Mombasa thespian, activist of a celebrated meme dies

The creative arts and civil society fraternity in Mombasa are mourning the mysterious death of one of their own which occurred on Monday morning. Wilson Nolly Raye, who was the originator of the famous phrase that became a meme in Kenya “Habari zenu? Habari zenu tena?” died in hospital in Mtongwe at around 5am.

According to his elder sister Susan Melody, Nolly – a play producer and director – came to her house on Friday evening looking disoriented.

“He walked past me as I was washing clothes. I had to follow him to ask what was wrong. He said he is okay. But he refused to eat any solid food. He only drank cold water and milk,” Melody said at the Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital.

But whenever he drank any liquid, he vomited, said Melody.

“On Saturday, he could not even walk to help himself. I had to bring a basin for him to use,” she added.

Nolly later left her house on Sunday evening at around 6pm to go to his house, where he was with John Paul, his nephew.

“No one can fill his shoes. It is a big hole that he has left,” she said.

Melody said that Nolly had left instructions that if dies, he should be buried according to Islamic rites but his body should be transported to his rural home in Asembo, Siaya county.

“He wanted his body buried in Asembo but without a coffin. He did not want his nobody to be puin a coffin.”

The thespian travelled to his home county in Siaya on December 28 last year and came back to Mombasa on January 8 accompanied by Paul, whom he was paying his secondary school fees.

Paul said Nolly complained of stomach aches and was vomiting in the wee hours of Monday morning and had to make frantic calls to relatives to have him taken to hospital.

“We went to three different hospitals before we were referred to Coast General Teaching and Referral Hospital, Mtongwe, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.”

Nolly, who was the honorary secretary of the Little Theatre Club, Mombasa, will be remembered for his immense contribution to the creative industry, where he gave the platform to budding thespians