The Karanja family tried at least three times to persuade their daughter Tecra Muigai to cut her relationship with Omar Lali. All failed.
Keroche CEO Tabitha Karanja, her husband James Karanja and Tecra's uncle and stepbrother together made the first attempt.
Their daughter had sent them a photo of her boyfriend on WhatsApp and they were shocked she was dating an older man.
They tried to visit Tecra at her Naivasha residence to discuss the matter but guards at the gate refused them entry.
Tecra arranged a meeting at Lake Naivasha County Club to discuss the matter a while later.
“I, her dad, uncle and stepbrother went to the meeting where we talked to her and expressed our disapproval of the relationship,” she wrote in a statement to the police. The pleas fell on deaf ears.
After the meeting, Tecra left for Lamu alongside Omar and Tabitha dispatched her eldest son James to try to talk to her.
James went on the trip with his girlfriend but came back empty-handed. Tecra did not budge, Tabitha said.
In December 2019, Tabitha and her husband travelled to Lamu to convince their daughter for the third time to stop seeing Omar.
Tecra showed up at the meeting with Omar. It was the first time the parents met him before Tecra died.
“Tecra informed us that she was in love with Omar and she wanted the family to understand that the feeling was mutual,” Tabitha wrote.
The family were upset Omar was way older than Tecra and that she was the one footing their bills instead of him taking care of her.
Tecra suffered head injuries allegedly after a fall at a hotel in Lamu where she stayed with Omar. She was evacuated to Nairobi Hospital where she lost her life. She was 30. Omar turns 51 this year.
Tecra had wanted to establish a Keroche distributorship in Lamu so she could be based at the Coastal town with Omar.
Tabitha said that Tecra informed them that she had made a down payment for a boat to ferry Keroche products from Mukowe mainland to Lamu island.
An inquest into her death began on Monday in Nairobi with Tabitha and another witness Peter Kariuki testifying.
(edited by o. owino)