A soldier from Mweiga town, Nyeri county survived last Friday’s al Shabaab attack on the KDF camp in El Adde, Somalia.
Eric Wambugu, 29, was airlifted to Nairobi on Saturday.
His parents William Kagume and Zipporah Nyambura yesterday said they shed tears of joy when they saw him alight from the military plane at Wilson Airport.
Kagume said he panicked when he first heard the KDF camp in Gedo region had been attacked.
“We desperately tried to make phone calls everywhere,” he said.
“Our minds only settled when we saw him on the television and we quickly made efforts to travel to Nairobi to see him.”
Speaking to the press at his home, Kagume said Wambugu is his first-born child.
He was shot in the arm during the attack.
“We visited him at the Forces Memorial Hospital in Nairobi early this week and found him recuperating. He can walk and talk,” Kagume said.
“However, we are sad he lost some of his colleagues.”
Wambugu was based at the army barracks in Gilgil before he left for Somalia in December.
He had only spent two weeks in Somalia when the al Shabaab attacked the KDF camp.
Wambugu had previously been deployed to Somalia in 2014.
Asked if they want their son to continue serving in the army, Nyambura said she will support her son’s decision even if he chooses to go back.
Kagume is a retired army official.
He said the government should keep its mission in Somalia until peace is restored in the war-torn country.
