- Irwin Mukonyole boarded a plane to Nairobi with his father, believing he would return home in good health
- His mother, who had remained in Malava, had prayed for them when they left home, expecting to pray again when they returned — all alive
- Fate had other plans as that would be his last flight, leaving Irwin with the harsh reality of taking his father’s body to his mother.
When Irwin Mukonyole’s father, Aggrey Mukonyole Karamoja, boarded the plane to Nairobi, the family hoped that he would return home in good health.
Source: Facebook
The 87-year-old man had traveled for treatment at the Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH).
Irwin told TUKO.co.ke that his mother, who had stayed in Malava, had prayed for them as they left home, expecting to pray again when they returned – all alive.
However, what was meant to be a journey of hope, a last attempt at healing, became the son’s most painful lesson in goodbye.
“So, Dad, was this your last flight?” Irwin asked bitterly. “Was this our last flight together?” .
The 80-year-old pediatrician died at 6 am on February 4, with doctors confirming that the cause of death was adenocarcinoma, known for short as liver cancer.
Irwin remembers the night before his father died with a clarity that still hurts. The pain, he says, was relentless, unlike anything he had experienced in his father’s long life.
“Dad, it was very painful,” he recalls. “I’ve never seen you in such pain before. Or maybe you always hid it from me.”
As the doctors worked and his son tried to calm him down, Aggrey cried out in pain, calling Irwin’s name over and over.
For the son, it was difficult to endure, it was more painful, he says, than the disease itself. Despite medical attention and whispered assurances that things would settle down, the morning came mercilessly. Aggrey never woke up.
What haunts Irwin most is not just the moment of death, but what follows: the silence, the waiting, and the walk he never thought he’d take alone.
“Mom is waiting,” Irwin says. “What will I tell him when I come home alone? With a coffin?”
Since his father’s death, Irwin has returned to the KUTRRH mortuary six times. Each visit has the same faint hope that her father might sense her presence, wake up, and talk to her like he used to.
He imagines his father getting up, walking home with him, or at least sending a last message to his mother. But the doors remain closed, and silence answers.
“I’m afraid to go home,” Irwin admits quietly. “Going home alone.”
However, Aggrey Mukonyole Karamoja’s life was bigger than his last appearance. At the age of 87, he had lived what his family describes as a full, purposeful and impactful life.
He was a man of great faith, devoted service and unwavering commitment to education and family. To those who knew him, he was a pillar, a source of wisdom, steadfastness and prayer.
That legacy now stands in stark contrast to the raw grief of the son left behind at the hospital gate, trying to make sense of a journey that ended too soon.
In Irwin’s narrative, his father’s death appears not as a passing but as a sudden abandonment, a plane taken alone, without warning.
Source: Facebook
How to help the Irwin family
As the Mukonyole family prepares to lay Aggrey to rest, Irwin bears the weight of an unfinished journey: the last journey they were meant to take.
What’s left is love, memories, and a legacy that will last long after the pain subsides, even if the questions don’t work out.
Well-wishers can provide financial support to the family through the financial guardian, Mabel Kagonya, on 0722 857 060.
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Source: TUKO.co.ke
