Joseph Nkaissery was generous to a fault: Widow

The widow of Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery on Wednesday revealed the softer side of her husband in her first public address since his sudden demise.

Mrs Hellen Nkaissery, spoke at her Karen residence in Nairobi where she hosted a delegation of top Interior Ministry officials led by PS Karanja Kibicho and police boss Joseph Boinnet  who had visited to condole with the bereaved family.

She spoke of her husband’s generosity which stretched beyond the mighty and the lowly, always extending a helping hand even to people she did not know.

She said her husband was taking care of many people from different areas, some of whom she did not personally recognise.

STUDENTS

One such group is that of students who on Monday arrived at her home to pay tribute to the General as he was commonly referred to.

Mrs Nkaissery said she was surprised by the diversity in the group of visitors who, she said, were equally devastated by her husband’s death.

“I didn’t know who they were and I had never seen them before. I think one is a Sudanese, They were crying uncontrollably.

They said he (Nkaissery) was the one who had been supporting them. He had always been a friend to the mighty and those down there,” she said.

JOKE

She described how her husband would interact with people of all ages. “He would spend time and joke with young herdsmen at home. He was a friend to everybody,” she said.

She also described her husband as a hardworking man who loved his job and had left a mark in the family and country.

His interest in the public service began when he joined the teaching profession and later left to join the military.

Maj-Gen Nkaissery then exited the force, amid pleas from his fellow generals not to do so, and joined the murky world of Kenyan politics.

MOBILISER

It is is believed that Mrs Nkaissery’s influence as a grassroots mobiliser in Kajiado helped her husband clinch the Kajiado Central Parliamentary seat for the first time in the 2002 General Election and retain it twice during the 2007 and 2013 polls. He joined the Cabinet in December 2014.

“He told the generals that he wanted to serve the country in another capacity.

That is how he joined politics where he has now left a record we are so proud of as a family.

The Interior Ministry gave my husband a wonderful opportunity to serve the country,” she said.

“The same way he was to you at work was the same way he was to us as a family.

You are the last family he worked with and he cherished every moment of work; he never tired and always came home with fulfilment in his heart that he was working with a team improving the lives of Kenyans.

“Now that he is not there anymore, I want to say thank you on his behalf from the bottom of my heart,” Mrs Nkaissery said.

And now, her prayer for the country is to get another Interior CS who will continue her husband’s work.

PROTECT COUNTRY

“I pray to God to give us somebody who will passionately protect our country the way he did,” she said.

Mrs Nkaissery also announced that  she is well, referring to reports that she had been admitted to hospital following her husband’s death.

“I am okay, it’s only my back that has a problem but I will be well. The children are okay and we are all standing strong because that is what my husband would want us to do,” she said.

Mr Kibicho said Maj-Gen Nkaissery was at the centre of all the plans being put in place to ensure law and order before, during and after voting on August 8.