When Celebrities Battle With Cancer:Kenyan Celebrities Who Have Fought With The Disease

Cancer. There is such finality to this word. “You have cancer “is not one of the words you ever want to hear from your doctor. It does not only devastate your health but also totals your finances not forgetting the psychological effects.

Just like us normal folks cancer has also affected celebrities and their families, here are some of the celebrities who have battled cancer, some have survived while others were not so lucky.

Veronica Waceke

Veronica Waceke is a screen plus stage actress whom you may have spotted on TV shows like ‘Higher Learning’, where she plays Aida, a feisty University girl who runs an escort company and she lures her friends to join the ‘business’ with a promise of a life of affluence.

She has also been on ‘Guy Centre’, where she plays a talent scout who fishes for new musical talent and goes ahead to promote it. She has also been featured in other local TV acts amongst ‘Be the Judge’, ‘Makutano Junction’, ‘Machachari’ and recently, ‘Mother in Law’.

The youthful, hardworking and passionate actress was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer late last year. Her fellow artistes came to her aide and organized a concert dubbed “Art Synthesis” to raise money for her treatment, they managed to garner around 170,000

Wanade

Wanade (Left)

Television actress Beth Nyambura Mbaya, popularly known by her screen name Wanade, passed away early last year after a battle with cancer

The mother to two young screen sensations — Kamau Mbaya, who plays Baha in the show Machachari, and Mungai Mbaya, who acts in Makutano Junction in addition to being a presenter of the children show Know Zone passed away at her sisters place in Kahawa Sukari

She was married to Mr. Robert Mbaya. Mrs. Mbaya was the older sister to Omosh from the show Tahidi High and the younger sister of actress and scriptwriter Naomi Kamau.

Robert Otani

The Journalist succumbed to prostate cancer after a long tedious battle with the disease at their family’s home in Manyatta-Awendo village in Migori County.

Robert Otani has worked with most of the leading newspapers in the country, even as a freelance journalist, and last worked with the Daily Nation newspaper before he retired. He was the father of Ghetto Radio 89.5 News Editor Mac Otani, who is also the Organizing Secretary of the Kenya Parliamentary Journalists Association.

Ben Muchemi

A few days shy of Christmas, skilled rally driver Ben Muchemi or Baba Shiro as he was dotingly known, bid the world adieu after a brave battle with cancer.

The veteran driver succumbed to the disease just days after going to India for treatment. Baba Shiro was the chairman of the Sports Stadia Management Board (SSMB) and Kenya Motor Sports Federation. Ben will be fondly remembered as a diehard petrol head and a kind soul.