PHOTOS: Family, friends light up candles in honour of volleyball icon Janet Wanja

Family, friends, colleagues and associates on Tuesday evening converged at Vikam B Centre, Clay City, in Kasarani Estate in Nairobi where they lit up candles in honour and remembrance of the fallen volleyball icon Janet Wanja.

The event which brought together the deceased immediate family, relatives, and friends was also attended by some of Wanja’s former national team colleagues, the Malkia Strikers as well as childhood colleagues, many of whom grew up with Wanja at Kahawa Barracks.

The five-hour event saw the church lead with prayers, before tributes and candle-lighting in her honour.

The former setter played for Kenya Pipeline Volleyball Club and was also a mainstay in the national side, Malkia Strikers, winning several accolades.

Burial plans are ongoing with daily meetings at the Sportsview Hotel in Kasarani Nairobi. On Thursday the sports world will gather at the Kasarani Indoor Arena for a requiem service before her interment on Friday, in a private ceremony, at the Lang’ata Cemetery.

The volleyball queen died on December 27, aged 40,  after a brave battle with gallbladder cancer.