By Nyang’au Araka
It is midmorning, and a single red bulb hangs loosely from a wire in the middle of Josephine Wandii’s room in Mwatate, Taita Taveta County.
Wandii, 48, has just received a solar lighting system, which she set up with the help of her son.
“This is a good day for us; we received solar lighting in the morning, and now visitors have come to our home,” she says with a smile.
The bulb’s glow washes over cracked, smoke-stained walls—some peeling, others patched—revealing a space shaped by years of hardship, prayers, and resilience.
Beneath the soft light sits a rickety wooden bed covered with a thin mattress and blanket—these being her cherished possessions.
Wandii’s Bible lies open on the bed, always turned to Psalm 121. “I lift up my eyes to the hills…” she murmurs, tracing the verse.
“On nights when my strength fades, this scripture steadies me,” she says.
Wandii has battled HIV for many years and is now battling esophageal cancer, which has added a heavy burden to her life.
Her trouble doubled in 2014 when she was diagnosed with cancer—a blow that compounded an already fragile existence.
Still, she pressed on, selling charcoal and bananas, raising her four children alone, and clinging to hope wherever she could.
Earlier in 2025, Wandii’s health began to decline sharply. Swallowing solid food became torturous, while even soft meals caused pain.
“A persistent dry cough settled in, draining my strength and sleep,” she says, adding that she first assumed it was a passing illness—but the symptoms worsened.
The Health Education Africa Resource Team (HEART), which had rescued her at a time HIV/AIDS threatened to take her down, stepped in once more, rushing her to hospital for urgent tests.
Doctors performed an endoscopy, revealing a worrying mass in her mid-oesophagus. She was immediately placed on a liquid-only diet as further tests were arranged.
Two days later, a chest and abdomen CT scan confirmed the painful truth: esophageal cancer, which a biopsy later described as “poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma,” an aggressive and fast-spreading form of the disease.
For a woman already fighting one lifelong illness, the diagnosis felt like a storm too great to withstand.
She remembers sitting in the hospital corridor, staring at the floor, “wondering how I would survive—not just physically, but emotionally and financially.”
But HEART, which supports women widowed or separated by HIV/AIDS through the Women Equality Empowerment Project (WEEP), paid for the endoscopy, CT scan, and all transport.
“Without HEART, I would not have survived this far,” she says.
Later, she underwent a major esophagectomy at Coptic Mission Hospital. HEART paid KSh 350,000, while the Social Health Authority (SHA) covered KSh 450,000.
This gave Wandii access to lifesaving care that would otherwise have been far beyond her reach. HEART now continues to fund her follow-up visits to Nairobi, paying consultation fees and transport.
As the interview draws to a close, she looks at her Bible once more and utters, “My help comes from the Lord.”
Not far from Wandii’s home lives 50-year-old Fridah Mkiwa Kimbio, who now spends her days in the stillness of her house in Bura area of Taita Taveta.
Once an energetic businesswoman selling groceries to provide for her two children, Kimbio’s life changed in May 2025 when a mouth ulcer refused to heal.
“What I dismissed as a minor irritation soon became a frightening journey,” says Kimbio, who also lives with HIV and is a HEART beneficiary.
After treatment failed, she was referred to Moi County Hospital in Voi, where a biopsy revealed cancer of the tongue.
She travelled to Nairobi for advanced care, and a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan confirmed stage 4 cancer, already spreading to her liver.
Kimbio began chemotherapy at Texas Cancer Centre, enduring harsh side effects as words themselves slipped away.
It did not take long before the disease stole her voice and ability to eat, leaving her dependent on a feeding pipe and strong painkillers.
On the day this writer visited, Kimbio sat surrounded by the two constants she still has—her children, one in college and the other sat her Grade 9 examinations.
They hovered close to their mother, their presence a shield against the loneliness of illness.
Though she cannot speak, she attempts a faint smile that brings some level of ease in the home.
Through gestures and soft eyes, she shares her deepest prayer: that her children grow into a future far brighter than the one her illness now allows her to see.
At Priscilla Wabosha’s home in Taita, she stands outside with her four daughters, smiling warmly as if welcoming old friends.
At first glance, nothing about Wabosha suggests illness—her bright eyes, steady posture, and gentle greeting.
But behind the smile is a battle she has fought since May 2024: cervical cancer on top of her HIV/AIDS status.
Wabosha, 46, was enrolled by HEART under Taita Upper WEEP in 2018 and is a mentor mother at Modambogho Dispensary, where she supports HIV-positive women, monitors their health, and ensures treatment adherence.
On 15 May 2024, she noticed light bleeding, and by the next day, it had become severe.
At the dispensary, her blood pressure had dropped dangerously to 62/43.
“I was stabilized with fluids and urgently referred to Mwatate Sub-County Hospital, where I received a blood transfusion and pain medication,” she recalls.
An ultrasound revealed pyelonephritis affecting her left kidney, prompting another referral—this time to Voi County Hospital, where a pap smear confirmed cervical squamous cell carcinoma.
“From Voi, I was sent to Mombasa for pelvic and chest CT scans, which showed the cancer had spread to my chest,” she says.
As a widow and mother of four, the 182-kilometre journey meant leaving her children behind and abandoning the mentorship work that once earned her a small income.
Her treatment requires monthly chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which SHA partially covers, while HEART pays for investigations, food support, and transport to Mombasa.
Wabosha is determined to fight, and her greatest hope is that her daughters endure and rise through their mother’s long road to healing.
Cancer is one of the most dreaded disease due to high treatment costs, heavy toll on one’s health and the situation is aggravated by the fact that many patients in Kenya are diagnosed late due to limited access to screening.
According to the Ministry of Health’s 2023 report, only 26 percent of health facilities in Kenya offer cancer screening services.
This delay contributes to advanced-stage diagnoses and worsens treatment outcomes.
“By the time we reach most patients, they are already in advanced stages of the disease,” says Dr. Mariana Omenda, who works with HEART.
According to information on cancer.org, HIV does not seem to cause cancer directly, but over time it weakens the immune system, putting people living with the virus at increased risk of many cancers.
“Most of the cancers with increased incidence in people living with HIV are caused by viruses,” a separate article on the website explains.
“HIV weakens the immune system, reducing the body’s ability to fight viral infections or viral-infected precursor cells that may lead to cancer.”
Dr. Omenda encourages families not to abandon their kin once these life threatening illnesses attack them but be there to give them company, hope and assistance to the end.
Kenya is facing a growing health crisis as cancer continues to claim thousands of lives each year, and treatment costs remain out of reach for many.
Five specific types; breast, cervical, prostate, oesophageal, and colorectal are responsible for more than half of all new cases.
The National Cancer Institute of Kenya (NCI-K), through its chairperson Dr. Timothy Olweny, described these in July 2025 as the nation’s “Big Five” cancers and urged swift, aggressive interventions to curb their devastating grip.
He emphasized that these five cancers alone account for 52% of the 42,116 new cancer cases reported annually, leading to premature deaths, emotional devastation, and financial ruin for thousands of families.
“Cancer is not only a health issue but a socio-economic one. Its burden pushes entire households into poverty,” Dr. Olweny said, as quoted by The Times. “Targeting prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment of the Big Five could drastically cut mortality and improve quality of life.”
Even as cancer remains a concern, the World Health Organization (WHO) in July 2025 also described HIV as a major global public health issue, having claimed an estimated 44.1 million lives to date.
While facing HIV and cancer in denial aggravates their debilitating effects, it is the simple act of staying positive, holding onto hope, and believing in healing that keeps the patients going.
-The author is a member of the Kisii Press Club. His email is babahezel@gmail.com