A sombre mood has engulfed residents in Mombasa County and the entire coast region, following the death of Alice Maitha on Tuesday.
The deceased was the third and youngest widow of former Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Minister, the late Emmanuel Karisa Maitha.
Karisa who was seen as the coast political kingpin, died of a heart attack in 2004 while on an official visit to Germany to market Kenya as a tourist destination. He was aged 50.
The former Kisauni MP rose from a councillor in Kisauni in the 1970s to become a powerful coast region political point-man and an influential Cabinet minister in President Mwai Kibaki’s government.
Children to the late said the mother was ailing and had been admitted in hospital for the past three weeks.
"She has been a fighter. She fought hard to be alive but we thank God," said the first-born daughter to the first wife.
The first-born daughter to the deceased called for the government's help, saying they greatly depended on her mother for livelihood.
The body is currently at the Makadara Hospital Mortuary and would be buried in Mzambaraoni, Mtwapa in Kilifi County on March 24, where the husband was laid to rest.
In 2013, she unsuccessfully vied for Mombasa senatorial post through TNA party, which was merged into the current Jubilee Party, headed by President Uhuru Kenyatta.