23-year-old Miss World Kenya- Nyamira County 2016 passes away

Miss World Kenya -Nyamiri County 2016, Mercy Mokeira has passed away, her father confirmed to eDaily Kenya.

Last year  a photo of two Kenyan beauty queens and two inmates at Lang'ata Women's Prison, which went viral with online users pointing out that the prisoners are more beautiful than the queens. The photo shows the late Miss World Kenya-Nyamira County (second from left) and Miss World Kenya-Siaya County posing next to two female inmates, including Ruth Wanjiku Kamende, who stabbed her boyfriend 22 times, during a visit on International Women's Day.

Mokeira died aged 23 on Saturday, January 28, at 11:30am at North Kinangop Hospital, where she had been hospitalised since mid January 2017.

Mercy Mokeira had fallen ill last year December and was admitted to a hospital in Kijabe after complaining of neck pain. At the hospital, she was diagnosed with thyroid disease. She got well and was later discharged.

However, mid January 2017, she fell ill again and was taken to North Kinangop Hospital. On the second admission, she was frail and couldn’t talk or do things by herself.

Her blood samples were taken to Nairobi for testing on Tuesday, but before a report could be presented to North Kinangop Hospital, she died.

“My first born child, Mercy Mokeira, died today (Saturday, January 28) – and my family is headed to North Kinangop Hospital to transfer her body to a morgue in Gilgil. It is such a sad day for me,” her father, Josephat Momanyi told EDAILY on phone at 8:50pm Saturday.

Miss World Kenya franchise holder Terry Mungai has eulogized Mercy Mokeira as a lively and hard-working lady.

"I am saddened by the death of Mercy Mokeira. I pass my condolences to her family and the entire Nyamira County. Mokeira was a very cheerful lady, and she did a good job in the fight against jigger infestation in different parts of the country."