Angeline Omina: My downcast life post-daughter’s DNA test

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 14 Aug, 2019 12:34 | 2 mins read
Angeline Omina: Despondency has characterised my every day’s life ever since DNA test results in June confirmed Sharon is not my biological daughter. [PHOTO | K24 DIGITAL]
Angeline Omina: Despondency has characterised my every day’s life ever since DNA test results in June confirmed Sharon is not my biological daughter. [PHOTO | K24 DIGITAL]
Angeline Omina: Despondency has characterised my every day’s life ever since DNA test results in June confirmed Sharon is not my biological daughter. [PHOTO | K24 DIGITAL]

By Georgina Magondu.

“Despondency has characterised my every day life ever since DNA test results in June this year showed that Sharon Mathias is not my biological daughter,” Angeline Omina tells K24 Digital at her Kibarage home in Kangemi, Nairobi.

Ms Omina had -- until June 2019 -- raised Sharon as her blood child.

And Science, 19 years later, came to separate her from a teenager she knew all through to be her daughter. Science, instead facilitated the swapping of Sharon for Mevies Imbaya, yet another teenager, who was brought up by another woman, Rosemary Onyango, who lives in Kakamega County.

Mevies Imbaya and Melon Lutenyo were brought up as twin siblings by Rosemary.

DNA test results, however, revealed that it is only Sharon and Melon, who are related by blood, and not Mevies, who had lived with Melon all the while as her twin sister in Kakamega.

-Cooperation pledge-

The two mothers would, after the announcement of the DNA test results in June, pledge to cooperate and “work together” in raising the three girls.

That bid, however, suffered a blow one week later when Angeline Omina unsuccessfully attempted to take away Mevies Imbaya from Sharon and Melon.

The two mothers – Rosemary and Angeline – would later broker a deal that allowed the three girls to visit Angeline in Nairobi during the school holidays.

All the three girls are currently studying at different secondary schools in Kakamega County.

“Mevies has refused to come visit me for the August holidays,” Ms Omina tells K24 Digital.

“She says if she has to come to Nairobi, then the other two girls must accompany her. That means I must have at least Ksh3, 000 to facilitate their transport to Nairobi, and another Ksh3, 000 to foot their transport cost back to Kakamega. They will also want me to buy them basic commodities that they will use while in school. My business collapsed, and I have no source of steady income,” she says.

“If she [Mevies] comes, I will be happy. But again, the holidays will end, and she will be required to go back to school. Of course, she will come to me with a shopping list of the things she needs to survive in school. Currently, I am broke. And that thought alone, leaves me disturbed,” emphasises Ms Omina.

-Yet to accept results-

The Kangemi-dweller says she is yet to “accept the outcome” of the DNA test results two months later.

“I am yet to come to terms with everything that followed after the DNA test results were announced. Sometimes when I want to do something, I end up forgetting what I had planned to do, simply because I am deeply engulfed with thoughts of despondency,” she says.

Psychologist Jane Ngatia says it is normal for someone in Ms Omina’s situation to harbour the feelings of dejection and hopelessness.

“There is that anxiety that we call separation anxiety. She is definitely mourning being separated from her daughter. That is also a form of grieving. Even if she hasn’t lost her child through death, there is that part of her that is gone. So, she is trying to recollect herself,” Ms Ngatia told K24 Digital.

Ms Omina says she hopes that a well-wisher will come to her rescue and help revive her business.

“As of now, I pray to God to save me from the shackles of depression,” she says.

“Angeline needs to speak to a counsellor,” psychologist Ms Ngatia advises.

Meanwhile, Sharon and Melon turn 20 on Wednesday, August 14.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co9-56F5oIg