Amos Wako to narrate Covid experience during National Prayer Breakfast

Busia Senator Amos Wako. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

When Busia Senator Amos Wako looks back to the time he fought Covid-19, he sees the ordeal as a turning point, a time that made him review his life.

For a man whose name was synonymous with the Attorney General’s office and known to all pupils who went through primary school between the early 90s and 2011, Wako never imagined being hurriedly ferried to the hospital in an ambulance with an oxygen mask permanently planted on his face.

“I thought I would not come out of it, I thought this is it. My end has come” said the Busia Senator in an interview with KBC.

It was that experience, one that crippled his ability to breathe - the thing he had so expertly mastered in his 74 years under the sun. 

The senator narrated how doctors advised him not to remove the oxygen mask, even if it's for two minutes, lest he would lose his life.

It is this experience that has shaped the former governor's new gospel of calling on Kenyans to follow the health protocols of social distancing, wearing masks and sanitising their hands.

“It’s an experience which I would not wish upon anybody else,” said the senator.

For the 18th National Prayer Breakfast (NPB), with the theme “a hopeful future”, Wako will address the nation in the event which will be graced by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday, May 28. The Busia Senator is expected to give personal accounts of his battle with the virus which has killed more than 3000 Kenyans.

The prayer breakfast event will be held both virtually and physically with only a small group of about 100 attendees invited to physically be at the event at Senate grounds in parliament.

Other dignitaries expected to be present at the event include former Auditor General and members of the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) eminent persons advisory committee, Edward Ouko, Ministry of Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe and Wiper Party leader, Kalonzo Musyoka. 

The event will see a minute of silence in memory of the late Co-Chair and Kiambaa MP Paul Koinange who succumbed to Covid-19 complications in March this year.

Among other leaders who have succumbed to the virus include former NPB chairperson and former minister, Joseph ‘Joe’ Nyagah.

The NPB was first held in 2003 after former President Mwai Kibaki took office with its main purpose being to meet, engage, interact and pray for the nation in the company of fellow leaders from all sectors of society.