DP Ruto Donates Sh300,000 to Help Family Airlift Body of Kenyan Student Who Died in Russia

The body of a 19-year-old Kenyan student who died in Russia last month is set to be airlifted to Kenya for burial after Deputy President William Ruto’s intervention.

Abraham Mutinda Mwendwa, an Alliance Boys High School alumnus, passed away in a Russian hospital on September 21st after a short illness. 

Until his death, Mutinda was an engineering student at Russia’s St Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI”.

His family said the Kenyan embassy in Moscow asked them to make their own plans to repatriate his remains despite the deceased being under a government scholarship program.

The deceased’s dad Ambrose Mwendwa, a resident of Nairobi's Utalii estate, appealed to the government and well-wishers to help them raise Sh1.5 million required to transport his son’s remains and accord him a decent send-off.

To help the family bring back Mutinda’s remains, DP Ruto contributed Sh300,000, according to former Machakos Senator Johnstone Muthama, who also donated Sh122,000.

"Following the airing of the demise of Abraham Mwendwa in St. Petersburg Russia, I reached out to his family. We have had meetings to support them repatriate Abraham back home and give him a decent send-off," Muthama said in a tweet.

"William Ruto gave KSh300,000 and myself KSh122,000 which has fully catered for the repatriation to bring our son back home," he added. 

Mutinda was the 18th best student in the 2013 KCPE exam and among the top students in the 2017 KCSE.