The cruel hand of destitution is unflinchingly painful and daringly secluding just as much
as death in the climax of love. It may remain so profound when the love-birds involved are still
young and in their nascent stages of courtship. The story of Susan Dayo evokes an eerie of
hopelessness occasioned by the untimely accident that snatched her only precious item in her life
just at the threshold of her new-found love. She was hopeful that at least he would come back
with something for the day the morning her fiancée left the house in search of the ever elusive
meal. Susan was oblivious of the ominous fate that lurks in the unfolding moments.
Appearing in Tuko Talks, Susan narrates to her host Lily Aiysha that she learnt of the
demise of the love of her life two days after the accident occurred. His fiancée – Dan who was a
bike (boda boda) rider met his death through a hit-and-run StarBus who left them (he had a
passenger at the time) for dead at the side of Ngong’ Road. The debilitating part of the story,
that’s beyond believe, is that the accident occurred at 4 PM and they laid at the scene up to 7 PM
when rescuers came for them. The fact that accident victims could be left lying in the scene for
three hours before rescued or helped shows our societal callousness. The rescue did not help
much after coming too late as the victims were declared dead shortly after arrival at Kenyatta
National Hospital.
Susan who was left with a three-month old kid now leaves in seclusion in a dingy hovel
in a back-street suburb called Kabiria which is a wintry distance from all her relatives. She
leaves as an ostracized gogo that is only waiting for her slow but sure death time. She has tasted
sin’s bitter dregs because her sister who disapproved her pregnancy kicked her from the house
after she refused to buy the idea of flushing out the fetus. The tinges of consciousness would
prick his soul leaving her with option of parting ways with the only relative she knew in the city
over the sordid act of terminating the life developing inside her.
Her in-laws who could’ve at least showed some love to her couldn’t offer a shoulder to
lean on but only allowed her to travel up-country to witness the interment of her fiancée’s body.
She then returned to the city the very day after burial. Her only joy now despite living in
destitution, radiates from her daughter who’s about two years now. Susan is appealing to any
well-wisher for any job offer in order to help meet her basic needs. She can be reached on
0759921348.
Meanwhile if you hear the ambulance’s siren shrieks then therein lies a big-pursed
patient. The destitute like Susan’s husband can just be left to rot by the roadside. Is every
human’s life sacrosanct? That’s the society we live in where even life is monetized.
