Cyrus Jirongo's wife has emotionally recounted her last moments with the politician, including a meeting that would turn out to be their last before his tragic death.
Anne Jirongo, one of Jirongo's three wives, spoke out publicly for the first time during Jirongo's memorial service at a citam church in Nairobi, on Saturday, December 27. She narrated how she learned that her husband was involved in an accident and how she hurried to the scene in an effort to rescue him.
She revealed that on the night Jirongo died, she coincidentally lacked sleep and when she woke around midnight, she had a feeling something was wrong.
"At around 3am, I was still awake trying to make sense of what I was feeling when I got Jirongo's call. When I picked it was not him. Someone instead asked me if I knew Jirongo, and i told him that's my husband," Anne narrated.
"At first I thought it was a prank when I was told he was involved in a road accident in Naivasha because he had no plans of travelling. It did not make sense," she continued.
The last time Anne Met Jirongo was on December 12, when they met at a supermarket after the former MP requested to see her before he left to see National Assembly Speaker Moses Wetangula.
"On December 12, Jamhuri Day, Cyrus called me at around 12:30 p.m., and we spoke for about 15 minutes and 25 seconds. He called again at around 2:30 pm and asked me where I was, and I told him that I was in the supermarket," she explained.
Anne went on, "He said he wanted to see me, so he drove to where I was. When he reached the parking, he told me he was outside. I put the trolley aside and went to see him. I sat in the car, we had a conversation, and then he left. He told me he was going back to the office to build his castles. He told me I am going to dream and build my castles in the office, and later he was going to see the speaker, Moses Wetang'ula," she said.
Jirongo would then call Anne via FaceTime at around 4pm , revealing that he had aborted plans to go to the office and had instead gone to his house.
"When he called, he was in the chair. He told me he had been sleeping in the chair for about two hours. And that was the last time I spoke to Cyrus," she revealed.
Jirongo lost his life in a tragic road accident along the Nairobi Nakuruu highway in the early morning hours of December 13 after his Mercedes-Benz car collided with a P.S.V. bus carrying passengers to Western Kenya.
Upon receiving the news, she asked her daughter to accompany her to the scene while she tried to reach out to Jirongos' friends, informing them of the ordeal. Anne says the friends agreed to accompany them to Naivasha, and upon reaching Naivasha, the police told them that Jirongo had died and could not be rescued. That's when she called other family members.
The revelations come a few days after Moses Wetangula also gave his own account of meeting with Jirongo the same night. Wetangula said he reached Jirongo on the phone after the deceased tried to get hold of him while in Uganda for the parliamentary games.
"We sat together on the evening of December 12 from 8 pm with Jirongo and two others. At around 9 pm, we lost an MP from the coast region. I told Jirongo that the following morning, I would travel to the coast for the funeral. In the morning, I got the news that Jirongo died in a road accident. That is how close it is to me, Wetangula stated on December 24 when he visited Jirongo's rural home.
During the Saturday memorial service, family members, friends, and political figures also mourned Jirongo as a vibrant politician, a successful businessman, and a peace-loving leader who deeply believed in unity.
Controversy has since surrounded his death, with some leaders and even his family suspecting foul play. Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has since launched fresh probes to determine what really caused his death, with preliminary autopsy results revealing that he died from severe injuries to the chest.
Jirongo will be laid to rest on Tuesday, December 30, at his rural home in Lumakandaa in Lugari, Kakamega County.
