
The church and the alumni groupings are organising a fundraiser on Thursday (June 5) at the Nairobi Central SDA Church.
“We are estimating that the next treatment regime may cost upwards of Sh6.5 to Sh7 million,” said Mr Omollo.
Ms Marren Anot, who was Joyce’s schoolmate at Asumbi Girls, is also among those involved in the fund drive.
“Joyce has been part of the Asumbi Girls fraternity ever since our paths connected in 1993. She’s been a strong part of the Asumbi Girls community, so we are with her. We continue to hold her hand,” she said. “We are doing all we can to see that Joyce gets the best treatment and comes back home.”
When asked to compare the burns management abilities in Kenya and India, Joyce noted that whereas the KNH medics did their best to treat her, the medics-to-patient ratio in Kenya is a source of concern.
“The greatest challenge is the nurse-patient ratio. The nurses [in Kenya] are fewer compared to the number of patients,” she said. “You may have a challenge, probably you’re in pain, and you need a nurse, but the nurse is not coming; not because the nurse doesn’t want to come, but because the nurse is engaged with another patient.”
Joyce takes her pain in her stride, her air-conditioned room helping keep her body warm enough as her skin cannot cope with temperature fluctuations in its current state. As she takes one dose after another and undergoes one operation after the next, she is still prayerful.
What does she tell God when she prays? We asked.
“At times, I’m in pain such that I won’t even pray. But when I pray, I just ask God to heal me...and come through even to other people who are even in worse situations than myself,” she said.
“Even if I’m lying in deep pain, I hold onto God’s words that he has given unto us through the Bible that whatever happens, he’s still my God; he’s still my provider, He knows about my life. He knows when it began, and he knows when it will end. Before his time, it will not end. And for that reason, he’ll do miracles for me,” she added.
To contribute to her treatment via M-Pesa, one can use the PayBill number 5480284, with the sender’s name as the account number.
