Lecturer’s agony as he narrates how he lost entire family

When college lecturer Joseph Mulinge Itumo woke up on Monday morning, his first thought was that he was in Rome, Italy, for an international forum.

“I thought I had just woken up from a bad dream in which I had lost my dear wife and two children,” he told the Nation on Monday.

But reality dawned on him as scores of friends, relatives and well-wishers streamed to his house to console him after news of the Saturday accident near the Simba cement factory on the Nairobi-Mombasa highway spread like bushfire.

All five occupants in the car belonging to his friend, Mr Fred Kinyamasyo, perished in the head-on collision with an oncoming lorry.

(READ: Lecturer loses wife and two children in accident)

Among them were his wife of 14 years Damaris Nduku, a deputy principal at Kitulu Secondary in Machakos, his children Joy Mumbua, a class eight pupil at Machakos Primary and Victor Mumo, who was in class four at the same school.

Mr Itumo also lost his long time friend, Mr Kinyamasyo, a teacher at Loreto Girls Valley Road in Nairobi, who perished alongside his last child, Abraham.

Mr Kinyamasyo had offered to drive his friend and his family to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport where he was to take a flight to Rome to attend a two-week conference organised by the La Salle universities.

Mr Itumo, who is also the deputy registrar in charge of administration at Christ the Teacher Institute for Education, Tangaza College in Nairobi, was the only delegate from Kenya.

Mr Itumo was excited as this was going to be his first flight out of the country.

“I had taken several goodies that showcase the beauty of Kenya that I was going to give to the other delegates.

“I was so excited and I wanted my family to share every bit of the action,” a tearful Mr Itumo told the Nation in an emotional interview at his house in Nairobi’s Eastleigh Estate.

“I regret why I accepted the trip. If I had known this would happen, I would not have taken it.

“Now I have lost a part of me, my loving wife who I met in 1997 when we were both teaching at Mikuini Secondary; my two beautiful children are also gone just like the wind,” he wept.

The photos he took moments before his family left him at the airport will forever remain his treasured items.

On Monday, he showed the mourners his last moments with his family, explaining every photo.

“See here, my son and daughter appear disinterested, they told me they did not want me to go. In this photo, my wife appears depressed,” he said.

“I told them it was God’s plan that I go; I told them they were with Fred, a good family friend, so they should not worry as I was going for just two weeks. Little did I know that I would never see them again, ever!” Mr Itumo said.

He says it was him who suggested that his family return home early to avoid travelling after dark.

“I had checked in, my passport and visa had been stamped, I was on my way to take my seat when I decided to call my family to tell them my phone will be off.

“This was when the worst happened... a man answered the phone, identified himself as a traffic policeman and the news from the other end was devastating.

“With only 10 minutes before the plane took off, I collected my luggage and disembarked. I came back home. When my wife and children did not welcome me as usual, the reality of the horror started dawning on me,” he said.

It was the same story in Mr Kinyamasyo’s home where his parents, brothers and sisters were mourning a man who had helped them climb the ladder.

Mr Kinyamasyo leaves behind a wife, Ms Anjelina Munini and three children.