The late General Francis Ogola passed on in a helicopter accident that took Kenyans with disbelief and shock.
As my friend Kipkalya Kones (the late former Roads minister who died in a plane crash in 2008) puts it: "generals just don't die like that; let alone in a military chopper carrying very senior military officers." Kenyans will need a great deal of convincing that this was just an accident; period.
Be that as it may, Kenyans have lost a fine military officer, an accomplished professional soldier who rose to the high echelons of his career purely through merit; and he deserved it. His colleagues simply spoke of him as 'a good man.'
But, as a famous writer once put it in a question form: "does a bird, deprived of wings, go earthbound wilfully?"
General Ogola was up there in the air because he was on duty in quest of peace in a troubled part of our nation.
There is nowhere he wouldn't have gone if it meant bringing peace even where many had given up.
He was the kind of soldier who knew that, however difficult the last mile is, someone must pave the way to complete that journey and achieve the objective intended. This is the impression he left among his colleagues. This is the gallant soldier we have lost.
He was due to be coming to Kisumu Friday to look at the new Air Force base that has been set up at the old airport in Kisumu. He had sent an emissary ahead of him to brief us about the arrangements and to prepare for his coming. The County Commissioner and I were very excited. Alas. It came to this.
My deep condolences to the family who has lost such a nice man, a humble gentleman at home with men and women of all ranks.
Farewell our General. God bless and keep you into eternity.
