Family and friends gathered at Freedom Corner, Uhuru Park in Nairobi on Thursday, February 21, for a memorial service of activist Caroline Mwatha who died controversially. However, the afternoon event which meant to celebrate her life was given a wide berth by the Catholic Church which refused to perform a farewell mass as had been expected by the family.
Both Caroline and her parents are staunch members of the Catholic faith. However, based on a postmortem report which revealed the mother of three died while procuring a botched abortion, the church leadership opted to stay away.
This forced the organisers, Dandora Community Justice Centre, to readjust time from 3pm to 5pm hoping the men of clothe would change their mind. Ex-Kirinyaga gubernatorial candidate Martha Karua, former Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, Nairobi Women Representative Esther Passaris, ex-PCEA cleric Timothy Njoya as well as other human rights activists eulogised her.
Each speaker faulted the police findings and the autopsy results insisting Caroline was eliminated by the police given at a time of her death, she was following up on police extrajudicial killings in Dandora area. “When I heard the police narrative, I knew it wasn’t the truth, even if the police tell you the truth by mistake, you should not believe them,” claimed Mutunga.
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On Thursday, February 14, chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor alongside his independent counterpart Peter Ndegwa announced that Mwatha died of excessive bleeding from a botched abortion.