Uhuru Names His Heroes During 2016 Mashujaa Day Celebrations

President Uhuru Kenyatta at Mashujaa Day Celebrations in Machakos County FACEBOOK

Uhuru Names His Heroes During 2016 Mashujaa Day Celebrations

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Thursday named seven remarkable Kenyan heroes as he delivered his Mashujaa Day celebrations speech in Machakos county.

President Kenyatta picked the seven distinguished persons from various sectors noting that there were the new generation of heroes worth to be celebrated by Kenya.

1. Lydiah Mukhaye

First on his list was Lydiah Mukhaye, a medical practitioner at Kenyatta National Hospital, who volunteered to go to West Africa to help in the fight against Ebola.

The mother of four was among other health workers who risked their lives to help the West African region battling with the epidemic that had claimed thousands of lives.

Ms Mukhaye spent four months with 23 other health professionals from different parts of the world tending to the sick.

2. Salah Farah

President Kenyatta mentioned Salah Farah, the Muslim who shielded Christians from being killed by Al Shabaab fighters after the militants attacked their bus while en route to Nairobi.

Farah was badly injured in the November 2015 attack and in January succumbed to the injuries as he was receiving treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH).

Mr Kenyatta awarded the deceased with the Order of the Grand Warrior (posthumous) for the heroic action and went futher to personally present the award to Mr Farah’s wife in Mandera County.

3. Juliana Rotich

Juliana Rotich, an innovator in technology, was also recognised as a shujaa by Kenyatta for the tremendous strides she had made.

Ms Rotich is the co-founder and executive director of Ushahidi, a non8profit tech company, that develops free and open-source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation.

She is also a founder of iHub, a Nairobi tech space described as “part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator.”

4. David Ole Sonkok

David Ole Sonkok, the chairman of National Council of Persons with Disabilities, was named by Mr Kenyatta as a hero for his resilience in pursing to study medicine after a misdiagnosis which led to his disability.

Mr Sonkok told a local daily during an interview that in 1988 when he was in class six he suffered pneumonia and was rushed to a local private hospital, where a doctor made a wrong diagnosis – examined me and injected my lower inner quarter of my gluteus maximus muscle therefore tempering my sciatic nerve, paralysing my right leg, which l later lost.

5. Kenyan Athletes

President Kenyatta also recognised Kenyan athletes highlighting Paralympian Samuel Muchai, who brought home 2 gold medals; Jemimah Sumgong, the first Kenyan ever to win a marathon gold, and Eliud Kipchoge whose own marathon gold ensured that Kenya’s anthem closed the Olympics.