At 54, Stephen Phinehas Ndivo is living alone in Nairobi’s Tassia estate, his life is filled with struggles after being diagnosed with a stroke and spine injuries that left him partly incapacitated in 2018.
Ndivo, also a pastor who lives in a tiny house, uses a walking stick to help him move around when performing his daily tasks with his right hand.
He shared the painful journey on how family and friends vanished when he fell ill.
“It was on October 1, 2018, when I was eating supper with my family when suddenly I started having trouble speaking. I couldn’t understand what my children and wife were saying. I felt confused, my speech became slurred, and I suddenly lost my balance and fell,” he shared.
He was rushed to hospital, where a check-up was carried out in the emergency room, revealing that his blood pressure was abnormal.
Ndivo’s doctors concluded that he had suffered an ischemic stroke, which also caused paralysis on the left side of his body.
Ndivo said the news hit him hard, especially since he had never had a history of high blood pressure or related conditions in his family.He began the difficult journey of living each day with medication.
“I have taken all sorts of painkillers, but the pain just keeps getting worse. I cannot sit for more than 30 minutes because of the back pain,” he shared.
Adding “It’s really hard, especially at night. I only sleep for a few minutes, then wake up and start moving around the house with my walking stick until the pain subsides.”
Ndivo says he worked in Kisumu until misfortune struck. After treatment, he returned to work until 2019, when his condition worsened.
“When I came back to Nairobi in 2019, I discovered that my wife and two children had left the house,” he said
To make matters worse, he claims, they took most of the household items with them, leaving him to start life afresh.
Due to his condition, he has become heavily dependent on others. Unfortunately, he says, many have grown tired and abandoned him.
Ndivo said his attempts to reunite with his family have been unsuccessful, but he hopes that it will happen one day soon. The loneliness, he adds, is weighing him down.
“Living alone in this condition, without your children to cheer me up, is the worst experience one can go through. I don’t know where they are after six years. My wife stopped picking my calls, I don’t know where they are,” he told the publication.
