- Nearly 14 years ago, Monica was in the company of her father, sister, brother and mother when the accident that changed her life completely happened.
- They were on the way from their rural home in Limuru when the car they were travelling in was hit by a trailer. Her only brother perished on the spot.
Image: HANDOUT
Monica Muthoni is the only woman in the Wonders of God music group.
The group consists of eight differently-abled persons who Father Dieu Donne, of St Monica’s Catholic Church, Njiru, brought together to spread hope and transform their lives through music.
If you get a chance to watch several music productions made by Wonders of God, Monica is a shining example of a woman who defied the challenges that life sometimes offers us to succeed in her passion.
With three-quarters of her body paralyzed, she relies on her wheelchair to move from one area to another.
But despite living with this condition, Monica together with her music group members has worked on several music projects that inspire hope and remind the world that people with disabilities need just an opportunity to shine.
“I joined the music group through a friend who was our neighbour in Rongai. He invited me and just like that I became a member,” Monica said.
“Apart from backing them up during music composition, I coordinate the team members whenever we have activities.”
They have so far released several songs namely Maajabu, Amani, Shikilia, Wastahili, Uongozi, Furahia, Nchi Ni Watu and Jina la Yesu.
Apart from singing, Monica is a member of the wheelchair national basketball team.
Though she never thought she could play, a friend invite to a training session saw her begin trials that led to her being picked whenever competitive games emerged.
“Basketball is more than a therapy for me. Whenever we have games we go. The best moment was when we went to Tanzania to represent the country. It was my first time to board the plane and the experience was fulfilling,” she said.
With singing in one hand and basketball in the other, Monica had picked up the broken pieces of her life that saw her confined to a wheelchair for life.
But complications emerging from an accident that happened in December 2010 have threatened to wipe out the gains she has made in her life since then.
Monica was in the company of her father, sister, brother and mother when the accident that changed her life completely happened.
They were on the way from their rural home in Limuru when the car they were travelling in was hit by a trailer.
While she and the rest of the family members were lucky to survive, her only brother perished on the spot.
At the time, Monica had completed Form Three and was on her way to Form Four come January 2011.
Since the accident happened, life has never been the same for her.
Monica could not walk again and has since relied on a wheelchair for her movements.
“That accident left me bedridden because I developed a spinal cord injury that left three-quarters of my body paralyzed,” Monica told the Star in an interview at her current residence in Chokaa, Embakasi East in Nairobi.
“I was able to go to form four and register for my KCSE exams because we had hope of recovery but I ended up staying in hospital until August 2011.”
Image: HANDOUT
Her discharge from hospital, she says, was not because she had gotten better but because she needed to get back to class as soon as possible to prepare for the forthcoming exams.
The struggle of accepting her new reality and catching up with the education she had missed for a whopping 8 months was hard to balance.
Nevertheless, she managed to ace her exams.
But with three-quarters of her body paralyzed, and only her hands and head functioning well, Muthoni faced a new reality of not being able to control her bowel and bladder.
Since the accident, Monica has lived on diapers and a catheter to control her stool and urine respectively.
However, the use of diapers and catheters led to more dire complications.
“I could not use the catheter anymore because it would disconnect within an hour or so. It could not perform as expected. Despite medication, there was no change,” she said.
“It wasn't until 2019 that I was told to undergo surgery. One was Mitrofanoff and another was suprapubic. These two had some consequences because for Mitrofanoff I risked never getting a child again. For Suprapubic, I was told I could not play basketball again.”
The Mitrofanoff procedure creates a new tube on one’s belly through which one can urinate by using a catheter. The new tube is made from the appendix. It connects the bladder to a small hole created in the belly button or an area in the lower belly.
Suprapubic on the other hand refers to the placement of a catheter into the urinary bladder just above the pubic symphysis. This is typically performed for individuals who are unable to drain their bladder via the urethra.
Monica was willing to take any path that would see her get better health-wise.
But the reality of the amount needed for her to get the surgery done made her lose hope.
With the family in financial turmoil, she kept to herself about the price needed to get the surgery done.
Her father, who was the breadwinner, passed on in 2020. The mother who took the role has now turned blind after developing some complications.
“I went home and kept to myself my engagement with the doctor. The amount was Sh700,000. I could not imagine how my family could raise an amount. I opted to keep mum about it,” she said.
With catheter use not functioning well, Monica had to survive on diapers as he hoped to one day raise the much-needed resources to undergo surgery.
But the situation deteriorated as the use of diapers saw her develop serious wounds that made it unbearable to continue using them.
Her body was also allergic to certain brands of diapers and those that could somewhat offer the much-needed relief were beyond her reach financially.
Despite acquiring a diploma in ICT, thanks to disability fund scholarship, Monica has found it difficult to secure a job.
Her frequent walks in and out of the hospital to manage the condition exacerbated an already difficult situation.
But as fate would have it, after years of keeping her problems to herself, an encounter with one of the members of the Wonders of God music band at a washroom lifted the lid of the untold suffering she had kept for herself.
Fr Dieu Donne, once the problem was brought to her attention, helped in mobilizing resources to help her undergo the much-needed surgery.
After days of seeking funds, Monica eventually underwent the surgery in May with a part of the money raised.
“The hospital bill is taking a toll on us. The amount we raised was just a fraction of the needed total. I must also undergo weekly checks to ensure the wound is healing well,” she said.
“My major support has been from church and friends who come through to help with the little that is required.”
Monica, hosted by a well-wisher, is now seeking funds to clear pending hospital bills and manage her health condition.
Nevertheless, she is optimistic that she will bounce back to her better self; be able to play basketball again and join Wonders of God in their singing endeavours.
To help her recover, Use Paybill number 247247, and Account Number 691919. Her phone number is 0724 302 586.