'You were my first love and my forever! Naiyanoi Ntutu’s heartfelt farewell to Ngeno

Naiyanoi Ntutu on March 4, 2026/COURTESY

Naiyanoi Ntutu inside the hearse carrying the remains of her husband Lee at the funeral home on March 4, 2026/COURTESY

An atmosphere of deep sorrow engulfed Karen AGC Church, Nairobi, on Wednesday as Naiyanoi Ntutu paid a glowing and emotional tribute to her late husband, Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ngeno, describing him as the man who shaped her youth and filled her life with love.

Ntutu spoke tenderly of the years they shared, recalling a journey that began in innocence and grew into a partnership defined by devotion, friendship and family.

“To my beloved Joha, the husband of my youth, even saying your name carries a lifetime inside it,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion.

“You were the love of my early days, when everything was still soft and full of possibility.”

She told the congregation that they were young when they began building their life together, navigating adulthood hand in hand. In those uncertain early years, she said, he became her anchor.

“We were learning life together, and somehow you made it all feel less frightening and more beautiful,” she said.

Ntutu described her husband as a man whose love brought light into the ordinary rhythms of daily life.

“Your love made ordinary days feel like a celebration. I can still hear it, and I think I always will,” she said, drawing quiet sobs from sections of the church.

Her tribute lingered longest on Ngeno’s role as a father to their two children, Taparon and Chesang. She portrayed him as a proud, affectionate and deeply involved parent who took immense joy in watching his children grow.

“You adored them. You held them with pride, you played with them, and you looked at them like they were your greatest accomplishments,” she said.

“In their eyes, you are a hero. In mine, you were a gentle, devoted father with the biggest heart.”

While colleagues and political allies remembered Ngeno as a vocal and passionate leader, Ntutu’s words revealed a softer side, a man whose greatest achievements were found not in Parliament but at home.

“Losing you feels like losing the music of my youth, the laughter, the dreams, the simplicity of believing we had endless time,” she said.

Even so, she insisted that death could not erase what they built together.

“It cannot erase the love, the memories, the family we created. You will always be my Joha,” she said.

“Rest gently, my love. You are forever part of me.”

Ngeno died Saturday, February 28, alongside six others in a chopper crash at Chepkieb in Nandi County.

They were from an event in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County.

He will be laid to rest Friday at his Dikir home.