Kenya-born politician and former Australian Senator Lucy Gichuhi, alongside her husband Don Gichuhi, is pleading for a Ksh3.2 million donation to repatriate the remains of their daughter back to Kenya.
Gichuhi's first-born daughter, Peris Wanjiru, passed away in Adelaide, Australia, on August 26, aged 33 years. The family did not disclose the cause of their daughter's death.
They are, however, pleading for help from wellwishers to help lay Paris at their Kenyan home in Mathira, Nyeri County.
Close associates have created a GoFundMe page to help meet the costs of flying her back to Kenya for a befitting send-off.
On the GoFundMe page, they cited increased costs of air travel brought about by the pandemic as a huge impediment in efforts to fly the body of Peris to her native home, Kenya.
“Due to the current covid restrictions in place that have resulted in decreased air travel to and out of Australia, the cost of this process is overwhelming to the family and thus the appeal to you for your kind support.”
“A little here and there will go a long way in making this possible and lessening the huge financial burden to her family as they come to terms with this devastating loss of their firstborn gone too soon,” read the statement on their GoFundMe page.
The family of the deceased mourned her as a kind person whose demise took them by surprise.
"It's difficult to bid farewell to such an amazing, beautiful, and kind human like Peris aka Kadada. You will be forever be missed as you subsist in eternal peace. Angels will fly," further reads the statement.
Born in Nyeri County, the mother of the deceased (56), migrated to Australia in 1999 with her husband and their family of three children.
Lucy then became a naturalized Australian citizen in 2001 and later received her Bachelor of Law degree from the University of South Australia in 2015.
She worked as an accountant before joining politics and served as a Senator for South Australia from 2017 to 2019.
The former senator won the Family First Party seat in the Australian Senate, following a special vote recount of the April 2016 election, ordered by the High Court.
Her election made her the first African-Australian Senator in the history of the country.
