Photo/JARED NYATAYA
Senior Sergeant Daniel Abuga Nyatigo, 53, (right) and his son Wycliffe
Abuga, 30, at the war front in Belesc Qoogani, Central Sector of
Somalia, on February 28.
Daily Nation
Sunday, March 04, 2012
Yet, when he came of age and made an attempt to join the Kenya Army, the recruiting officers rejected him five times.
“I had lost hope until a friend advised me to join the National Youth Service, learn a trade and join the Army as a specialist,” he says. He joined the army after training as a plant operator at the NYS.
Today, 32 years after he joined the army, the man affectionately referred to by his younger colleagues as “Babu” and “Sokoro” (Kisii for elder), is among the Kenya Defence Forces in Somalia.
His dream has, in a sense, been accomplished. He is a Senior Sergeant, but fate has also conspired to have his son, Senior Private Wycliffe Abuga, 30, also deployed to the front line in the war against Al-Shabaab.
Snr Sgt Abuga is based at the KF patrol base at Tabda, about 70 kilometres in Somalia, while his son is at Belesc Qoogani, 35 kilometres further.
Some describe the military as a national insurance scheme in which the annual budgetary allocations are the equivalent of premiums, and the eventualities for which they are deployed the accidents insurers compensate for.
If that be the case, it is time for the soldiers in Operation Linda Nchi to pay back for the years of training and pay that led to the derisive description of the Kenyan Defence Forces as a career army.
Lieutenant-Colonel Jeff Nyagah, the commander of the KDF troops in the Central Sector, estimates that 70 per cent of the soldiers currently in Somalia have been involved in combat.
Snr Sgt Abuga, who supervises the drivers on the Armoured Personnel Carriers at Tabda, has had his fair share of fighting since Operation Linda Nchi began in mid-October 2011.
The asymmetrical nature of the operation means there are no frontages and, with Al-Shabaab using guerrilla tactics, there have been no shortage of encounters and opportunities for KDF to test their weaponry and skills.
Snr Sgt Abuga says he has been involved in 11 attacks since the operation started, the bulk of them ambushes on the Puma APCs that are arguably the safest vehicles in the fleet.
Al-Shabaab are said to refer to the sturdy armour-clad machines as “the graves from which people rise” and Snr Sgt Abuga was in one when they rained rocket-propelled grenades on the windscreen.
“If you sit in one of these vehicles and come under an attack, it sounds like it is raining. You shouldn’t be worried,” he says as he points out the openings through which the soldiers shoot.
He says he was with his son in a convoy when they
came under attack from Al-Shabaab in an ambush. Interestingly, Snr Sgt
Abuga and his son were among the first to undergo training on driving,
servicing and maintaining the new APCs when they were delivered in
September 2011.Sgt Abuga is based at Kahawa Barracks while his son is with the Nanyuki-based First Kenya Rifles Battalion.
Now they keep in touch on the Hormuud Telecom mobile phone network, which somehow operates in the infamously lawless state and is a useful communication channel with those back home.
Does he worry that either he or his son could be hit in one of the attacks?
“Kifo cha nyani kikifika, miti yote huteleza,” he says, using the Swahili proverb that suggests each man is born with his destiny, and there is no avoiding death.
For Snr Sgt Abuga and other soldiers in Somalia, spending the nights and a good part of the day in trenches is normal, and nobody seems to mind the dust.
“I’m happy to have fought here,” he says as we look at his reinforced trench, which he has been converting into a bunker of sorts, immune to mortars and RPGs.
He does not foresee a longer future in the army once Operation Linda Nchi is over – whenever that may be – but hopes for a promotion to the next rank, Warrant Officer II, before he retires.
“If I get a little more pension and I’m able to buy myself a small pick-up, buy a few cattle and work on my farm, I’ll be one happy senior sergeant,” he says. Sgt Abuga was in a convoy last Tuesday that unearthed a significantly large improvised explosive device (IED) about 12 kilometres away from Tabda towards Belesc Qoogani.
Al-Shabaab attempted to stage an ambush on the convoy but were repulsed by a combination of the Transitional Federal Government soldiers and the Kenyan troops.
The Abugas were happy to be reunited, if only for a short while. Although they are a generation apart – the son speaks Sheng, showing a silver tooth while the father speaks Kiswahili with a thick Kisii accent – their resemblance is obvious.
The son, who is also a father of one, foresees a long future serving in the army.
Snr Sgt Abuga might not have his pick-up, cows and farm yet, but he appears to be one happy senior sergeant.