Trauma centre greets grief-stricken families searching for information

Ms Jacinta Kajuju looks at photographs of her husband, Mr Martin Imbisi, at Teachers Estate in Gilgil, Nakuru County, on Tuesday. Mr Imbisi is among the KDF soldiers whose fate is unknown after an attack by Al-Shabaab in Somalia on January 15, 2016. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The last time Ms Kajuju talked to her husband was on Thursday evening and it was a hearty chat.

  • Mr Imbisi left for Somalia on December 23, 2015 and looked forward to returning after the mandatory three months in the trenches.

“It’s hard, it’s not easy,” said Ms Jacinta Kajuju as tears rolled down her cheeks on Wednesday.

Almost a week after a KDF camp in El-Adde, Somalia, was attacked by Al-Shabaab militants, she still doesn’t know whether her husband, Mr Martin Imbisi, is dead or alive.

She has visited her husband’s Kenyatta Barracks in Gilgil, only to be counselled and advised to go home and wait for communication from the military.

“We still have a lot of unanswered questions,” Ms Kajuju said at the camp, where there was little movement and tight security.

“We have been kept in the dark over what is going on.

“Why are they (government) hiding information from us? Our relatives are pestering us, but we have nothing to tell them. It’s hard for every family member,” she said.

The last time Ms Kajuju talked to her husband was on Thursday evening and it was a hearty chat.

“I told him how much I had missed him,” she recalls.

Mr Imbisi left for Somalia on December 23, 2015 and looked forward to returning after the mandatory three months in the trenches.

For the fifth day running, families continue to endure uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones.

Despite visiting the Kenyatta Barracks, where a post trauma centre has been set up, details regarding the attack remained scanty, leaving families even more disturbed.

“I was told the operation in Somali is delicate, with the attackers having planted explosives. They informed me to be patient as the operation continues,” said a woman who went to ask about the fate of her husband.

She was with other people seeking to know the whereabouts of their loves ones.

“From what they have told me, it appears it is not easy for the soldiers undertaking the rescue mission. It a dicey task from both ends,” she said.

At Sierra Leone Estate in Gilgil, Ms Donela Achieng is grief-stricken. Her husband has been missing since Friday.

“I went to the help desk yesterday and not much information was given to me. I was only told to go home and wait,” she said.