- Just six months ago, Joyce Opondo was a doting mother of a son and two daughters, now she only has the girls left
- Her firstborn son, eight-year-old Slade Russell died on New Year’s eve after falling into an open septic tank at a construction site in Embakasi East
- What’s worse, she accuses the investigation officer of colluding with the developer to ensure the case remains stagnant so that she doesn’t get justice for her son
- “I’m disappointed because I expected that since the officer is a woman like me, she would understand the pain of a mother and help me,” she said
On December 31, 2022, Joyce Opondo was preparing to cross into the new year with hope and a bag of new resolutions when everything went bleak.
It all began when the mother of three took her children for an end-of-year church service around their house in Embakasi East.
Slade left church to use toilet
Citizen TV reports that during the service, Opondo’s eight-year-old firstborn Slade Russel requested to step out of the sanctuary.
It was an unusual request, but the dotting mother gave in and allowed the youngster to go ahead and leave the service.
“I let him go because he told me he was pressed and needed to use the toilet. A few minutes later someone came and told me my son had dropped into a septic tank,” she recalled.
For three hours, her son remained in the tank as fast responders worked to rescue him, but when they finally brought him up, Slade was a lifeless body.
Opondo accepted out-of-court settlement
Opondo discloses that she has struggled to accept that her son is gone, a condition aggravated by a painstaking search for justice.
According to the grieving mother, the investigation officer advised her to seek an out-of-court settlement to conclude the case faster.
That, as she would soon discover, was a wrong decision as she found herself in a cat and mouse chase with the developer, Hassan Osman.
Since then, efforts to get the investigating officer to file the case have been futile in what she believes is sabotage.
Opondo accuses investigating officer of sabotage
Opondo accuses the investigation officer of being compromised by the developer to ensure the case remains stagnant.
“The investigation officer is a woman, which is surprising because I expected her to understand a mother’s pain,” the bereaved woman said amid tears.
Wesley Kimetto, the Embakasi East OCPD, admitted that justice has delayed because the site owner has been evasive.
Reached for comment, Hassan denied any knowledge of death on his construction site, adding that there was no case for him to answer
