Mr. Onyango Sumba, a former Kenyan exile who was based in Stockholm, is reported to be seriously sick in Kenya. According to a contact who has visited him in hospital, Mr. Sumba is in a coma at the Intensive Care Unit at Kenyatta hospital. The contact said that Mr. Sumba might not live for long because his condition is very serious. “He is in a coma and cannot therefore talk”, the contact told KSB.
The big problem is that nobody is taking care of him because the ODM political establishment abandoned him long time ago. The contact said that conditions at Kenyatta National Hospital are very poor and speculated that Mr. Sumba may have been abandoned there to die.
By the time he left life in exile, Mr. Sumba was a close friend of Prime Minister Raila Odinga. The two are the people who are reported to have been responsible for coordinating the 1982 coup which failed before Sumba fled to exile in Tanzania and later Sweden. When Raila came to Sweden on a short visit in April 1998, he was accommodated by Mr. Sumba in his flat at Nacka.
The neglect of Mr. Sumba is disturbing Kenyans who knew him as a patriotic and intelligent Kenyan who spent much of his life in exile fighting the dictatorial Moi regime until Moi was ousted from power through democratic means. Mr. Sumba left for Kenya shortly before the December 2002 elections and at a time when Raila had started political cooperation with Moi.
Okoth Osewe
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This is terrible and indeed sad turn of events. Onyango Sumba’s always impressed on the virtues of solidarity and comradeship to Kenyans in Stockholm regardless of their ethnicity or station in life. His commitment for a better Kenya for all was a trademark of his stay in Sweden, and his wit, intelligence and outgoing nature left their mark on all that met him. A true son of the soil, a Kenyan shujaa.
I believe it is not too late despite the sobering news of his condition and the circumstances as they are at this time. How can his comrades and friends in Sweden mobilize and assist him? Suggestions please!
KSB: Well said.
This is a lesson to all,no matter what please be a friend to your families and kids.
I am deeply disturbed by this news and echo Milton Muigai’s sentiment that Mr. Onyango Sumba’s patriotism surpassed all barriers while exiled in Sweden. He never missed an opportunity to express his wishes for more democratic space in Kenya.
Osewe has also laid it bare that the crème de la crème of the ODM Party neglected Onyango when he returned to Kenya a few years ago, and only fed him with crumbs (cash handouts), despite the fact that he had suffered with some of them during the aborted coup of 1982. Ironical indeed, because Mr. Sumba’s sacrifices have contributed to the political freedom currently enjoyed by such people.
I have just talked to Dr. Wycliffe Odiwuor, an ex-Stockholmer in Kenya, and he is equally shocked by the news. He has agreed to call Onyango’s brother in Nairobi for more information. Let us mobilize all efforts and resources for the sake of our Comrade.
My prayers are with Mr. Onyango Sumba and hope that he will regain consciuosness. Since his ex-wife and two sons live in Stockholm, I hope they shall keep us informed. Let us do some brainstorming at KSB to chart the way forward.
Dame: You have ‘spoken in parables’ claiming that one should be friendly to their family and kids no matter what. Do you know what we don’t know?
The sadest death is to die alone or to go through sufferings alone, “have been abandoned there to die“.Why?
Dame: U r still talking in deep language. What do you know that we don’t know?
This is awake call to most Kenyan men on family matters. Senses are some of the last things that are left, especially hearing.Voices that are familiar from our loved or close ones play great part when one is in a coma or death-bed.I am wondering why he is all alone?
Onyango ws my teammate and brother at the university of wisconsin during the early 1970s. he, jim huff (high jumper from the u.s.), and i (shot putter from puerto rico), often referred to ourselves as representing africans from three continents. so many anecdotes, political conversations, and memories. i was stunned to learn of my brother’s passing.
KSB: I hope you understand that Mr. Sumba passed away.