One year on and still the wind at Sindar Farm bites. On 18th April 2024, a military chopper fell from the skies and crashed into the Elgeyo Marakwet hills- carrying with it ten lives including that of Kenya’s Chief of Defence forces, General Francis Ogolla.
What once was a quiet expanse of farmland, which locals commonly called Shamba la Amani (The farm of Peace), is now known as Shamba la Ogolla. A name carved by tragedy in remembrance of a fallen giant.
That Thursday morning, General Ogolla was on a peace mission under Operation Maliza Uhalifu, having addressed troops across the North Rift. But as the Bell UH-1H-II Huey Helicopter KAF 1501 lifted off from Cheptulel Boys High School, destiny took its course.
Witnesses describe a loud bang. Then fire. Then Silence.
‘’Nothing grows there,’’ says Alex Kosgei, the first to reach the crash site. ‘’The land is cursed by fire and memory.’’
Two escaped the fire- Colonel Kasaine Ole Kuruta and Corporal Frankford Mogire. For the others, though, including Ogolla’s aide-de-camp, media officer, pilots, engineers and security officers- it was a deadly landing.
And even though the military concluded engine failure was to blame, the nation is not so certain. Politicians like Kalonzo Musyoka and Martha Karua have demanded a more transparent inquiry. Aviation experts also question how a helicopter celebrated for its stability would go down so dramatically- while carrying the very chief of Kenya’s armed forces.
‘Tulisahaulika’
In Masumbi, Siaya County, Ogolla’s family conducts a quiet grief. His father, Mzee Joel Oketch, now aged 100, still speaks of his son in the present tense. His mother, Mama Paskalia Oketch, says no government person has visited since the burial.
‘’He was planning dad’s birthday,’’ she says trembling. “Now there is only silence.”
The silence, however, is not just in Masumbi. It reaches out to the field where the chopper crashed- now overgrown, but marked by one stubborn, bare patch where no grass has dared to grow. That patch, locals say, is where the fire began.
Rembering the fallen
The late General Ogolla had only been CDF for a year- but had already left a legacy of service, courage and discipline. With him during the chopper crash were: Brig. Swale Saidi- Combat Engineers Brigade Commander, Col. Duncan Keittany- Colonel Operations, Lt. Col. David Sawe, Maj. George Magondu, Capt. Sora Mohamed, Capt. Hillary Litali, Sgt.John Mureithi, Sgt. Cliphonce Omondi and Sgt. Rose Nyawira.
Their families, like Ogolla’s, are still waiting for closure. As the military bugle faded on the day Ogolla was laid to rest, so did the presence of power. But memory- the memory is stubborn.
