Military families assured of state support

The government will support families of military men if they die or get injured while defending the country.

Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and Chief of General Staff General Julius Karangi at the weekend assured families that the government took seriously the welfare of military men who risked their lives for the safety of the country. 

The two gave assurances in separate condolences to the family of the army pilot who perished alongside four soldiers after the helicopter they were flying in crashed after taking off from Liboi military base.

General Karangi said the Department of Defense had learned with shock the death of Major Samuel Kavindu’s father who collapsed upon receiving the news of his son’s death while on duty.

“We feel very sorry for this fallen soldier’s family, we understand the trauma they are going through and we’ll do whatever possible to support them” General Karangi said through his spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir.

The pilot’s father Francis Kavindu Munga was buried on Saturday in Kabati, Kitui, alongside his son after the double tragedy that reflected the actual cost of the war in Somalia.

Kitui West MP Charles Nyamai said the twin tragedies should be a wake up call to the government about the sad reality that military families have to undergo whenever an officer becomes a casualty of war.

The VP also said, “Our brave disciplined forces are waking up in the plains and mountains of Somalia to risk their lives for the safety of our country, this enormous sacrifice can never be taken for granted”.

He added that the country had a lot to learn from the ongoing war in relation to the fight against negative ethnicity and Kenyans should rally together to “restore our sense of nationhood and common purpose”.

“The men and women who are in Somalia battlefields may be Kamba, Nandi, Kikuyu, Luo or Luhya but they are fighting together, bleeding together and some have even died together under the same proud Kenyan flag” he said adding that the country needs to adopt the same spirit to overcome negative ethnicity.

In a different ceremony in Nyeri, Mr Kalonzo asked Kenyans to continue supporting the military operation in Somalia, likening it to the country’s freedom struggle.

He was speaking after planting a tree at the location where freedom hero Dedan Kimathi was shot and captured.

He added that the operation in Somalia was necessary to liberate the country against its enemies.

“Kenyans should guard the freedom which our forefathers fought so gallantly for,” he said.

He said soldiers at the battleground in Somalia needed prayers from all Kenyans as they continued with the war against the Al-Shabaab insurgents.

Mr Musyoka said the troops had all the support they needed saying that the war in Somalia had to be won.

Losing the war, he said, was tantamount to surrendering the country to its enemies, and eroding the efforts made by freedom fighters such as the Mau Mau.