Another Kenyan Mother in Boston Succumbs to Cancer

The late Mercy Gicheru of Malden, MA

by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted December 17, 2010

MALDEN, MA_A day before the eve of the burial of a Kenyan mother in Nashua New Hampshire that will take place today after suffering from the relentless cancer disease that has been claiming the lives of many Kenyans in the Diaspora, another Kenyan woman passed away in Boston after a long battle with lung cancer.

Mercy Gicheru, 50, passed away on Wednesday December 15 at 7pm at the Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass.General) after bravely fighting the disease for a lengthy period of time.

She leaves behind a son, 3 sisters, two brothers and her mother, all who reside in Kenya. The late Gicheru also has two nephews, Anthony Gicheru and Robinson Gicheru both of Nashua, New Hampshire and a niece, Caroline Mungai of Lowell.

Friends and relatives will be meeting daily at her residence at1042 Main Street Apt. 1, Malden MA for prayers and funeral planning, from 6pm-8pm. (Get directions)

According to Bishop Joshua Wambua of the Rapture Harvest Mission International church (RHMI), a fundraiser to help repatriate the body  of the deceased back to Kenya  has been planned to take place on Sunday December 26,2010, the day after the Christmas holiday at 3pm.(Get directions)

It will be held at the  RHMI church located at 33 West Water street  Wakefield, Ma, 01880.

During a  wake service for the burial of the late Teresia  Wambui Wa-Nguyaii, another Kenyan mother of one who passed away last week, that was   held yesterday in Nashua New Hampshire, Bishop Wambua appealed to Kenyans not to cease from doing good and come up in big numbers for this next burial fund raising.

“We are saddened by the passing away of another of our dear sisters, Mercy Gicheru at the Mass. General hospital in Boston yesterday”.
 
 "We are appealing for help from the Kenyan community to help with funds to repatriate her body back to Kenya according to the wishes of her family”, he told the mourners congregated at the Davis Funeral home.

 Bishop Wambua’s call was repeated by Rev. Samuel Kimohu of Saint Stephens’s church who   conducted the wake service.

 “Kenyans are always good people. When things like these happen, we will always stand together”.

 He promised Bishop Wambua and the family of the late Gicheru of the support of the Kenyan community to raise the necessary funds for the burial.

One of Gicherus’s elder sisters, Sarah Muchene had recently arrived in the USA from Kenya late last month to take care of her ailing sister after she was informed of her worsening condition.

 “As a family, we were very saddened by the death of our sister ”, Muchene told Ajabu Africa News.

 She added that the death was more painful especially because they lost another of their sister in 2001 after she was found dead weeks after she was reported missing in Wichita, Kansas.The late Mercy Gicheru was living with her sister at that time before relocating to Boston after her death.

 According to Muchene, their sister’s mysterious death has never been resolved and they still do not know the cause.

She also said that the family was hit hard last month as another younger sister to the late Mercy passed away on November 14th, and that the news may have  hit the elder sister hard, making her condition to deteriorate rapidly.

  “It has been tough for our family lately”, said the devastated elder sister. We don’t know what to do and we hope the Kenyan community in Boston can help us repatriate the body back home”.

The late Gicheru hails from Uthiru village in Dagoretti, a suburb of Nairobi, Kenya.

She immigrated to the USA in 2000 and lived in Newark New Jersey before joining her late sister in Kansas in 2001.

After the death of her sister, the late Gicheru moved to Boston where she was living with a roommate.

She was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 and has persevered many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment until her condition turned for the worse.

 She was admitted to the Mass. General Hospital in Boston on November 12 this year where she has been in critical condition until the time of her passing, with her niece, Caroline Mungai, at her bedside.

 “We had visited my sister together with our niece Caroline on Wednesday evening when her doctor called me into his office. When I returned to her room, she had already passed away”, said Gicheru's sister, Muchene.

The late Mercy Gicheru in her car during happier times

Kenyans have once again been called upon to stand with the late Gicherus's suffering family and help them raise the necessary funds even as community organizers continue discussions into coming together and finally starting a low cost benevolent fund to take care of those who may pass away before securing a life insurance policy.

A meeting to discuss the issue has been scheduled to take place this Sunday at the best Western Hotel in Woburn, Mass. starting 2.30 pm.

Various community leaders have indicated willingness to attend the meeting to display unity and come up with a workable solution that is acceptable to the majority of Kenyans.

A significant number of Kenyans in New England for severe health related problems or other reasons, may not qualify for the widely available cheap term life insurance offered by many life insurance companies in America.

Such polices go for as low as $12 a month for a young healthy  adult of about 30 years old, providing a death benefit of about $100,000 for a term (period) of 30 years.Some of such policies guarantee the return of the contributed funds (premuim) if a person does not die within the period covered.

 “We are interested in working together with the Kenyans who will meet on Sunday and look at the solution that they will discuss so that we can agree on the best way forward”, said Bishop David Karaya, chairman of the Kenya Pastor’s Fellowship during an interview with Ajabu Africa News at the wake service of the late Wa-Nguyaii.

 Bishop Karaya added that the cheap term life insurance launched last Sunday during the Jamhuri day celebrations by the Kenya Pastor’s Fellowship was not the final program that Kenyans should sign up into but was a way of getting Kenyans to start thinking of the dire need to get life insurance to avoid the recurring problem.

“We are open to working with other Kenyans to find a lasting solution to this problem.We are interested to hear about this benevolent fund idea”, Bishop Karaya told Ajabu Africa News.

In the meantime, Bishop Karaya called on Kenyans to come to the aid of the family of Mercy Gicheru on December 26 to help raise funds for repatriating her body back to Kenya.

 Throwing his weight behind the idea of a benevolent fund, Bishop Joshua Wambua said that “This is a noble idea that for once many Kenyans think it is the best way forward”.

 “We can not keep managing by crisis and anybody who is not for this idea is not being honest.We need a way out of this burial fund raising problem”, he added during a telephone call with Ajabu Africa News.

 He said that he would be interested in meeting with the Kenyans who will meet on Sunday at a later agreed date where other community leaders and pastors can be available to hear from life insurance specialists about the solutions.

 “We need a meeting which will be addressed not by pastors, but by Kenyan life insurance specialists”.

Addressing Kenyans during the just concluded Jamhuri day celebrations in Boston, the Kenyan Ambassador to the US, His Excellency Elkanah Odembo said that he does not understand why Kenyans can not come together and initiate funds that can take care of severe community problems like deaths occuring in the Diaspora, and desks for poor children back in the rural schools in Kenya who study in deplorable conditions.

He encouraged Kenyans to put their differences aside and start such funds to wipe off such problems and pave the way for a better future.

The Ambassador was responding to a question by George Mungai, a Kenyan man who wanted to know why the Kenyan community in Boston has kept on calling for multiple, sometimes weekly burial fund raisings while other Kenyans in some states already contribute towards benevolent funds.

 Meanwhile, community organizers said that the problem at hand needs to be dealt with as a solution is arrived at soon in the spirit of unity.

Well wishers can deposit funds to help the family of the late Mercy Gicheru into a dedicated account at any Bank of America branch in any state or by online transfers.

Also, Kenyans were invited for daily prayers to take place daily at 1042 Main Street, Apt. 1, Malden, MA, 02148 from 6pm-8pm.

Ajabu Africa wishes the family of the late Mercy Gicheru in peace at this trying time.
May the lord keep her soul in eternal peace for ever and ever. Amen.

Bank of America
Name: Grace Mbugua
Account #: 0046-3269-6118
Routing #: 011000138

For more info, call:

Anthony Gicheru- Brother – (603) 973-4244
Robinson Gicheru – Brother (603) 973-6017
Caroline Mungai – (978)-982-5606
Sara Muchene-       (781) 526-4834 (Mercy's Sister)
Bishop Joshua Wambua – (617) 899-9130
Grace Mbugua: 781-799-1247

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