Heartbreaking photos as Juja woman who lost 5 babies shops for tiny coffins

Mercy Kanini should be at home right now, learning how to feed five newborns.

Instead, she stood inside a coffin shop this week, choosing how to bury them.

The heartbreaking moment was captured in a video shared by comedian Eric Omondi on Instagram on Friday, September 18.

It showed him walking beside Mercy and her husband as they picked coffins for their five babies.

Eric held Mercy's hand as they moved through the shop.

Some coffins were white, each with a different design. Others were smaller than anything a parent should ever have to look at, built specifically for newborns.

Eventually, the couple settled on five. One for each child.

Mercy's husband stood beside her the whole time, quietly facing one of the cruellest tasks any parent can face.

It is hard to imagine what that walk through the shop must have felt like.

Just days earlier, Mercy had been celebrated across the country.

The 28-year-old mother from Juja, Kiambu County, had gone into labour on Sunday, September 13, expecting to deliver quadruplets, four babies, according to earlier scans.

Instead, she gave birth naturally to five: four girls and a boy.

It was an extraordinary delivery. The kind that makes headlines for the right reasons.

But the babies had arrived far too early, at just 25 to 26 weeks. Their birth weights ranged from roughly 630 grammes to 800 grammes, dangerously low for survival.

They required specialist care immediately and the medical team transferred them from Thika Level 5 Hospital to Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi.

Then, one by one, the family's joy turned into grief.

Two of the baby girls died within hours of arriving at KNH. Mercy held on to hope for the remaining three.

On Tuesday, September 15, that hope was shattered again. Two more baby girls died, their tiny lungs unable to cope with the complications of such early birth.

Only one baby remained, a boy, still fighting. He passed away on Wednesday, September 16.

In just three days, Mercy had lost every single one of her five children.

Since then, Eric Omondi has stepped in to support the grieving family, updating Kenyans on Mercy's condition and appealing for help.

"Mercy Kanini was discharged from hospital today. So far, she has received Ksh305,000, while her hospital bill stands at Ksh228,000," Eric wrote.

The burial has now been set for next Friday in Kuria, Migori County.

"Please send whatever you can to her number, 0706 871527, in the name of Mercy Kanini," Eric appealed.

He has also asked Kenyatta National Hospital to consider waiving Mercy's bill altogether.

"I am still kindly requesting Kenyatta National Hospital to please waive the hospital bill for her. God bless," he wrote.

For a mother who briefly held five children in her arms, the road ahead now leads to five small coffins, and a burial no parent should ever have to plan.