Makadara Principal Magistrate Monica Kivuti worried about her 18-month-old daughter, Elianna Wanjiru, as she fought for her life in the emergency room shortly after a police officer shot her during a court session on Thursday, June 13.
This was revealed by her spouse Mutima Kang’ata during the funeral at Mamba Village in Machakos County on Saturday, June 22.
In a moving tribute in the form of a letter addressed to his late wife, lawyer Kang’ata revealed that Magistrate Kivuti’s last words concerned the wellbeing of Elianna.
“Do you remember when I arrived at the emergency room at the Metropolitan Hospital in Buruburu? You were in excruciating pain but when you saw me you calmed down, looked at me and asked me: ‘How is Elianna?’ I responded that Elianna was well and that I had left her sleeping.
“It is then that you closed your eyes and you did not talk again. Looking back now, I realise that your biggest concern at that point was little Elianna’s welfare. And now that you have left, I want to assure you that with God’s help, I’ll bring up Elianna the best way I know how. You therefore need not worry about her,” he said.
In addition to baby Elianna, Ms. Kivuti is also survived by two other daughters, Josephine Wanjiru and Michelle Menyi.
Lawyer Kang’ata also revealed that he is on track to fulfill Ms. Kivuti’s dream of settling the family on the land they acquired four months ago at Mamba Village on the Yatta Plateau in Machakos County in her honor.
“I have decided to fulfil your dream of settling you down on the said land, albeit posthumously. Materially, it does not matter what friends, relatives, and the general public will make of it. What now matters to me is by doing so I would have honoured your dreams and wishes about that piece of land. In that regard, once the dust has settled I will immediately proceed to set up the house of your dreams as we had intended,” Mr Kang’ata said in the letter to his departed wife.
Mourners eulogized Kivuti as a professional powerhouse, a workhorse, and a mentor.
Ms. Kivuti’s elder sister, Lucy Bitok, remarked, “Even if she came here and was given a chance to choose between integrity and life, she would choose her God and integrity rather than life. She taught me that integrity is the most expensive thing you can purchase in this country. You may purchase it with your life and blood. We will fight on. Her favourite colour was red, the colour of courage.”
Attendees took turns condemning the shooting of Ms. Kivuti by police officer Samson Kipchirchir Kipruto.
A visibly shaken Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu passionately urged Kenyans to stop killing judicial officers.
“All of us who work in the Judiciary are mortal. We know that we are going to die. I asked on Tuesday and I’ll ask again: Will you people stop killing us? Just stop killing us,” she said.
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DCJ Mwilu continued, “It does not matter that Monica was discharging her constitutional mandate from a tent. Her life should not have been taken away. Of course, we ought to dispense justice from a secure place rather than a tent. But the issue here is that one of us, a judge, was killed as she did what she swore to do. Stop killing us. Every single judge and magistrate is in danger from senseless people who do not know what the rule of law means. And so I ask, do not kill us. We haven’t come to kill you.
“There have been far too many attempts on our lives. Please stop killing us. If you think you can kill all of us, those places will be filled by fellow Kenyans. Will you still come and kill them all?” Ms. Mwilu posed. She added that the police should have spared their colleague who shot Ms. Kivuti “so that he would be tried. Who was he protecting? Why was that person’s life considered greater than Monica’s?” Ms. Mwilu posed amid sobs.
