Lieutenant Kevin Webi of the 1st Battalion Kenya Rifles was the Color Officer during the Trooping of the Color parade at Uhuru Park on August 27, 2010. Photo: Nation Media

A Kenya Army officer who played a leading role at the military parade during the promulgation of the new Constitution has died in action in Somalia.

Lieutenant Kevin Webi of the 1st Battalion Kenya Rifles was the Color Officer during the Trooping of the Color parade at Uhuru Park on August 27, 2010.

He performed the same role at Nyayo Stadium during the first Jamhuri Day celebrations after the promulgation of the Constitution, on December 12, 2010.

Lt Webi, who was buried on Tuesday at Ndalala village in Kapomboi Location in Trans-Nzoia county, was killed on January 22 alongside a fellow officer, Lt Edward Juma Okoyo, during an operation that led to the capture of Delbio, a key centre used by Al-Shabaab. (READ: Marital bliss cut short by Shabaab militant’s bullet)

Lt Okoyo had only recently married wife Doreen Magak on December 17 at Arya Primary School in Kisumu.

The couple enjoyed a honeymoon at Sunset Hotel for three days before he left for the battlefront. He hailed from Kasipul Kabondo.

Lt Webi was single, but recently engaged to fiancée Rachel Masika. He studied at the Mother of Apostles Seminary in Eldoret and sat for his KCSE in 2005 then joined Maseno University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

He later studied Military Science at Egerton University. He was commissioned into the force in May 2009 and only served for two-and-a-half years before dying in action.

Colleagues describe Lt Webi, the third officer to be killed in the 108-day old Operation Linda Nchi, as a polite man who gave his life for Kenya.

On the day he died, Lt Webi posted a message for friends on his Facebook page: “When you never have time to rest and pray on a Sunday, you simply offer your entire life and actions as a sacrifice to God. Every action I take is a prayer in itself, Amen”.

His page on the popular social networking site has been full of praises and condolences. Yesterday, his fiancée wrote:

“As I lay to rest the love of my life, I pray that God receives him in eternal peace where there’s no Al-Shabaab.

“Please God lift this load of pain and sorrow from my heart and clear the darkness ahead of me and help me crawl out of it. Go with my love Kevin Webi”.

Two days after Lt Webi’s death, Ms Masika posted on her wall that his colleagues had lied to her that he was in hospital, only for her to learn later that he had been killed.

A former classmate, Mr Waswa Edwin Wambulwa, described Lt Webi as an inspiration. “He died protecting his country against the Al-Shabaab”.

Last Saturday, military spokesman Colonel Cyrus Oguna said that the officers died in the course of capturing Delbio, a town whose capture was critical in the destabilisation of the Central sector and the precincts of the country’s Eastern border.

Col Oguna said the fallen officers had been very active in the pacification and the capture of other towns along the Central sector, from Dobley and Tarda to Belles Qoqooni.

“Their command and control ability is not in question and even though we lost them, the loss is not in vain,” said the military spokesman.

He said that the officers had demonstrated abilities that could only be found in the KDF, and that that was the ultimate price that anybody could pay.

Source: Daily Nation

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