This archive report was first published on 2 August 2019.
On August 2, 2019, Nairobi News reported on the emotional farewell of Bomet Governor Joyce Laboso, who had been battling cancer for years.
Laboso's close friends, including Chief Administrative Secretary Rachel Shebesh and Nominated MP Cecily Mbarire, shared emotional accounts of her last moments at Nairobi Hospital.
According to Shebesh, Laboso summoned President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto to her hospital bed to bid them farewell, and they promptly responded.
"We were privileged to spend the last one month with her. I spent all the nights at the Nairobi Hospital. There is a night she asked for the president and the deputy president who responded promptly and said her goodbyes. To family also. Joyce was a great sister and the glue that kept us together," said Shebesh.
Laboso was also concerned about the reported divisions in Jubilee Party, and her friends revealed that she had asked them to brief her about the situation even during her stay in a London hospital.
"When we were in London we were sitting in the room with Joyce one day and she said this ‘girls come sit here and tell me what is happening in Kenya and the politics of Tangatanga, Kieleweke,’ and we tell her we did not come to see her to talk politics but she would insist," said Mbarire.
