Widow: I can no longer afford a smile

Her single room in Kangemi is plastered with his photos and those of their three daughters. In one of them is Linet Moraa, standing next to her husband Kennedy Mogaka Mochere, smiling from ear to ear.

Now, Linet considers a smile an unaffordable accessory after merchants of death robbed her of the love of her life.: her husband of 13 years who worked at Nakumatt Supermarket was among those killed in the Westgate attack.

“I feel like I have lived for over 10 years in this pain. It has been tough. I am broken and I don’t know how my daughters will go to school next year.”

Widowed at 33 with three young girls, Abigail, 10, Beatrice, 8, and Gabriella, 3, to take care of, while jobless, Linet feels she was abandoned in her time of need.

“Nakumatt has never contacted me even to know how I am faring. I asked if I could replace my husband so that at least I would support my children but they have been quiet …” she says as tears well up in her eyes.

Eight-year-old Beatrice walked in as her mother was weeping and quickly went away. “I need over Sh35,000 every term for school fees. They ask for money for trips, and I always tell them ‘No’. Not because I do not want them to enjoy like other children, but I cannot afford it.”

She says she has been sustained by some money given to her by Red Cross but this tap is about to run dry. “I am not sure if they will go to school. I invested in a small vegetable kiosk but even that barely sustains us.”