DISMISSED OVER THE PHONE 18 AGO ,FORMER POLICEMAN NOW CRIES FOR DUES.

Story By Dickens Wasonga.

He punched his way into the Kenya police, gained fame as a disciplined boxer and was once a member of the renowned chafua chafua, a police boxing team that produced famous international boxers.

Edward Oketch Odhiambo, once known in boxing circles as ‘nyathi kwach’ (the leopard’s son) is a perfect example of how one can fall from grace to grass.

The former police officer whose punches endeared him to senior policemen, hence landing him a job as a law enforcement officer is now forced to spend the nights in the cold as a watchman in a bid to eke a living.

From a well paying job, respect from the society which regarded him with awe as ‘afande,’ ‘nyathi kwach’ is now a downtrodden member of the society, barely noticed by anyone.

He now has to survive with an Ksh 800 monthly salary which he has to share with his family.

Though he has accepted his fate, Odhiambo is yet to come to terms with the manner in which he was hounded out of the force.

He has no letter terminating his service and has never accessed his savings and credit cooperative society dues nineteen years since a police signal from his then Provincial Police Officer ordered him to go and politick with the then doyen of opposition politics, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga at home.

A resident of Nyandiwa sublocation in Siaya Township location, Siaya county, Odhiambo says he was recruited into the police force as a boxer in 1980 after he proved to be a good boxer.

He says that his sterling performance while playing for Nairobi Area Amateur Boxing club saw him secure a chance at the Kiganjo Police training College where he passed out as a police officer force number 39257.

“In my boxing career, I was a lightweight boxer where I excelled and was promoted to the intermediate level before being recruited into the police force aged twenty years,” says Odhiambo.

He says that from Kiganjo he was posted to the Nairobi Railways police station before being transferred to the port police station, Kilindini and later to Taita Taveta police station where he met his sacking.

Odhiambo has, however, not come to terms with the manner in which he lost his job in February 1992.

He could not hide his emotions when narrating how the then Coast Provincial Police Officer, whom he can only recall as Mr. Cheserem sent him packing from the force after barely twelve years in service.

“Cheserem merely sacked me through police signals, telling me in Swahili, ‘nenda upige siasa na Jaramogi (go and politick with Jaramogi) , and immediately my salary was stopped to date,” the distressed man added.

By then, Kenya was ripe for the first ever multiparty elections after three decades of single party rule, and Jaramogi, the father to Prime Minister Raila Odinga posed a great challenge to the then President Daniel Arap Moi.

Even after diligently serving the country as a police officer and a boxer, he wonders why his services and achievements have never been acknowledged by the government.

The soft spoken man now lives a very miserable life and one cannot imagine that he once worked as a police officer.

He looks weak and with one of his eyes now unwell, one cannot know that he was a police officer until he shows the photographs he took in the police uniform.

He wears torn shoes and tattered clothes and when he narrates his sad story, one may assume that he has a hidden agenda.

He can also recall his police force number that is clearly visible on one of the photographs he took while in official uniform.

On the photographs, he looks strong both in his boxing gear and the police uniform contrary to his current appearance.

Tears slowly gushed down his cheeks as he recalled how he spearheaded his team to victory only to be dismissed later.

“Actually you can see how the world can sometimes be unfair, after working hard and making great achievements, your efforts can only be recognized by a verbal sacking,” he says with much sorrow.

Till now he admits that he has never received a dismissal letter from the force.

He says that while in the police force, he joined the Kenya Police Sacco but added that his attempts to acquire his benefits hit a snag.

He says his attempts were frustrated by the Sacco officials who were also senior officers.

He adds that at one point he resorted to using another police officer, Mr. Anthony Bwong’ Okoth, formely of the Special branch (now the National Security Intelligence Service) section of the police force who was to assist him get the dues.

However, Okoth passed on before he could compel the officials to refund Odhiambo’s shares.

Odhiambo also recalls some of his former allies in the force with whom he was recruited from boxing.

“Most of them are now senior in the police force and live very good lives,” he says.

Among those he cited as his fellow staff members then are; Patrick Mont Waweru, Morgan Oduori, Stephen Okumu Vedo, the late Poison John Kamau, the late David Harris Ouma, Robert Wangila Napunyi, Ali Athumani Ojuku and Francis Odongo of Yala police post in Gem District.

He says he got married to Roseline Akoth Oketch in 1986 and they have been blessed with seven children and two grand children.

He adds that due to lack of school fee his first born daughter Millicent Akinyi Oketch dropped out of school and got married to a peasant in a bid to help the family educate her siblings.

He, however, says that his daughter has since divorced her husband and he now has to take care of the large family.

He says that he practices subsistence farming to supplement the monthly salary he obtains from the services he provides at a local shop in Siaya town.

He works as a night watchman.

“Some of my friends have blamed me for not making a follow up on my dues but the fact will always remain that the kind of freedom we enjoy now was never there before,” he adds.

He says that due to the sensitivity of the matter during the KANU regime, he had to hold his horses but later due to financial constraints, he could not make a follow up of the funds.

“Indeed I had lost hope and turned to farming and working as a watchman to earn my daily bread and feed my family,” he says.

He also admits that making a follow up of his shares at the Society seemed stressful, adding that his current earnings cannot sustain his family as well as use some to make a follow up of his dues.

He has decided to soldier on with his poverty.

“As you can see, I don’t even have money to buy myself good pair of shoes, how can I travel to Nairobi to make a follow up of my funds?” he says while displaying his torn pair of shoes.

He adds that with the assistance of well wishers and the human rights commission, he can begin pursuing for his dues to improve the living standards of his family as well as educate his children.

Ends