Greeks discover a Kenyan hero

When he stepped into the presidential palace in Athens, Greece, Tobias Olang’o Nyabola thought he was dreaming. He did not understand how the president of a European country could have time to see a villager like him, a retired teacher from Bondo in Nyanza.

Tastefully furnished

On seeing him at the entrance, President Karolos Papoulias rose and walked towards him, took him by the hand and led him to a seat in the tastefully furnished room.

“He was such an ordinary person,” Mr Nyabola recalled during an interview with the Sunday Nation.

When he set out eight years ago to fight tsetse fly infestation and HIV/Aids – the two biggest problems plaguing his village – Mr Nyabola did not think he would be receiving such high recognition.

Abidha Primary School, where he was headteacher, had a high absenteeism rate that disturbed him. After researching the causes, he found that the villages around the school were struggling with sleeping sickness and HIV/Aids.

This led to the birth of the Bama Community Based Organisation in 2001 to spearhead the fight against the two diseases.

Bama is an acronym of the first letters of the four villages in Usigu Division where it operates: Bar Okwiri, Achuodho, Magombe and Abida.

First, the organisation built a cattle dip and started keeping goats of superior breeds to fight the tsetse fly infestation.

It also started an HIV/Aids awareness and counselling programme and has given those widowed or orphaned economic support in collaboration with organisations like Actionaid, German Development Service, and African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF).

So impressed

In2007, Mr Nyabola hosted the Chair of Action Aid Hellas (the Greek chapter of Action Aid) Mrs Alexandra Mitsotaki. Mrs Mitsotaki was so impressed with BAMA activities, that a year later she returned to tell Mr Nyabola that he had been selected to be honoured by the president of Greece in a ceremony on the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

And in December last year, Mr Nyabola boarded a plane for the first time and headed to Greece.

“It was then that I realised how far the ground is from the sky. My wife and I were consumed in prayer, sure we would die. We worried that our bodies would never be retrieved,” he said.

When he arrived in Athens, he was very surprised at how easy it was to have access to his host that he just had to ask, through an interpreter: “Excuse me, Your Excellency, I am wondering, are you the real president of Greece?”

The question sent President Papoulias roaring with laughter. He offered to provide documentary evidence of his position, but Mr Nyabola said there was no need to; he was convinced.

“It is not easy for such things to happen in our part of the world,” he explained.