As many Kenyans continue to have their daily bread, a mother in Kisauni, Mombasa County was on Tuesday, April 28, forced to boil stones for her children after enduring days of hunger.
The mother of eight says that she boiled the stones to cheat her children that food was cooking for them to fall asleep.
Peninah Kitao who is a widow, blamed the tough economic times for the woes that she is going through and is calling on well-wishers to assist her. According to Peninah’s neighbour, Prisca Nyakaragio, she heard cries in her neighbour’s house and rushed to check on the matter, only to find that she had boiled stones.
”After hearing cries, I rushed to my neighbour’s house and found her seated. I found a cooking pot on the ground covered but it had no food and asked them if they had eaten, to which she answered no and told me that her children are crying due to hunger.
”She informed me that on Tuesday, April 28, she was forced to boil stones to try and trick her children that food was cooking in order for them to fall asleep.
Peninah says that she was left widowed after thieves attacked and killed her husband in 2019 when she was two months pregnant with her last child.
The situation forced her to start washing clothes to earn a living but everything changed when the first case of Coronavirus was announced in the country.
A well-wisher on social media highlighted Peninah’s plight with the aim of finding someone to help her survive the tough times that she is going through.
”When I saw what she was going through, I got touched since am also a mother and felt the pain she was going through. I chose to look for help,” said the well-wisher.
Peninah is amongst the families in Mombasa that have been earmarked to receive food distribution from the county government of Mombasa, which is part of Governor Ali Hassan Joho’s plan to help in mitigating effects of covid-19.
Peninah’s highlights a situation that many families are going through during these times of the Coronavirus pandemic.
