Missing Nairobi’s MCA Habiba Hussein Has Been In And Out Of Hospital For Two Years After Losing A Baby From A Complicated Pregnancy

MILLICENT OMANGA: STATEMENT ON HON. HABIBA HUSSEIN, MCA, NAIROBI CITY COUNTY ASSEMBLY
Nairobi, March 10th, 2020

I am deeply shocked and saddened by media reports that I have come across by the speaker Nairobi City County Assembly and Hon. Alvin Palapala Mca accused of diverting bursary funds ment for needy students to a private company making fun of a tragic situation that has befallen a fellow woman and one of their colleagues, Hon. Habiba Hussein.

As a woman, I do not understand how inhuman, selfish and insensitive some people can get, just to earn some cheap political mileage out of a tragedy.

From the information and records in my possession, Hon. Habiba carried a challenging and complicated pregnancy to term, and delivered a baby girl Shadia, through a Caesarean Procedure, on November 21, 2018.

Unfortunately, the baby was born with heart complications that are suspected to have arisen from the treatment the mother was undergoing during the pregnancy. Since Hon. Habiba could not undergo intense scanning that involved radiology during the pregnancy, she was put under medication for ulcers for most of the pregnancy duration, while that was not what she was suffering from.

Despite the dedicated efforts by the doctors, Baby Shadia’s condition deteriorated due to a blocked A-V valve, and she died a few hours after birth, on the 23rd November 2018.

Nothing is as devastating to any mother as the loss of child, and the death of Baby Shadia only aggravated the illness of Hon. Habiba.

Ever since, Hon. Habiba has been admitted to hospital severally, the first time being barely four (3) months after delivery, when she underwent a surgery to remove her gallbladder and fibroids.

During his 17 months sickness Hon. Habiba has been in and our of different hospitals under the care of the following Doctors: Dr. Sequiera Evan Gynaecologist (Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi), Dr. Nathan Gatheru Thagana Gyaenogolost (Nairobi Hospital), Dr. Zipporah Gatheru (paedetrician who took care of the baby after delivery), Dr. Naomi Gachara (baby Shadia’s cardiologist before she died), Dr Mahesh Chudasama (Mombasa Hospital), Dr. Swabra Swaleh (Premier Hospital, Nyali), alongside many others. Detailed medical reports are hereby attached to show their interactions with Hon. Habiba and the subsequent treatments.

It therefore breaks my heart, as a mother and a woman, when people choose to politicize the pain and agony that Hon. Habiba has undergone in the last two years, simply because they have been implicated in stealing bursary funds meant for poor and orphaned children.

To attack a woman, for simply being woman, is not only unacceptable but almost Satanic.

That is why, for me, it is beyond comprehension how Hon. Beatrice Elachi, the Nairobi City County Assembly Speaker and a fellow woman, allowed such a reckless and irresponsible statement to be made on the floor of the House, without a bother to demand for authentication of the wild claims that were made. To me, on this particular issue, she comes off as the classic example of women being the worst enemies of their fellow women, and she owed the women of Kenya an apology.

As the Nairobi City County Nominated Senator, I demand an unconditional apology from the Kitisuru Ward MCA, Hon. Alvin Palala, and his associates for degrading, disrespecting and demeaning women, especially at their most painful and vulnerable time.

The least Hon. Habiba deserves is support and sympathy as she recovers from the painful loss of her child, while she undergoes her treatment, where she was admitted in hospital as recently as February 2020.

This culture of attacking women is not only barbaric, but unacceptable in the 21st Century, and I wish to urge all leaders and Kenyans at large to desist from this despicable trend of diverting attention from the real issues by dragging innocent women into their woes.

Let Hon. Palapala and his ilk refund all the monies they have stolen from innocent orphans and poor children, and keep women out of their shenanigans.

I also call upon the DCI and EACC to move with speed and get to the bottom of the bursary scandal in Nairobi that has been unearthed through the trending voice clip.

My prayers are with Hon. Habiba and her family. May God comfort and heal you.

Hon. Millicent Omanga,
NOMINATED SENATOR, NAIROBI CITY COUNTY