Dedan Mbugua orajuje mzazi kwa uchungu huu, were the lacerating words of the father, Dedan Mbugua, to late journalist Kimani Mbugua, as he relived the experience of viewing CCTV footage of his son’s final moments before his tragic demise with tears.
Speaking in unbridled emotion, Dedan described the overwhelming grief that wrapped around him while viewing the surveillance video. It’s something no parent should ever have to witness, he stated, tears streaming down his face. I witnessed the last steps my son took. alone, suffering and silence.
Kimani Mbugua, a one-time vibrant media personality famous for being intelligent and a lover of stories, had openly struggled with mental sickness over the last several years. Following brief periods of treatment and counseling, his family members and close friends believed he was on a slow but promising healing path.
Dedan recalled a talk that now torments him painfully in his heart. He looked at me and said, ‘Dad, when I’ll be completely fine, I’m coming back to journalism. I have stories to tell.’ That promise had given me hope.
But fate had other plans. Kimani’s unexpected death has left a void not just in his family, but in the hearts of many Kenyans who followed his journey from his rise in the media to his personal battles, and the quiet courage he displayed through it all.
As the family mourns, Dedan says he hopes his son will be remembered not for how he died, but for how he lived. Kimani was a fighter. He had a dream, and even in his lowest moments, he held onto it. That’s what I’ll carry with me his light.
Plans for Kimani’s memorial are underway, as tributes continue to pour in across the country.
By Nairobi