karibu magazine 3rd edition

MY STORY
per how the team would perform
per match, if we would win a match
we would be paid £8 if we would
draw a match we would be paid £4
and if we lost we would go home
empty handed. Lucky enough for
me because of my performances
I got signed by a better club that I
would increase my earnings to £100
a month but still it wasn’t enough.
Because of the financial strain I got
involved with wrong crowd and
started doing things which were not
right to make ends meet but no one
knew what I was doing but my mum
knew and she warmed me it was
only until when I lost a friend that
I realised that what we were doing
was not right.
Lucky for me a friend approached me
and he told me the British Army are
recruiting commonwealth people, so I
took that opportunity and applied for
the British Army and I was selected to
come over to the UK and join the British
Army. I started my infantry training
at the end of 2006 and passed out in
2007 and later joined 3 Rifles based in
Edinburgh.
In 2009. we deployed to Afghanistan,
four months in the tour, one early
morning as we were preparing to go for
patrol I remember I was so nervous, I was
a driver of vehicle called the Jackal this
is an open roof armoured vehicle, but
surprisingly that day was so quite until
18:30 pm when we got ambushed by
the Taliban, we tried our best as we had
a fire fight with them until my boss who
was a captain instructed me to drive so
we could leave that area. I remember it
was pitch black but I had my night vision
on which was attached to my helmet
that aided me to see the road. About 50
meters away from our previous location
I drove on an I.E.D (Improvised explosive
device) from that point I couldn’t
remember anything I was unconscious
and the next minute I remember waking
up in the UK in Birmingham hospital, as
I woke up I was so shocked and started
shouting for my weapon as I thought
I was still in Afghanistan, it was only
until the nurses assured me that am in
hospital. From then my body was not
the same I had fractured vertebrae son
my lower lumber spine and my left side
of the body was so painful, I stayed in
hospital for a month and later sent home
and started rehab at the rehabilitation
unit which was in our camp base in
Edinburgh, I was on treatment for a year
and half I tried my best that I even went
back to work.
In 2014, I was diagnosed with PTSD,
(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Life was
so difficult for me and my left side due
to the blast was deteriorating slowly, in
that period I had 12 surgeries to repair
my leg, unfortunately I had to come to a
decision where it was either I stay with
my leg and be confined to a wheelchair
or I get my leg amputated and get a
prosthetic leg and be able to have my
life back. In 2016, 28th January my leg
was amputated, it was so tough due to
my PTSD, I attempted suicide twice as I
felt so useless, anxious and vulnerable.
One day as I was in my bedroom my
daughter Ashley walked to my room
and said ‘dad despite you having one
leg I still love you’ that made me feel so
guilty and from that point I never looked
back, I looked at my two beautiful kids
and said to myself ‘I will never look back
again.’
The same year of 2016, I was admitted
at Headley Court Hospital to start my
rehabilitation of learning how to walk
again with a prosthetic leg, I worked so
hard and managed to get back on my
feet once again, I had a reason now to
enjoy my life again.
In 2017 July I went back to Kenya, my
country of birth and I was interviewed
by several media stations sharing my
journey, so many people got inspired
and it really gave me a purpose to look
forward and be positive with my life.
spartansfc striker
currently doing duty
in Afganistan was
injured yesterday
along with two of his
colleagues in a bomb
blast.
British Army 3
Rifles based in
Edinburgh
3RD EDITION | JULY 2018
61