News of KDF pilot’s death in ‘Linda Nchi’ chopper crash killed his father

The late Major Samuel Keli Kavindu

By PAUL WAFULA and NYAMBEGA GISESA

Kitui, Kenya: Francis Kavindu arrived at his Kivani home in Kitui County one Wednesday morning in late 2011. He found men digging a grave. When he asked whose grave it was, he was told it was for his fifth-born son, Major Samuel Keli Kavindu.

Kavindu sat in a shade in his compound for hours, hurt and terribly shocked. At about 6pm, the senior Kavindu asked his third son, Antony, to bring him a glass of water.

“I asked someone else in the compound to bring Mzee (old man) the water, but my dad would hear none of it. He insisted that I should take him the water myself, saying if he had wanted someone else to bring him water, he would not have asked me,” Antony narrates. 

He went for the water after his dad insisted. The old man drank it quietly.

Died quietly

“After drinking the water, he said he was feeling a bit weak and I advised him to go and get some rest,” he says.

After a short while, the senior Kavindu walked to his room, climbed onto his bed and died quietly.

A few weeks earlier, his son, Major Kavindu had arrived home on the evening of October 15, 2011, from Somalia. He spent the evening chatting and laughing with his wife Damaris Ngii and their three sons. He was in a good mood and in no hurry to go to bed.  Early the next morning, the Major left for Liboi and promised to call his family as soon as he arrived. When he didn’t call as promised, his wife tried to reach him, but in vain.

Fateful flight

She assumed it was the frequent network problems in the area. It was not until the next morning, Monday 17, that she started to worry. He had not called. This was very unusual. Later in the day, she was visited by rare men at her work station; the military. Then it all fell in place.

Major Kavindu was no more. He was the co-pilot of the ill-fated helipcopter that had crashed the previous night of October 16, 2011.

The helicopter that crashed near Liboi Primary School minutes after take-off had gone down with a senior military man to be killed since the start of Operation Linda Nchi.

On board were other soldiers; Corporal Francis Muli Solovea, Corporal Noel Kipkurgat Kipkosiam and Corporal Francis Imenyi Languchia who were burnt beyond recognition. The helicopter had burst into flames, shaking the ground.

This was one of Operation Linda Nchi’s lowest points in the war. It is described as the helicopter crash that almost crushed the spirit of military operations. That fateful flight almost ruined the entire operation, which was only a few hours old at the time.

Hours after the crash, all was still calm back at Major Kavindu’s rural home in Kitui County. The tragic news had not reached by the following morning. His older brother, Julius Munywoki, was working on their Kivani farm as usual.

It was Antony who took the news home. He found Julius tilling and asked if they could talk about something important but Julius said he needed to finish his farmwork before they could talk.

“So I waited for him to finish and then I gave him the tragic news that Samuel was no more. I couldn’t hold it any longer,” Antony narrates. He watched as Julius digested the news.

Julius’s legs became weak and he sat down. But the greatest challenge remained how to break their news to their dad given his frail health. The two brothers decided to keep the news from their dad.

“We agreed to lie to our dad that Sammy had been involved in an accident but he was being treated at a hospital and was getting better.  There was no way we could tell him Sammy was dead,” Antony says. “We were sure he would not take it well.”

They were able to keep the news from their dad for almost a month as they waited for the military to prepare for the burial.

So on the Wednesday before Samuel was buried, the family decided to take their dad to the hospital so that he wouldn’t get suspicious.

“I asked my brother to take our father to hospital so that by the time we were burying Sammy, the old man would be none the wiser,” Antony says. 

Emotional send off

At the hospital, doctors said Kavindu Senior was fine and there was no reason for him to be admitted. This was the beginning of the end for him. He went home to find the grave diggers on site.

That is how two funerals came to be held in one home. Father and son were laid to rest on the same day. It was also the beginning of a private battle for the rest of the family who were left behind.

A week before the crash, Samuel had sent money home to his brothers to take his dad to hospital.

“He was at home a week before he met his death. Our dad was unwell and Samuel sent money to take the old man to a clinic in Thika,” Julius says.

“He later called and asked how the old man was doing and said he would try and come home over the weekend to see him,” he adds.

Maj Kavindu was born in 1972, in Kivani village, Kabati location, Kitui County. He was the fifth child of the late Francis Kavindu and Rael Mutuo, who had died a few years earlier. He was the second last of six children – Julius, Teresia, Antony, Mary and Pauline. 

Maj Kavindu started his education at Kivani Primary School in 1979 from where he sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 1986.

The following year, he was admitted to St Charles Lwanga High School in Kitui for his O’ levels. In 1992, he joined Moi University in Eldoret for a Bachelor’s degree in forestry.

Local school

“He returned home from the university and began teaching at a local secondary school. But he was later recruited into the military after a short stint at the school. That was when our lives began to change for the better,” Julius, who paid most of the school fees for Maj Kavindu, adds.

Kavindu later did his Master’s degree in business administration (Aviation Option) at Moi University. He went to China in 2010 for a pilot’s course where he became a fully qualified pilot.

He began his military career at Kahawa Garrison in 1997, when he served as second lieutenant. But he was transferred to Embakasi Garrison where he joined the aviation wing of the Kenya Army as a first officer.

In 2007 and 2008, he was involved in a peace-keeping mission in Sudan. This earned him UN recognition as he rose through the ranks to the post of major.

He married  Damaris in 1996 and they had three sons. He was buried on Saturday November 5, 2011. Major Kavindu’s epitaph reads: “Let perpetual light shine upon him always in our hearts, and rest in peace.”

 “Following his death, we have been thrust back into abject poverty. Sammy was the family’s main breadwinner,” Julius says.

The senior Kavindu was laid to rest in an emotional send off next to his wife and a few metres from his son’s remains.