This archive report was first published on 22 December 2019.
February 18, 2012, was a day that would change the life of Lieutenant Beauttah Suba forever. As an elite operator with the 20 Parachute Battalion, he was conducting a mission deep inside enemy territory in Somalia when his platoon bumped into an al-Shabaab patrol base.
According to Lt Suba's account in the book A Soldier's Legacy, some of the al-Shabaab fighters began to flee, abandoning assets and colleagues, wailing and generally exposing themselves to KDF fire. A good number of the enemy fighters were neutralised.
However, unbeknownst to Lt Suba and his platoon, the militants had regrouped and laid an ambush for the KDF men as they made their way back to the Badhadhe Forward Operating Base. Al-Shabaab encircled the platoon and strategically deployed snipers, unleashing a hail of bullets that left Lt Suba severely injured.
As the fighting intensified, Lt Suba sensed a cold feeling in his right leg as a burst of machine-gun fire hit him. He returned fire and changed cover in order to continue engaging, but the sniper shot at him yet again, this time twice in the hip, with the bullet tearing through his jungle fatigues.
With all hope seemingly lost, the platoon had to improvise to save Lt Suba's life. A runner retrieved a first aid kit and began to dress the wound to arrest bleeding, while another soldier helped Lt Suba to change cover to evade enemy fire. He also asked the officer to pray, which gave Lt Suba a better view of the battlefield and allowed him to identify the exact position from where the fire was most intense.
With the machine gun crew's precision, they silenced the enemy weapon, and Lt Suba was finally evacuated at 6pm by an Army helicopter, with his right leg secured using an improvised wooden plank.
Major John Njoroge, the helicopter pilot, recalls the evacuation as 'a delivery from the jaws of death'. They struggled to position Lt Suba across the two backseats, with his feet hanging outside the aircraft, and flew at night despite the MD500 lacking night flying capability.
After escaping with his life, Lt Suba almost lost his life again as the ambulance transporting him from the Moi Air Base in Eastleigh to the Defence Forces Memorial Hospital was held up in a major traffic gridlock. At the hospital, doctors retrieved three bullets while two remained lodged in delicate parts of his body.
On Jamhuri Day of 2013, President Uhuru Kenyatta awarded Lt Suba the Silver Star Medal for his act of valour, and a year later he was promoted to Captain. Captain Suba was to be appointed by the Defence Headquarters as the ambassador of persons living with disability.
