By Jeremiah Chamakany
Baringo County, Kenya: Thomas Kibet is a blind teacher living with ugly marks of constant bandit attacks that have left Baringo South villages in despair.
He lost his eyesight through a bandit attack.
He begins by narrating about the fateful night that left him blind.
Teacher Kibet and his elder brother Wilson Chelimo Kibet[now deceased]were fast asleep in their house when a group of bandits attacked their home at midnight on 29th December 1978. A cry from the neighboring village had put them on a state of alert that the deadly cattle rustlers were within.
” I was around 13 years old and my elder brother was leading me to safety that fateful night. Holding a spear in one hand, his other hand held me tightly as we tried to make it through the small door of our grass-thatched house. With one of my legs still in the house, a bullet pierced through my left temple and exited through the right,’’ adding that the bullet immediately put him into a state of unconsciousness following a continued loss of blood.
The whole village was in a stampede and it later emerged that within their compound, his attacker was hiding behind a tree trunk, with an aim of eliminating any form of resistance. With all their cattle gone, the neighborhood was now focused on helping him seek treatment after realizing that he was still breathing.
“With a stretcher made of sticks, the neighbors carried me out of my remote village towards a dispensary located near Lake Baringo, about 40km away from my home,’’ teacher Kibet narrated adding that along the way, a local businessman offered to transport him using his car. First aid was quickly administered to him in Lake Baringo dispensary and immediately, he was evacuated to a Nakuru Hospital and finally Kabarnet Hospital not far from his Baringo place of birth. It is in Kabarnet Hospital that he was finally declared blind in the year 1980.
“From the time of the attack, I was away from home for almost two years as the government healthcare system tried to salvage my sight. I returned home in the year 1980 and my late father threatened to kill me rather than see my suffering.’’His late father would never put up with a young many whose only contribution is to eat food, and wanted assistance every time he wanted to visit the nearby bushes to answer the long call of nature.
‘’My polygamous father had stormed out of the compound to get his spear from the house of his second wife. He was ready to spear me to death and immediately he left, my mother who is the first wife and I used the chance to slip away from the house. I had already formed a mental map of the village and a villager allowed me to hide in his house until my father’s anger had cooled down.”
passion for teaching
Kibet is a graduate of Asumbi Teachers College, an institution he joined after seating his O-Levels in Thika School for the Blind.
He narrates how young children would walk a long distance to attend classes in Yatia and other schools. That time after returning from college, he was serving as a PTA teacher in Marigat Integrated Primary school, earning himself a cool Ksh1500.00 monthly package which is almost equivalent to 12 US Dollars.
“I was worried that illiteracy levels within my village would remain constant. Development cannot be realized when a population cannot read and write. People who are stuck in ancient cultures and barbaric practices took away my precious eyes! If they were enlightened like the rest of the world, they may not have taken away my eyes.I don’t want my villagers to remain backward and be like them’’Kibet said.
Elders within Kaggir warmed to his idea to launch Kaggir primary school. They agreed to donate some community land. Kibet used his small salary to pay two untrained teachers to teach in the then-newly established but unregistered Government school.
A classroom was just a simple structure. This he did until the Teachers Service Commission hired him in the year 2001. His journey to establish the new school was not without a challenge. During the tenure of His Excellency Retired the late President Mwai Kibaki, the government issued a policy through the Education Ministry, stopping any further registration of new schools.
“I decided to approach Mr.Abduba, then a commissioner in Kabarnet. He Abduba, a real gentleman agreed to present my special request to the Government and my petition to register Kagir Primary school was granted without any further delay. Our first candidates sat KCPE in the year 2015 and am very proud of that’’ he said with a big smile,a smile that speaks of determination and that disability is not inability.
The conflict
“I have survived countless attacks and am still not ready to move out of this conflict zone. This is my home and I want to be a voice of change.’’ Kibet said.
“One time we were ambushed and everyone had gone into hiding and I was patiently waiting for a bullet to land on my body, a brave woman called Mercy Keitany saved me. she took hold of my hand and hid me.”
He further revealed that his own family and close friends have been beseeching him to leave the conflict zone.
Being a blind teacher, those who are close to him observe that being a blind man has very little chance to survive in the conflict-hit area of Baringo County.
His Kaggir home is known for attacks of cattle rustlers at any time. Here, people live in fear.
Kibet recounts a recent incident where he missed bullets by a whisker. “Very recently, when cattle rustlers raided Yatia, just near Kaggir I was the only one left standing after some bullets pierced the afternoon blue sky. That is how always the cattle rustlers announce their siege! They use the element of surprise. In 2017 at a village called Natan t they killed a fleeing woman and her three-day-old baby.” Kibet sighs.
“These days, they just walk into a village and give orders.”Kibet further says.
“That close encounter with death has emboldened me to soldier on till a lasting solution to the problem of insecurity is found,’’ Kibet says.
”I love teaching not because of the Salary, but as a passion.”
“Asante Sana Mwalimu,wewe ulikua mwalimu wangu”- Thank you so much Mwalimu, you were my teacher, is a statement he many times hears from his former pupils.
”Meeting some of my old pupils, and the excitement they have after seeing me is the best joy I can ever have in my heart,” he told Talkafrica.
He points out that Patriotism is not the act of running away from problems, but the act of facing the problems head-on, even at the cost of one’s life. He is full of praise for the Kenya Defence Forces soldiers who at the cost of their blood, are ready to face the enemy and ensure that peace is achieved. He is also very proud and feels inspired by the story of the Kenya Mau Mau, who chose not to run away from colonial oppression but faced the colonialists in the journey to secure statehood.
He is urging all African Professionals to ensure that they make whatever contribution they can make in their countries, to solve all the problems facing the citizenry such as conflicts, hunger, floods, and climate change.
“Kenya is our home. Let us not run away from our country however the challenges we are facing. Through Harambees, we managed to get schooling. Now it’s time to use our schooling to give back to a society that nurtured us under very difficult circumstances. We are the solution.’’
‘’A bullet brushed through my eyes through the temple and that is how I lost my dear eyes,’’ Kibet, now a CRE and English teacher at Kaggir Primary School told Talk Africa.
jeremiahchamakany@gmail.com
