Kenya Para-Badminton national team athlete Japheth Kakai Kitela is dead, his family has confirmed.
Speaking on Thursday in Nairobi, Ability Sports Kenya vice president Alfred Simiyu Barasa said that Kakai felt unwell after team Kenya arrived from the World Abilitysport Beach games in Mersin, Turkey on Monday 27th October 2025 and was confirmed dead at Mbagathi Hospital the very same day by noon time.
” He was an integral member of Kenya’s Air Para-Badminton national team that won two gold medals in the just concluded World Ability Sports beach games in Turkey,” said Simiyu.
” He seemed okay to me, we travelled for an hour from Mersin to Instanbul, then connected another six hour flight to Nairobi arriving on Monday at around 4:00 am and after a quick photo session with our media team, we all went home,” Simiyu narrated sadly.
According to a postmortem done on Wednesday afternoon at Mbagathi Hospital in Nairobi, the report indicates that Kakai who was already a leg amputee, developed blood clots in his only surviving left leg and this might have caused a deep vein thrombosis ( DVT) causing a pulmonary embolism that travelled upwards to his lungs , a life threatening condition that ended his life.
The 51 year old was part of John Mburu’s Mixed Tripples Relays team that beat hosts Turkey 3-1 , on Saturday 25th at Pompei beach in Mersin, Turkey during the finals of the World Abilitysport Beach games to clinch a second gold medal for Kenya after the first team had earlier on won in the Mixed Tripples category.
The athlete who was competing under the Para Athletes Sports umbrella body, Ability Sports Kenya hails from Makueni County in Kaiti Constituency, Isovya , Muthanga Mutune village .
The federation’s treasurer Caroline Wanjera and president Agnes Oluoch have both assured their full support to Kakai’s family adding that talks are currently going on with the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports to see if the fallen hero will be accorded a respectful and deserving send off in support and recognition by the Kenyan Government.
Kakai’s family now has confirmed that the deceased who is survived by his wife Catherine Anyesi Kakai, six children and five grand children , will be buried on Saturday ,8th November 2025 at his home in Muthanga Mutune, Makueni County.
By Samson Jura
