Despite losing three limbs, his dreams are valid

Robert Gesanda typing using his foot. [PHOTO: BEVERLYNE MUSILI/STANDARD]

It is his right leg that does it all. From making the bed to brushing teeth and tapping his computer’s keyboard; he does it with admirable ease and perfection.

Despite the tragedy that struck him at the tender age of five and had him on hospital bed for two years, Robert Gesanda, is an example of how far determination can take a person.

Robert, 26, recalls the 1993 incident in Nyamira that almost shattered his dreams: “I was on my way home from nursery school when I was run over by a road grader. Almost one and half decades later, the memory of that incident remains vivid in my mind. Unconscious after the accident, I still have no idea how I got out from under the grader, or how I am alive today.”

The young man owes his life to his brother and to God. His brother, Charles, who was in Class Seven at the time, was on his way back to school after lunch when he met a pupil saying that a child had been run over by a tractor. Eager to find out more, he went to witness for himself. That is how he found out that the victim was his younger brother.

Battered, Robert lay trapped between the blades of the grader, he seemed unconscious, no part of his body was moving. 

“The scene was a distance from home and my parents were in the ‘shamba’. With no time to waste, I and my neighbours pulled him from underneath the grader. We bundled his seemingly lifeless body into a gunnysack and set out on a 15-kilometre trek to the main road to seek help. He was a bloody mess: His arms and leg had been severed; only strips of skin held them together,” Charles recalls.

Robert adds: “My brother donated blood and stayed with me for the entire night. My parents only made it to the hospital the following day having learned about my accident late in the evening.” 

New twist

In 1995, Robert left St Joseph’s Hospital in Nyabondo, Kisumu, and he was moved to Dagoretti Children’s Home. Though the children’s home took good care of him, life took a new twist when his mother passed on.

“After passing my primary school examination, Dagoretti Children’s Home sponsored my entire High school studies in 2007, at Joy Town Secondary School in Thika.”

Matters got worse after his father re-married and left them under the care of a maternal uncle.

In 2008, during the post-election violence, he says, a gang of young men came to their house in Molo wielding crude weapons. Sensing danger and aware of his condition, their next-door neighbour hid them in her house. The following day, together with his brother, they boarded a vehicle to their ancestral home in Nyamira to seek refuge.

“Lonesome and terrified, Charles rented a small room using Sh800 that he had. We relied on food supplies from  Red Cross Society of Kenya. But this did not bring me down. I kept hoping for the best and did my Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) and a Good Samaritan from Hindu Council Mr Muljibhai Pindolia, sponsored my full course in Diploma in ICT,” he says.

He graduated with a Diploma in ICT from Inoorero University and he is now in Second Year in the same institution, pursuing a degree in ICT sponsored by Charles Rioba of Solar World Company.

Using his only leg (right leg) he is able to make his bed, shower, brush his teeth, put on his clothes, move around, operate a computer and do creative drawings.

He is also an upcoming motivational speaker. He was given a chance to speak during the International Women’s Day this year and also gave a talk to Murang’a youth.

His major challenge is getting a job. He says: “I have tried to apply in many companies but I haven’t received any feedback. Life is becoming hard without a job because I am unable to sustain myself.” 

He wants to be an ICT specialist and create jobs for others, adding that he will support the under-privileged in the society. He plans to have a happy family; wife and children.

His parting shot: “We should focus on our dreams and do everything in our power to change our life circumstances.”