Judy Muthoni was beside herself with tears as she narrated how her last-born son, the late Travis Maina, ended up with a fork jembe lodged in his skull.
Speaking on Wednesday, November 2, Muthoni stated that she had left Travis in the company of his six-year-old brother as she was tending to other duties.
She explained that in her absence, her other son struck baby Travis from behind using the farm tool as the toddler was lying under a tree in their compound.
The older son reported the matter to Muthoni's aunt who rushed to notify her of the ordeal before they both rushed to the hospital.
"My aunt came to the fence and told me that Maina had been struck and my cousin had rushed him to the nearby dispensary," Muthoni stated amid sobs.
She revealed that the staff at the clinic admitted that the injury was beyond them but offered first aid. However, she did not disclose whether the garden fork had a handle or when and where it was removed.
"They wrapped a bandage around his head to hold the jembe in position as it moved whenever we were in motion. The doctors referred us to Thika Level V hospital," she narrated.
Muthoni explained that upon imagery at the facility, the medics referred them to the Kenyatta National Hospital.
The mother claimed that she waited nearly 14 hours for her son to be taken into the operating room and when he was, he breathed his last before her eyes.
She defended her son from the accusation that he might have killed his brother in an advanced case of sibling rivalry and maintained that KNH should shoulder the blame for her son's death.
"In the theatre, I was holding him and the fork jembe in using my other hand to stop the shaking. When the procedure began, I saw his eyes shut (alitupa macho an hivyo ndivyo alienda)," she stated.
Muthoni appeared before the Senate Committee on Health on October 31 and recounted her struggles to get medical attention for her son.
Committee Chair Senator Jackson Mandago ordered for the identity of the doctors who attended to baby Travis to be revealed and summoned KNH staff to a plenary on November 8.
