Jobless, broke, but blessed: How young couple got triplets despite using family planning

When your partner is on family planning pills, you concern yourself less with the worry that they would fall pregnant; because you took a preventive measure. So, what would you do if you found out that you are pregnant regardless, and not with one child but three?

That’s the story of Job Mugoi. In July, he slept on the benches at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) waiting for his wife to give birth to triplets, three beautiful but delicate girls, with no idea of how he would feed, clothe or shelter them.

He moved from Kisii County in 2021 to Nairobi, “shamba la mawe,” hoping for a better opportunity at work, and he got it.

He met Valentine, his wife, began life, and blessings just kept on coming - they got a baby girl in 2022.

But as fate would have it, the moment life started looking up, tragedy struck and Job, the sole breadwinner, lost his only source of income a few months later.

Now, with two mouths to feed, he sought casual labour jobs to sustain his family. At the same time, his wife got on family planning pills to garner some control over their family’s expansion.

He cannot remember what ran through his mind when his wife fell pregnant in 2024, but what he knew was that for this child, he would do everything in his power to provide for her too.

One prenatal counselling session and scan drowned that thought in doubt and desperation. Triplets.

They were expecting triplets in a matter of months, and they weren’t ready. He took his wife for a second opinion and it confirmed his fear, he was going to be a father of three more girls.

To another parent this might be the most exhilarating news, but for Job his options were running few.

Picture this; Without a stable source of income, he was constantly second guessing his ability to feed the mouths in coming into his home. His wife was also without employment and with her frail frame bearing triplets, her health did not leave her in any shape to supplement his supply.

The due date finally came and Valentine’s feet were swollen, her back strained and her body unable to hold up for longer than a few minutes.

That was how Job began drowning in debt, borrowing money from his brother to take his wife to the hospital, only to find out that one of the foetuses hadn’t fully turned and was lying transverse in his wife’s belly, calling for an immediate C-section.

KNH did not have room for referral patients and had to turn them away. Their attending doctor at Mbagathi Hospital advised them to switch from referral and walk into the hospital as an emergency patient, which he heeded. There was a sum of money to be paid for emergency patient admittance - money he didn’t have and had to borrow, again.

Finally, at KNH, with the overflow of patients dimming their need for urgent care, Job had to take matters into his own hands. He had to personally fetch a bed and wheel his wife into the emergency area, and press for help. Graciously, the doctors took to speed, and Valentine delivered their newborn girls.

Job spent the night on the hospital benches waiting for her successful delivery. Then came the golden question; how would he pay the medical bills?

A doctor at the hospital advised him to seek a Social Health Authority (SHA) membership to help him cater for the bill, which had soared to almost Ksh.80,000. He had to pay for a full year’s membership, money he once again, did not have. He called upon his brother who took a loan out from his chama and the registration was sorted.

A few days before July 14, 2025, Valentine was set to be discharged, but her blood level was low, according to her attending physician, and she needed a transfusion and observation for two more days.

Luckily, instead of paying for the blood, Job was presented with the option of getting two donors whose blood would substitute the blood being given from the bank.

Two days later, as if the odds weren’t already stacked high enough against them, Valentine’s surgery wound opened up and she lost so much blood, passed out, with their child in her arms.

Again, she needed an urgent transfusion and the same procedure was applied.

This time though, Job didn’t have any volunteers and he had to pay three men Ksh.300 each from his already empty pockets, and cater for their transport to and from the hospital, for them to donate their blood.

When all was said and done, he didn’t have a penny to his name or credit to take them home, so he called in a favour. They had prescription medicine to buy that wasn’t taken care of by their national medical cover in order for Valentine to heal.

He called in his last favours and managed to purchase the medication; but remember, Valentine is of a slender and gentle frame. The milk she produced from her breasts was not going to be enough, as advised by the medical professionals that discharging her, and she needed to supplement their feeding with formula milk, with a can costing around Ksh.2,000.

Empty pockets, deep debt and full hands later, Job and Valentine are back home in Mukuru kwa Njenga, with their girls and only hope to keep them fed, healthy and strong.