Agony as polls official awaits probe results into wife death

Two children left behind by their mother play around the compound oblivious of the fact that she is no longer their to look after them.

It will be sometime before their sibling, who is in intensive care at Nairobi Hospital, comes home to join the rest of the family.

Their mother died during delivery of this third child at the Family Care Maternity home in Nairobi’s Lang’ata Road.

The house teemed with mourners. Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission chairman Issack Hassan, chief executive James Oswago and several polls officials, colleagues of Mr Thomas Letangule, visited him at his home in Nairobi’s Uhuru Gardens Estate to console him following the death of his wife.

Mr Hassan appointed two commissioners to a committee that will assist the family to pursue justice and also work with a team preparing for the burial, set for Saturday at the family’s farm in Kabarak, Nakuru County.

Mrs Esther Letangule’s death has made headlines and is now the subject of an inquiry by the Medical Practitioners and Dentists Board to ascertain whether there was negligence on the part of doctors who cared for her at the hospital.

Mrs Letangule had popped into the hospital after dropping one of her children at school, apparently for a routine check-up but she was to die under unclear circumstances, Mr Letangule said.

“They did not inform me of the medical procedure they carried out on her from 8pm until 4am when they informed me of her death. It appears they made the decision on behalf of the family,” he said.

The family now awaits a postmortem report to be conducted on Monday which might shed light on the death of their loved one, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time.

Mr Letangule spoke of fondly of his wife, saying he had intended to help her start a greenhouse project at their Kabarak Farm.

“I bought the land and built a home for my mother but at the back of mind, I knew I would help her establish a greenhouse,” he said.

Mr Letangule showed journalist a picture of Esther with her two children and smiling broadly.

At the maternity home, chief executive Edward Marienga and other doctors were putting together their defence but declined to divulge the finer details as the matter is the subject of an investigation by the medical board and the police.

The hospital management promised to make public the findings of the investigations, after consulting the family, once the report was out.

“Representatives of the medical board came here at nine and demanded that we give them a report on the details of the case and what transpired during our contact with the patient,” said Dr Marienga in his office, only a few yards from the Letangules’ home.

The hospital boss said Mrs Letangule had delivered her other two babies at the hospital without complications, and defended the conduct of his of doctors.

He said they were always at hand to assist the patient, a claim the family has said is untrue.