BY Caleb Amisi, Saboti MP
It is difficult to pay tribute to any human being but more difficult to eulogize a man who was the embodiment and beacon of hope to many in the country.
The late Ken Okoth was a selfless man and gave hope to many people in the slums.
Okoth was born in a poor background but worked hard to help the less fortunate in society.
“My spectacles are not objects of prestige, but emblems of paucity. I would not be wearing them had I grown up in an opulent background,” he once told a local journalist.
Okoth worked hard in school.
Later, he met former Prime Minister Raila Odinga who would rekindle the fire that was burning in him.
A fire for something greater, bigger and vision to be human and a calling to be a brother’s keeper.
God’s grace, commitment and sheer hard work would see him perform in the national primary school examination and proceed to the Starehe Boys’ Centre where his fire was kept burning by yet another unique figure and towering educationist Dr. Geoffrey Griffins.
Instead of whining and blaming the society and his parents for the circumstances; Ken honored a dream that he knew will take an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort to turn it into reality.
Perhaps this laid the foundation of his quest for community service and voluntarism.
It is here that his star shone again.
He understood that a vision for humanity cannot be contained by lack of funds nor the place you come from.
This is the man we pay tribute to today, a patriot, a leader, a son of the people of Kibra.
Okoth was a man who remained steadfast in principle and purpose; a role model that we try to emulate every day in the service to the people.
He reached beyond partisanship, beyond our own selves to our very souls.
We shared the creed that leadership was more than just politicking and giving promises every electioneering year.
It is more than the formulation of the policies and stocking them on shelves for development partners and donors to see.
When peace like a river,attendeth my way, when sorrows like a sea billows roll, whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well with my soul! It is well brothers! It is well sisters! It is well with my soul.
Rest with the angels’ brother Okoth.
Caleb Amisi is the MP for Saboti and a member of the Defense and International Relations Committee in the National Assembly.