Debate Guru

That was on a Wednesday. Torn to the core at the sight of our best friend so helpless in pain, Eddie and I did what we knew best; mobilize our friends/colleagues to contribute to Fahad Fund. We even lobbied the UCU administration so that when he’s discharged the hospital, the bills could be sorted out up-to the extent of our might since at the point he had been hospital for only 3 days and the bills were already soaring. And indeed the response to the “Harambee spirit” was amazing for 3 days later, we had collected the last monies (sent by Moses Okumu, Peter Morse and Kelsey Spainhour…now Kelsey Groves from the bank and Sarah Atai also sent her contribution the following day Sunday) and hurray; we were hitting the 1 million mark to our shock at how an individual could have only touched so many lives in a short span.  Doreen (Fahad’s girlfriend) called me on Sunday morning to tell me that Fahad is showing recovery signs but still in pain. I called Eddie to give him the good news...

Recently on the April 30, 2013, I buried my grandfather Mzee Dan Jared Okuku Ondiegi (Danjo). He took a bow after living 86 years of life albeit with the last one being bedridden after suffering a stroke that paralysed his right side. But this is the one person who I managed to see his last 32 years of life for he literally shaped my life since he was the father I knew in my entire life. In 1992 December, at the age of 11 years when I still might have not understood the value of life, I lost my dad Joseph Olal Adiema. Even though I was not staying with him due to the tumultuous marriage he had,  but I could see the overbearing grief in the eyes of my mother Peninah Atieno Olal; a 36 year old young woman and an even younger co-wife Mary Akeyo Olal who had been thrown into the hands of widowhood at tender ages. The pangs of this loss were later to have full effect on the family stability and my siblings too long to gain their foothold in what happens to them. All this time, I was c...