A concerned family has come forward to shed light on a deeply troubling and unresolved case involving a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officer who was severely injured while on duty along the Somali border in February 2017.
The soldier, still serving under the Kenya Army, sustained life-altering injuries after being ambushed and shot twice with, shattering his right femur bone.
Although he was airlifted and admitted to a Nairobi hospital where initial surgery was conducted, the aftermath of the injury has led to a cascade of medical complications and bureaucratic neglect.
Despite being cleared for compensation by the official medical board and referred multiple times for follow-up correctional surgery, the officer remains untreated and uncompensated nearly a decade later.
His family, exhausted by years of silence and inaction, is now going public in hopes that exposing this injustice might finally bring long-overdue accountability.
“Hi Nyakundi. I want to highlight an incident that happened to my brother in 2016 as he served in the KDF under the Kenya Army. He’s still in service but wanted to highlight the incident, which has gone unresolved and has messed him up completely.
They were ambushed while patrolling the Somali border. He sustained two TKM bullets which completely shattered his right femur bone (femoral shaft) into pieces. They were airlifted to Nairobi and taken to Memorial Hospital, where he had to undergo surgery, and a plate was installed after around two months, once the bullet wounds had healed a bit. This led to bedsores on his lower back. Mind you, he had a few-month-old baby at the time.
Fast forward upon full recovery, the leg had elongated by a few centimeters compared to the left one. Around 2019/2020, he was supposed to be scheduled for corrective surgery to trim the elongated centimeters so that he could walk properly without a limp (which affects his lower spine and pelvis).
This never happened, as the Memorial facility was not available. And as you know, low-ranking officers can’t question their seniors and up to date, this has never been done, despite various medical reports from his base camp to the hospital. The facility has never scheduled him for this corrective surgery.
Despite all that frustration, the board that sat to determine compensation for the injured officer met, and the issue was resolved. Yet, to date, he hasn’t received his compensation.
From the little understanding I have, the base doctor is supposed to refer the patient to Memorial Hospital, and this has been done several times especially when he was based in Nanyuki and used to get severe back pain. Those claims were submitted, but no reply was ever received. The only other time he went with that referral letter, he was seen by the doctors there and told to go back to camp. They said that when a slot opens up, it will be communicated. That was some years back.
The date of admission was 14-Feb-2017 the ambush happened on Friday the 13th of February.
At that time, KDF medical insurance was covered by Jubilee Kenya. As I mentioned, he had already appeared before the board that determines compensation. That was done, and a claim form was filled out and submitted to the DoD. To date, there has been no news whatsoever about the possibility of when he will receive his compensation. Please see below the claim form filled out then as evidence.”
The timing of this revelation is striking.
It comes just days after the BBC released its explosive Blood Parliament investigation, which implicated elements of the KDF in the extrajudicial killings of peaceful protesters during last year’s anti-tax demonstrations.
The documentary sparked outrage across the country, with many Kenyans questioning the true role of the military in maintaining order.
These chilling revelations have only deepened the mistrust in an already strained relationship between the government, the military and the Kenyan populace.
