Magdalene Mwongeli, a single mother of two from Kithiani, Machakos County, is struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of her 17-year-old son, Elijah Muthoka.
Elijah, a Form Three student, died on June 25, 2025, after sustaining severe injuries during the anti-government protests. Weeks after his burial, Magdalene says she saw him in a dream.
“He smiled at me before disappearing,” she recalls, her voice breaking. “Maybe he was telling me he is at peace… but I still want to know what really happened to him.”
On the afternoon of June 25, Elijah had left their Zimmerman home in Nairobi to deliver clothes to a tailor. He never made it back. Hours later, the family was informed that he had been rushed to hospital with serious head injuries.
They managed to speak to him briefly before his condition worsened.
“He told me he had a head injury but promised to explain everything once he got out,” said his sister, Ngina. “He was too young. His life ended before it even began.”
For Magdalene, who has worked menial jobs to keep her children in school, Elijah was not just her son but also her greatest source of hope.
“He was my future, my protector,” she says, clutching her Bible and rosary. “I had placed all my hopes in that boy.”
An autopsy later revealed that Elijah died from blunt force trauma. But the report omitted mention of a gunshot wound the family had initially been told about—leaving them with more questions than answers.
As the Mwongeli family searches for the truth, their story underscores the heavy toll of political unrest—promising lives cut short and families left drowning in grief.
