Grief and quiet strength filled the Africa Gospel Church (AGC) in Karen, Nairobi as Naiyanoi Ntutu paid tribute to her late husband, Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno during a joint requiem service for the victims of the Nandi helicopter crash.
In her tribute, Naiyanoi referred to Ng’eno as “Joha,” a man known to many through a political lens, but whom she described as the husband of her youth, a great father and a partner whose laughter turned ordinary days into moments of celebration.
She reminisced about their life together, built on love and shared devotion as they raised their family.
“To my beloved Joha the husband of my youth. Even mentioning your name carries a lifetime inside it. You are the love of my early days, when everything was still soft and full of possibility, we were young learning life together and somehow you made it feel less frightening and more beautiful. Your laugh made ordinary days feel like celebration. I can still hear it. I think I always will.”
Naiyanoi also remembered the late lawmaker as a gentle and committed father who greatly adored their two children.
“And the way you loved your children, you adored them. You held them with pride and looked at them like they were your greatest accomplishment. In their eyes you were a hero.”
She noted that while death had taken away her husband’s physical presence, it could not undo the life they built together and the love they shared.
“You were a gentle, devoted father with the biggest heart, you were my beginning, losing you feels like losing the music of my youth. The laughter, the dreams, the simplicity but even death cannot take what we built. It cannot erase the love, the family we created. You will always be my Joha. Rest gently my love you’re forever part of me.”
The requiem service brought together families and friends of the MP and five other victims who died in the Saturday afternoon crash in Chepkieb Forest, Mosop, at about 4:45PM.
Alongside Ng’eno were the pilot George Were from Nyakach, Kisumu, his bodyguard Amos Kipngetich Rotich, the MP’s photographer Nick Koskei, high school teacher Carlos Keter and Wycliffe Rono, an employee of the Narok County government.
The late MP will be laid to rest on Friday after a joint final ceremony at Emurua Dikirr Primary School.
