Wedding day turns tragic as bride dies after tying the knot

An illustration of a wedding couple. Two families that had gathered for their children’s wedding were left in shock after the bride died just hours after the ceremony. PHOTO / FILE

What you need to know:

  • Woman had taken some anti-biotics to ease discomfort after having lunch at her new home hours after wedding

Two families that had gathered for their children’s wedding were left in shock after the bride died just hours after the ceremony.

Kilifi police boss Grace Kakai said that the bride, Ms Esther Mwenda, died after she was given an antibiotic soon as she finished her first lunch in her new home. She had complained of discomfort after eating the food.

She said officers had launched investigations to establish the cause of her death. At the time of the wedding the bride was in good health, she added.

“We treat this as sudden death and I have instructed officers to take the body to the Kilifi District Hospital mortuary for postmortem before it is released to the family for burial,” Ms Kakai said.

According to Vitengeni councillor Teddy Mwambire, the couple had had a colourful wedding at Saba Saba Church at Madamani in Vitengeni and exchanged vows before Pastor Stephen Luvi.

The couple is said to have gone to the groom’s village at Dege-degu in the same division, where the celebrations were held.

“At the height of the celebrations, soon after she ate lunch, she developed discomfort that led the family to buy medicine from a nearby shop,” Mr Mwambire said.

“The groom (Mr Joseph Sanga) discovered the death at around 6pm when he went to wake her up after she took the drugs,” Mr Mwambire added.

The groom, a farmer, had gone to check on his new bride in the evening when he discovered she was not breathing. He later alerted other relatives before they called in the police.

According to one of her elder brothers, Mr Lawrence Kahindi, the bride had not been in good health for a long time.

He sought the help of area MP Francis Baya after the police were through with the post-mortem examination.