Mambo Mbotela: May his voice echo through haunt our leaders into integrity

The late Veteran radio broadcaster Leonard Mambo Mbotela. [File, Standard]

That voice. The voice that brought hope to a shattered nation. That voice. The voice that restoreddignity and assurance to a people maimed and traumatised. That voice. The voice that raised Kenya from its knees during its darkest and bloodiest hour.

"Big brother, do you know that your voice is what former President Moi and Kenyans needed to hear to regain confidence that the country had survived the 1982 coup? It is your voice too that almost got me killed" I told Leonard Mambo Mbotela, one beautiful sunny morning. His eyes lit up. He smiled, shook his head and asked me: "Shemeji, (in law), what exactly do you mean that my voice almost got you killed?" He used to call me Shemeji while my children referred to him as Babu (grandfather).