Zablon Ongera Nyakundi

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of ZABLON ONGERA NYAKUNDI, jua kali welder of Daraja Mbili, on 11th November 2026 at Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital. Husband to Jemimah Kemunto; father to Collins and Brenda; brother to Mercy, Samuel and Lydia; uncle to many. Family and friends meet daily at Daraja Mbili, Kisii, at 5.30 pm. Cortege leaves Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital Mortuary on Wednesday 2nd December at 8.00 am for a funeral service at Nyamache SDA Church, followed by burial at the family home. M-Pesa Paybill 713820, Account ZABU. Rest in peace, Fundi.

Almost every gate in Daraja Mbili has a small star welded into its bottom corner, and anyone who lives there will tell you who put it there. Zablon Ongera Nyakundi, known to all as Fundi Zabu, signed every job with that star, and for thirty years it meant a gate that would never sag, a window grille that would never rust, and a bill that was never inflated.

He was born in Nyamache in 1971, the fifth of eight children of a banana farmer. He left Form Two when the fees ran out and started as an apprentice at a Kisii jua kali shed, sweeping metal shavings for his lunch. By twenty-four he had his own workstation, a second-hand arc welder and a customer list that stretched from Kisii town to Keroka. He trained fourteen apprentices over the years, and nine of them now run their own workshops.

Zablon was a man of few words and many repairs. He mended the church gate for free, rebuilt a neighbour's stove after a fire, and welded a ramp for a boy in a wheelchair at Nyanchwa without charge. He was a keen player of draughts and a loud supporter of Gor Mahia. He carried a small notebook in his shirt pocket and drew sketches in it for gates that he had not yet been asked to build.

He was a deacon at Nyamache SDA Church, where on Sabbath mornings he oversaw the sound system and the offering baskets. After a short illness he died at Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital on 11 November 2026, aged fifty-five.

He leaves his wife Jemimah, two children, his siblings, and a town full of gates with a small star in the corner.