By Dr.Hon.Shem Ochuodho:Are We Making Chelagat Simply a Flower Girl?

Friends allow me to share with you this opinion written by Dr.Hon.Shem Ochuodho-Former MP for Rangwe.Currently based in Southern Sudan.................................................................... ... Comrades, It is very sad that the nation we have treats patriots like Hon. Chelagat (and a host of... others like her) the way it has - and continues to. While on the one hand it is good senior State Officers (for whatever reason) reach out to her aid, I also loathe her being used as a Flower Girl. Why do I say this? Sample the following:- 1) Among those who went to see her are Fred Gumo! When did he see the light? And where was Njonjo (another Flower Boy) by the way? In the same mail (and Wakili Omwenga confirms - Ndugu I don't expect you to go with the crowd without being critical) - he alongside Moi are quoted to have been the root cause of Hon. Chelagat's tribulations. He is now ODM damu, and yet to explain or apologize to Kenyans for the numerous ills committed (in his name/under his watch as AG). 2) What Chelagat and the ilk need is more than hospital bills and photo sessions. What they need is a National Heroes/Heroines Fund. The only Motion as an MP I was ever allowed/able to move (after being 'de-whipped') was on the Heroes' Fund. Yet other than Orengo, all the others I see with Chelagat vehemently opposed the Motion - not because it was a bad one, but for extraneous reasons. KANU/NDP defeated the motion. The Hansard reports are there, and are public documents, for anyone doubting. 3) As Members of the 'Ngei Intervention Committee', we were ostracized by some. But Ngei's (God rest his soul in peace) may be neither here nor there. While working at KPC, one of the things I did (under provisions of policies of the State Corporation and with approval of the Board) was to do a road leading to Mzee Achieng' Oneko's home (murram) and rehabilitate Mzee Bildad Kaggia's House and a road to the same (+ engaging her daughter as a Casual). The same people now seeing/helping Chelagat called me all manner of names: they only retreated when I went public, stood ground and said I they deserved even better and I would do it again given a chance. When Bildad died, the same were at the forefront at his funeral. Crocodile tears? Again, the only person I would exonerate is Orengo: together with him and Hon. Alfred Nderitu (or was it Hon. Moses Muihia?), away from the media glare, we were the only MPs who attended his beloved wife's funeral - that's when we noticed he had no good road/path to his home and the house was falling! On Oneko: some of the same people who castigated me, I hear now when they travel from Suba/Mbita to Nairobi/Kisumu, they use first the ferry Tuju Raphael introduced, then off onto the road we did to connect to Busia/Kisumu Road. What mockery! Am glad Hon. Chelagat is being helped while she is still alive. Personally, I wish her quick recovery. And am glad she believes NONE of the existing parties has an ideology worth crediting even when surrounded by ODM maestros. I call that standing with head high even under such circumstances as hers. She reminded me also of once when about 10 of us MPs visited Bildad in hospital - when we offered him a few coins to help buy 'bread, soda, etc', he declined. His last words I still remember vividly in his trademark voice: "Don't worry, Son, I'll be okay". We had to leave it to the nurses and relatives to buy him milk, etc. He (like Chelagat) lived with integrity even up to his bed-rest. Chelagat, like other heroes and heroines, are more than being used as Flower Girls. Best rgrds, Shem