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A kisii Baby Named Raila Odinga
- Details
- Published on Friday, 26 October 2007 05:35
The call of nature overwhelmed an expectant woman, throwing a frenzied crowd at the Mathare North health centre into a theatre of the absurd. Esther Nyaboke did not expect to deliver that soon, or just under-estimated the speed with which her baby boy would want to reach Mother Earth.
She, however, started her October 10 day on a painful note. She immediately tuned herself to the cries that accompany the delivery of a child. In her Gusii language, such occasions, either for pleasure or displeasure, invite shouts and cries of “Nakure! Nakure!” meaning, ‘I am dead.
The ramshackle of a vehicle that ferried her to the health centre burst through the security cordon protecting Lang’ata MP Raila Odinga emitting smoke from the exhaust pipe, evidently signalling danger. Two women alighted and held Nyaboke by the shoulders as she groaned and crumbled to the ground. The crowd scrambled towards them because it could be a security gimmick, perhaps to harm their leaders.
Such postures have in the past been used to detonate bombs on great world leaders. The big-chested security men could not take the risk of sympathising immediately. But the crowd dared the devil and risked their own lives as womenfolk yelled in a rush to cover up a scene considered top secret for women. Mathare North is one of Africa’s symbols of abject poverty, crime, unemployment and the attendant stench of underdevelopment. Moi Day is always marked with a sense of humility when the rich donate goodies to the less fortunate, thanks to the legacy of retired President Moi’s 24-year rule, when he one day decided to immortalise his name with a public holiday all to himself.
In a twinkle of an eye, a baby was born on bare ground and quickly received by good samaritans, who had encircled the mother. It was like a victory in a manger as birthday songs rent the air from outside of the hospital. Nurses who were also attending to other mothers in the maternity wing rushed out to witness the unfolding drama.
Mr Odinga, former minister for Health Charity Ngilu, former Vice-President and Mr Odinga’s running mate in the Orange Democratic Movement, Mr Musalia Mudavadi, and outgoing MPs Reuben Ndolo and William Omondi followed the nurses out and then back with the world’s newest member, weighing 3.2 kilogrammes. For many in the crowd, it was the first time they had witnessed childbirth.
Mr Odinga carried the baby to the incubation room and Mrs Ngilu followed with a broad smile. Nurses, wearing blood drenched gloves, shoved their way past the shocked crowd as Nyaboke walked painfully and supported by the top Kenyan leaders she never expected to meet on such a day. The politicians had already donated blankets and cash to several mothers who had given birth earlier and could afford a smile during photo sessions with their babies and the leaders.
Nyaboke could not even say thank you when wads of Sh1,000 notes were rolled into her hands. She lay on the delivery couch panting and asking for water. The doors were slammed on the visitors and the area declared a ‘no-go’ zone to show that emergency services were about to be performed on her. Moments later, a nurse emerged and declared that the mother had named the child Raila Odinga, to the electrification of the crowd .
Her degree of poverty came out naturally and when asked whether she had a mobile phone, she whispered to the nurse she did not have one, and could not recall any relative with one.
Official hospital records Journalists had to take the nurses’ telephone numbers to reach the mother later.
Mrs Ngilu took the opportunity to talk of her record as minister. She said: “What you see as poverty now is a big achievement for me.” Mr Ngilu said that before she took over as minister for Health, the facility was closed because the City Council could not run it. Mothers had to be taken to Pumwani Maternity Hospital, which was then known for all manner of rot, scandals, inefficiency and even child theft.
Mrs Ngilu said that Mathare North dispensary lacked an operation theatre and those in need of emergency services have to look elsewhere. The day saw 10 children born in the facility and confirmed that any emergency for the slum dwellers at night could end in disaster because dispensaries do not work at night. Mrs Ngilu called for the implementation of National Social Health Security Scheme, which would cost the Government millions of shillings, but save millions of poor lives.As the political group concluded their Moi Day tour of Starehe, Lang’ata, Kasarani and Westlands, poverty loomed large everywhere. The politicians spent close to Sh200,000 which evidently sunk without making a dent on Mathare Valley’s abject poverty.
