Ex-soldier bets his only land in pursuit of elusive justice

He was excited to secure a chance to join the military on October 12, 1964.

Mr Joshua Okello, then trained at Lanet Barracks in Nakuru for three months and was posted to Kahawa Barracks, where he pursued a driving course before being transferred to Eastleigh Air Base.

He worked in the Air Supply Department before he was later moved to head the General Store.

“I was in charge of all the equipment and my star was brightening fast,” Okello told The Standard on Sunday when we visited him at his Nyahera home.

In 1978, he was sponsored to the Oxford Air force Academy, Britain, where he pursued a course in Airload Master.

He was serving his last year of the 18-year contract in the military, but was in the course of negotiating for another five-year term when the unexpected occurred.

On the night of July 31, 1982, he had just retired to bed when gunshots erupted. The Barracks was under siege and Okello, alongside other officers were rounded and roughed up by unknown people, dressed in military attire.

His seven-month pregnant wife, Rosemary Anyango, was not spared either. She was hit by the attackers despite her status.

Suffering and torture

However, on August 1, the Government had regained the country’s defence and those believed to have been behind the aborted coup dealt with ‘accordingly’.

“I suffered in the hands of the State and the criminals who attempted to overthrow the Government,” said Okello.

The more than eight-month detention in Naivasha and Kamiti Maximum Prisons left him wounded physically, emotionally and financially.

He reveals the suffering and torture they were subjected to as the Government sought to know those behind the coup.

Okello says during routine movement from one cell room to the other, they used to walk on their knees.

He says the rooms were filled with cold water, reaching slightly above the knee, and they would be forced to stay there as long as they did not confess to being part of the coup.

Those who accepted to having taken part, were transferred to ‘less hostile’ environment.

Following the beating, he started limping. He visited various hospitals to seek treatment, but because he was now financially crippled, he could not afford medical fees, consequently, he was rendered physically disabled. He started walking with sticks.

“My lower limbs were affected by the time I left prison in 1983. I could not venture into any income generating activity,” he says.

His poor health, allegedly caused by his detention and torture pushed him to the wall. Neighbours carry him out of his bed to bask. It is during this daily 30-minute ritual that he takes with him his dismissal certificate.

Building material

He has never been to Nairobi since 1983 when he was released from Kamiti Maximum Prison after he was found not liable to charges of treason following the attempted coup.

His nine children never finished secondary school due to lack of school fees.

His wife had to sell vegetables at Kiboswa Market, on the outskirts of Kisumu town to fend for the family, however, the proceeds could not cater for their needs. His dilapidated semi-permanent house built for him by his brother in 1983 is equally in bad shape.

The mud-walled house is slowly wearing out with leaking roof.

The building material he had bought to construct a permanent house in the country-side had to be sold to keep his first born daughter in school, who later dropped out in Form Three due to lack of fees.

One of his sons, a hawker in Kisumu town, is the sole bread winner as the other, a tout in Kisumu main bus stage, struggles to meet his own basic needs. His 62-year-old wife, who uses walking sticks is not in condition to engage in any economic activity.

According to Carolyne Owen, area representative in Kisumu County Assembly, her efforts to enroll Okello among the beneficiaries of the disabled and the elderly funds provided by the national government in vain.

Last month, a group of five former soldiers approached an advocate in Kisumu town to help them pursue compensation, which Okello only heard on radio.

According to Okello, a group of more than 500 ex-soldiers had earlier sued the Government to demand compensation after they were dismissed following the attempted coup.

Because of his sorry financial status, Okello is now worried that he may not raise the advocate fee and miss out on the compensation.

Graduation ceremony

After his dismissal in 1983, he was warned never to be seen in any military barracks in the country.
He says this hindered him from accessing advice on how to access his dues.

He has nothing to show for his service at the military, save for the photograph he took with colleagues in 1979 during a graduation ceremony after attending a Senior Leaders Court in the military.

Sixty-four year old Charles Oliech from Nyakach and Willis Okach from Karachuonyo in Homa Bay and Kisumu counties, both ex-military men, and faced with the same fate as Okello, occasionally visit to console him.

The two are among the officers who have hired an advocate to help them pursue the legal avenues to have them compensated, but Okello, who is financially disabled, is now ready to give his only parcel of land to whoever can help him access compensation from the Government over wrongful dismissal and non-payment of his dues.

“I am ready to give out my only parcel of land to achieve justice to get me out of this quagmire,” a dejected Okello adds.