Miriam Gakenia,31, and her fiance James Mwangi, 27, had gone to buy
wedding items but were injured in a road accident at Kiangwachi area
along Nyeri-Nairobi highway on Tuesday, December 15. Their wedding was
to take place at Dominion Towers Deliverance Church yesterday, Saturday
December 19.
Gakenia suffered a right hip joint injury and a broken
right arm while Mwangi’s right hand was injured. He had been treated and
discharged but she could neither sit nor stand. The couple exchanged
their vows at Outspan hospital today, with nurses as her bridesmaids.
“The
wedding had to go on. We had prepared for six months. The devil was not
going to get in the way. She would have become my wife even if she had
lost her legs,” Mwangi explained.
Gakenia said from her hospital bed: “I informed my doctor of the wedding and told him we were not ready to postpone it.”
She
said the hospital agreed to hold the wedding on its grounds. Nurses and
matron Jane Wamucii escorted her to the location on her bed.
Gakenia
and Mwangi had difficulties putting on their wedding rings as their
hands were in casts but they exchanged their vows in what Reverend
Stephen Mungai described as “a first in Nyeri”.
It was also difficult
for them to sign their marriage certificate and to share their wedding
cake, but these paled in comparison to the exchange of vows at the
emotional ceremony.
“I have never conducted such a wedding. It shows
far love can go. It is a lesson in sticking with your vision regardless
of hurdles, and eventually reaching your destination,” the reverend
said.
The couple did not have a photo shoot after the wedding but was
taken to a private room at the hospital where Mwangi sat by Gakenia’s
bed for hours.
Gakenia, a system administrator at Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, will remain at the hospital for six weeks.