A 40-year-old widow broke down and sobbed in an Eldoret court when she recounted how she learned of her husband's brutal killing.
The widow, Brossy Makimtigwa Ongeri, could not hold back her tears as she narrated to the court how the news of the death of her husband Ferdinand Ongeri aged 40, a Kenya National Union of Nurses (KNUN) official in Kisumu, reached her.
Mrs Ongeri, who is also a nurse by profession, was overcome by emotions forcing the court clerk to calm her down before allowing her to proceed with her testimony.
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Testifying before presiding Judge Reuben Nyakundi, she recalled that she received the shocking news about her husband’s death, who was based at Riat Dispensary in Kisumu county, moments after her efforts to reach him on the phone failed.
“I tried to call him severally from our Nyamira county home, but he was not picking up although one of his cellphone lines was ringing without being answered. Another of his lines had been switched off, something which I had never experienced since we got married more than seven years ago,” the widow narrated.
Witchdoctor
The widow was giving her testimony in the case in which Mawanda Asma, a witchdoctor from Uganda, denies murdering the deceased nurse.
The charge against the accused states that on an unknown date between 24 and 27 July 2019 at Kimondi Forest in Nandi County, jointly with others not before the court he murdered Ferdinand Ongeri.
Nurse Ferdinand Ongeri was reported missing on July 24, 2019, from his workstation after successfully negotiating a promotion deal for nurses with the administration of Kisumu County Health department.
His decomposed body was later found by a herdsman dumped in the vast Kimondi forest in Nandi County after a fruitless search that had been conducted by his colleagues, friends, and family members.
According to the widow, the deceased was found naked, his throat was slit, the neck was broken, and there were bruises all over the body - which showed he was subjected to torture.
“On the fateful day, someone had updated information that a naked body of an unknown male, had been found in the forest and taken to Kapsabet mortuary and when we went there with my mother-in-law and other family members, we managed to identify my husband’s body,” the widow said.
The mother to the slain nurse, Isabel Ongeri Ondiek, a retired nurse too, recalled the last moments she had with her son on phone and that he had promised to visit her in a week’s time.
“My son was in high spirits and jovial when I talked to him on phone, a week before he was reported missing, little did I know it was my last conversation with him,” the mother narrated.
