Teresa Gideon, the mother of Mercy Kanini, the Juja woman who delivered five babies through normal delivery, has demanded that a DNA test be conducted on the quintuplets before they are laid to rest.
Speaking at Kenyatta National Hospital on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, Teresa said she was not prepared to bury her grandchildren without first confirming their paternity.
When did Kanini’s last quintuplet die?
Her remarks, shared on Facebook by Trudy Kitui, quickly spread online and drew strong reactions from Kenyans following the story.
The tragedy began when Mercy Kanini lost four of her five newborns within hours of giving birth, a devastating blow that left the family and well-wishers in shock.
The fifth and last surviving quintuplet also died just hours later, completing a heartbreaking sequence that no family should have to endure.
Why didn’t Teresa announce burial arrangements? Teresa, who had narrated events surrounding the deaths of the four babies in an earlier account, said she was speaking from a place of deep pain and unanswered questions.
Rather than moving straight to burial arrangements, she insisted that the family needed clarity about the babies’ paternity before any funeral proceedings could go ahead.
The case had already attracted national attention before Teresa’s statement, with comedian and media personality Eric Omondi, speaking publicly about what had unfolded around the time of the deaths.
Is loss of five babies grief enough?
Teresa’s call for a DNA test before burial introduces a deeply personal and sensitive dimension to an already sorrowful situation.
For many Kenyans, the loss of all five babies is grief enough, yet the grandmother’s insistence on paternity verification signals that the family’s anguish runs deeper than the deaths alone.
The quintuplets were born to Mercy Kanini, a mother of seven, through normal delivery — a rare and remarkable feat that had initially drawn admiration before the story turned to mourning.
