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By MICHAEL MUGWANG’A
Monday, February 04, 2008
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| Dr Victor Okumu’s widow Sanya (left) and her daughters Olivia (holding Okumu’s picture) and Winnie. Photo/ JOSEPH KANYI | |
He helped bring two lives into this world moments before his own was taken away.
Dr Victor Okumu performed emergency Caesarean section to bring forth two babies, minutes before he was killed in an explosion in war-torn Somalia last Monday. His colleagues say he had great love for children and spent most of his time serving the sick and pregnant mothers in war zones.
While in his professional element, he served in Sierra Leone at the height of the civil war that lasted more than 10 years, which claimed millions of lives.
In Sudan, Dr Okumu helped to save lives during the war that pitted rebels of Southern Sudan and the government. He was based in the Darfur hot spot during the war.
And just when Sudan was cooling off, Somalia erupted and Dr Okumu willingly went there.
The 56-year-old father of five seemed always present at every trouble spot and was willing to take the risk to save lives.
The last statement he made to his wife Ursula Sanya was: “We have been through a very disturbing and threatening situation at the close of the year, but God saw us through it. That gives me faith that this new year will be full of success.
“Challenges are bound to come our way, but the God who saw us through the end-year incident will give us victory.”
He was referring to an incident on December 29 when he and his wife were forced to spend a night at a good Samaritan’s at Ahero in Nyanza to escape from a gang that had blocked the road on their way to a funeral in Busia.
“The men blocked our way and were approaching us with machetes. We missed death by a whisker,” remembers Ms Sanya.
The couple was travelling to their rural home in Samia to bury a relative who had died when they ran into trouble. At the time, the country was tense after the December 27 General Election.
Even with the knowledge that they would traverse the most dangerous of zones, Dr Okumu and wife took the risk just to join other family members for the funeral.
Christmas break
The medic had just taken a Christmas break from his duty in Kismayu, Somalia, and soon after the burial in Siwongo Village of Samia District, he travelled back to his Nairobi home.
He flew back to his work station on January 10 and was in touch with his family in Kenya until tragedy struck.
Last Monday at 1pm, Dr Okumu and two of his colleagues died in an explosion as they left the Kismayu hospital for lunch at the premises of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (doctors without borders) in the town.
Dr Okumu worked with MSF for over 10 years.
Before joining the organisation, Dr Okumu was with the Ministry of Health and served in various stations and hospital across the country.
Dr Okumu graduated with a degree in medicine from the University of Nairobi in 1982. He was temporarily attached to Kenyatta National Hospital while undertaking his post-graduate course at the same university. He completed his Masters degree in Surgery in 1998.
Describing Dr Okumu as a very hard-working and daring colleague, MSF’s humanitarian affairs officer Tirana Hassan regretted the killing saying Somalia was turning out to be the most dangerous place to work.
The MSF office in Nairobi says the exact circumstances of the tragic incident were not yet clear, but a Catholic news agency said the death occurred when a roadside bomb went off, believed to have been detonated by remote control.
Speaking at the medic’s home in Nairobi last Thursday, Ms Hassan said the organisation was trying to gather as much detail as possible on the circumstances under which the explosion occurred.
“As a policy, we do not provide armed security to our personnel, but in areas considered very dangerous, we make exceptions,” Ms Hassan said adding that only staff in Somalia and Chechnya have armed guards.
At the time of the explosion, Ms Hassan said the vehicle carrying Dr Okumu and colleagues was in a convoy that also had armed personnel, but the other vehicles were not affected.
Ms Sanya describes her husband as a dedicated and very loving.
“Victor was a great man, loving and dedicated to family and his work. We will miss him,” said the widow, who is a nurse at Kenyatta National Hospital.
Five children
Dr Okumu is survived by five children aged between 25 and 17. The first-born Olivia Sanya just cleared her undergraduate degree in Information Technology at the Uganda Martyrs University in Kampala, while her younger sibling, Edward, is pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science at a university in Malaysia.
Winnie will sit her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examination later this year at Moi Girls High School in Nairobi while the last born Allan is in Form Three at St Nicholas Academy also in the city.
The third born Patrick Sanya works at the Nas Airport Services based at Jomo Kenyatta International Air Port.
Source: Daily Nation, Feb 04, 2008