Tribute to My Aunty Jennifer ‘Titi’ Muidu Kiendi

In the picture, I am about 6 years old. She is holding my hand and I am holding my rag doll. The picture is so old it’s a hue of brown and white. The dresses we are wearing look brown and white so is the parking and the cars
We are standing outside her home in California …. She is chatting with Papie (my mom) She is smiling, I can see the gap in her teeth — the “mwanya”. That is the mwanya we, my sisters and I would penya for REFUGE.
When I think of Aunty Jennifer, one word captures what she was to us and to me …. REFUGE
To Titi is where mom ran when her marriage tanked and she took us all in. I remember going to kindergarten from her house, coming back for my afternoon nap, drinking hot Uji with “makindi” (not a pleasant memory) playing in the long grass making makeshift houses. Sliding down the railings …. Kunte getting his knee stuck in between the bars … waiting for Mbithe, Muthama and Coco to come from school. Watching “little house in the prairie” and “8 is enough” in their sitting room, plopped on those warm brown couches … REFUGE
When Papie got a house and we moved, every Sunday we would still attend church with the Kiendi’s. First in KICC then Eastleigh and when Bishop Masinde opened Umoja, we started going there since it was nearer. Our hunger and thirst for God was birthed and nurtured here and we found a REFUGE for our souls
As teenagers and to young adults when mom could no longer discipline us with a mwiko, there was one line she would use …. “kwa eka ngunie inyaa Mbithe” (let me call mama Mbithe) and we would be back on the straight and narrow quickly.
This one line “eka ngunie inyaa mbithe” brought calm when;
mothers and daughters fought
Sons rebelled
Husbands strayed
Babies fell ill
This line “eka ngunie Inyaa Mbithe” brought ululations when:
Nieces, nephews, and grandkids graduated
Couples tied the knot
Babies were born
Relatives arrived from overseas
And when mom got unwell she would often ask us to “kunia inyaa Mbithe” REFUGE
In this other picture my mom, Papie is in the last months of her life … the cancer has ravaged her body. She is sitting next to her sister Jennifer, mama mbithe, and has leaned on her and placed her head on her sister’s shoulder and she has a faint smile. Only mama mbithe could make mom smile and even laugh in the last days of her life REFUGE
We will miss you …… Na tuyisi ula tukakunia simu …….koma nesa