Thursday February 2, 2017
One of the soldiers killed in last Friday’s raid on a Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) camp in Somalia narrowly missed a similar deadly attack last year.
Corporal Moses Mwakio, 40, was part of the 15 KR team dispatched to Kulbiyow Camp in Somalia, from their base at Mariakani barracks in Kilifi County.
It was his third assignment.
According to his wife Debra, Mwakio was first dispatched to Somali in 2012 - a year after KDF troops first entered Somalia in pursuit of Al Shabaab militants.
He served for a year and returned for the second time in 2015. He had just left El Adde before the attack that claimed 173 KDF soldiers on January 15, 2016.
Family members confided to The Standard that his mother, Christine Mwaluwa, had at one time begged him to quit the military.
Mwakio insisted on staying.
“He was adamant and stood his ground. He said he believed God would protect him throughout,” said Mwakio’s younger sister, Monica Malemba.
Mwakio’s widow was devastated after receiving the news about her husband’s death.
“I spoke with him last Wednesday, two days before their camp came under Al Shabaab attack,” Debra said.
During their last phone conversation, Mwakio was in good spirits and looked forward to coming back home after his tour of duty. Two days later, the Department of Defence summoned her to the Mariakani Barracks to inform her that the father of her three children was dead.
Her eyes still red from weeping, Mwakio’s mother appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to ensure that her son’s three children, aged 10, 8 and two, get Government assistance.