Village technician who uses his mouth to repair radio

James Okeyo, a technician at Ururi village in Siaya county who uses his mouth to prove that disability is not inability. PIC BY ISAIAH GWENGI

"Disability is a matter of perception. If you can do just one thing well, you're needed by someone." Tennis champion Martina Navratilova must have had James Okeyo in mind when she uttered these immortal words.

This is because disability is a "matter of perception" for Mr Okeyo, who was crippled by polio at the age of 13. Disability doesn't bother the father of five anymore because he is doing one thing very well - repairing radios.

"God might have denied me limbs but he gave me a mouth, allowing me to make a living and even feel happy and contented," he says.

For more than two decades, Okeyo has been repairing radios at Usenge market using his mouth. He makes at least Sh200 per day.

"Many people including my immediate relatives laughed when I said I wanted to be a radio repairer. But this did not deter me from fulfilling my dream," he said.

As a child, Okeyo also suffered a lot stigma due to his disability."I became the village outcast and no child wanted to play with me. They all believed that I was bewitched," he told The Standard. Others feared that his condition was contagious.

"It started with a simple flu, loss of appetite and general body fatigue. My parents ignored the signs, not knowing that it would dramatically change my life for the worst," he explains the genesis of his ordeal.

When we visited him in his one-roomed house in Ururi village, we were welcomed by the blare of benga music by Atomy Sifa. Inside the house, we found Okeyo nodding his head rhythmically in tandem with with the beats.

"Living with disability is a big challenge. Even your close family members see you as a burden and might avoid you," he said. He said it is such frustrations that pushed him away from home; determined to look for something that would make him independent.

"Inasmuch as some people were willing to help me, I also felt that I could be of great importance to the society," Okeyo said.

Okeyo who has no formal education has carved a niche in the field of electronics. The man who was born 43 years ago in Got-Agulu Sub Location, Siaya County is now assured of a steady income as he repairs at least two radios a day.

He explains how it all begun: "My sister gave me a small radio which then fell down and I took it to a radio technician. He charged me Sh60 for the work and after one day, it stopped working. I decided to open it and see what might have gone wrong."

After successfully connecting the wires that had disengaged, he instantly developed interest in the trade.

Okeyo, who is popularly known as Okethi, says that fellow villagers initially could not trust him with their their gadgets.

"They would bring me old radios but took the new and faulty ones to 'professional' technicians," he says.

But after months of trial and error, he was able to do a good job, and win the trust of the villagers.

"In the beginning, I didn't even know how to use a circuit meter to check the electrical continuity in the radios. It took time, and gradually I became better and better. Sometimes I even stayed up all night just to practice," says Okeyo.

The father also reveals that he was once caught on the wrong side of the law. "With the hard economic situation, I was tempted to try the illegal drugs trade but I was unsuccessful. I was arrested and charged in court."

Okeyo, who now lives in Ururi village, also gets a monthly stipend of Sh3,000, thanks to the Government's cash transfer programme for vulnerable persons.