Tears as soldier killed in Garissa terror attack is laid to rest

Senior Private Solomon Oketch Oludo was buried at his father’s home in Marindi Village, Homa Bay Town Constituency

HOMA BAY: An army officer who was killed during the Garissa terrorist attack was buried over the weekend.

Senior Private Solomon Oketch Oludo was laid to rest at his father’s home in Marindi Village, Homa Bay Town Constituency in an emotional ceremony.

The 30-year-old soldier was described by his colleagues as a feared commando, a trait which enabled him to remain part of the special soldiers who carried out various assault and counter operations in Kenya and Somalia.

A major leading the army officers during the burial eulogised Mr Oludo as a man who was very crucial in military operations.

A Second Lieutenant identified only as Kiplagat said Oludo had been marked by Al Shabaab terrorists as an energetic and dangerous soldier, a situation suspected to have led to his death. Kiplagat said when they got to the scene, somebody who might had seen them from a distance wrote somewhere that “the man with a big gun has arrived”.

 TWO CHILDREN

Oludo was recruited in 2009 and trained for the first time at RTS in Edoret before he joined the Armed Forces at Kahawa Barracks. He was later selected to join the Ranger D Company in the Army where he underwent further training with the troopers in various parts of the country.

He is survived by wife Gorrety Oketch, 24 and two children.

The the soldier’s father Reuben Oludo described his son as the sole breadwinner in a family of eight children.

“My entire family depended on Solomon,” said Mr Oludo.