 This is OI 254, it's a Wednesday where we talk about health and lifestyle and tonight we are looking at the story of compassion where 20 guys from Nyeri decided to walk to Mombasa to help one of their own and now we want to know because this is a story that has been trending on social media but now we want to get it from the host's mouth. I'm speaking to Karili Wambui. How are you sir? I'm fine. Karibu, this is OI 254. Thank you. Now, Wangari has been sick but we have seen the stories on social media and we want to understand what happened and what moved you to decide to help and why they work from because those are so many kilometers, about 150 or something, so how did it come about? First let me say my name, I'm Karili Wambui and the story about Wangari, ourselves, the number of people who were walking, we are 20 of us, 24 in number and we started the walk from Nyeri and we are saying that we are walking from Nyeri to Mombasa to save Wangari. Wangari was a student at Jomokiniata, University of Agriculture and Technology, Mombasa campus. She got an accident back in 2017, that was November 2nd, when she was coming from class, or even in classes and when she got the accident she went to Kusdian Hospital where she was treated but unfortunately the doctors did put the plaster when she was having an open wound. So it's unfortunate because that made Wangari to develop some complications and it's the complications that led to the infection and since then, Wangari has never been treated, since then Wangari has never worked again, that is for 2 years and the parents have sacrificed their everything including selling some passes of land to ensure that the dream of their daughter comes to reality and now where we came in, Wangari, there was a time she was to travel to Idia for treatment having that the infection have affected the bone marrow. She at that time after moving from Kusdian Hospital she came to Agakan in Nairobi where she was receiving treatment but unfortunately the Agakan from Atagakan Hospital they were unable to really treat her and that's when the decisions were made that she should travel to Idia to seek a specialized treatment because even her bone itself had some infection. So when that fetefu day when now the parents had tried to secure some money from the NHIF, fortunately they got 500,000 from the NHIF and they had scheduled to airlift her to Idia. There was back much this year but the time she was aboard the airplane the airplane attendant did eject her from the airplane saying that she was unfit to fly. Very unfortunate because before that they had already done the doctors from the airline had went and checked and they had confirmed that they can fly with them. But that day she was left stranded, she was humiliated, her hopes of ever walking again were dashed and when personally learnt of the story I remember her because she was part of an organization we had of university students from nearly across the country. Wherever which ever university you are I was there chairman, we used to call ourselves New Realites and that's when I got moved, I got touched and I went to visit her. And when I visited her, I visited her home, her sister's home at Kikuyu, still in Nairobi and that's when I found that she was really injured her left leg and she could barely move, she can't even sit, she relies on all support. And I felt moved that time I was still a student was late April this year, I was at Moinvasti, that was the time I was preparing myself to do my final exams. And when I went now I found her and I would talk to her, she would make me understand how she has suffered all the way through and she made me understand that her parents were unable to pay the hospital bill since 2018 November. So she has been at home for almost 7 months and that's when I now challenge my colleagues, after now I was through with campus and we were to do a fundraising for her. Okay allow me to cut you short, now for those 2 years she was going for treatment to other hospitals including Agakan and the condition was getting serious by day, what were the doctors telling her that time? What the doctors were doing from the reports that there was once when the Agakan tried to really get to understand the real cause of the infection, they made some samples that were sent to South Africa to really test what's really the problem because she had gone so many surgeries Agakan may be 4 surgeries but nothing was coming for her so she really had a lot of pain and you can imagine a university student, a lady for that matter, she used to live in Pampas, Owedru for 2 years. We felt worried about ourselves, there's nothing we have done to be able to walk, like myself I was travelling Owedru from Niri 12 Dorit, Owedru and I was always alive and God gave me that chance but for her it was unfortunate she was coming from class and the accident happened, it was a hit and run vehicle. Mata reported that Mombasa central traffic piece with a no B number also, 09 of the same date 2nd of November 2017. Was the complex ever arrested? The complex was arrested but later released and conditionally since then no case has been pushed because the police were saying that she need to go and record a statement. It's unfortunate because she was bedridden and she couldn't walk. It was a sarcastic call for the police to come and tell her come and record and indeed she can't walk. Up to date she has never walked. So now that's where we came on board and said okay guys we must help one of us and itself it was a challenge. We tried to convince even the rest of the colleagues, the rest of the community that indeed we can walk from Niri to Mombasa on foot and we would go to Google and check how many kms are there and would say 600 plus kms and we were doing mathematics, how many days do we use and how do we raise the money, how do we do it, what do we use. We found it twice and we said okay let's put the challenges aside, whatever comes on board we must save this comrade. That's when we started the journey on that 10th June 2019, that's last month. The start of it was nice. The first instances we were brewing between the first day you fired up for the year. We were really prepared. Before you continue, what was the strategy? You moved from town to town or home to home or you were just walking by the road? Majority the strategy that we were thinking that we would use is to first my thinking was we would create awareness and because you know Kenyans are people full of love and they would come on board and walk with us and our campaign should be 2.5 million to go for that. That's according to what we are projected and I would do simple mathematics that we were able to reach 25,000 people only 25,000 people. We went to the fact that Kenya we are 40 million so I was targeting 25,000 people each individual gave us 100 bop that would be able to raise 2.5 million. So we said okay guys you are off and we started the journey. Somehow we were just estimating without really having the practical part of it. There was no more exercise to understand the challenges or anything. So thinking that we would be able to go and raise money and walk very fast that was never the last power thinking and it took us time. We were only the first to be estimated to walk from Nyeri town to Sagana town or rather Kifigoti but we were not able to do that. We were only able to capture Nyeri town because now we were walking with cartons and you know you have to explain to an individual okay. We were walking for Wangari and the person asked who is Wangari and you have to explain the story. Before you move to the next person that's 10 minutes so you would find that to capture at least 20 people it would take you an hour. And then out of the 20 maybe just 10 give you something so an hour gives you another thing. So the challenges were there but we kept moving. The first day we covered up to Karatina town and we slept at Karatina. Whos place did you sleep? When we put the story on social media we would find that people who are a hand are waiting for us they know their guy is walking. So by the time we were getting to Karatina this one woman she is Mama Nyambura as she introduced to us and she is the one who hosted us that night we slept at her place. Because at that time we were mini we started the journey I mean around 50 of us but as per now we are only 24 strong. And that's a lot to do. You know challenges others have got other duties to go and go for. So we go up to Karatina that's the first day we were able to raise 52,000. Okay between Nyeri and Karatina that's quite a sum. And at that time that's the money that we had in cash. So we also had the pay bill number that we now used to go as people if you have something in your in person you can still go ahead and do it to us. So basically we kept walking day one, day two we walked, day three we had Makutano junction that's for going embu. Day five we had Kenno from Makutano to Kenno and that was on a Sunday we went to a church that is at Makoyo that is. And we went and fellowship with Jesus, Wina ministry and they gave us a check of 10,000. Really gave us a morale we kept walking. Now thinking that you want to get to the town very fast because there are more people concentrated in one area. And we would walk a small distance and have more money. And at day 17 we had Dika. So when we had Dika and Ogari now at that time as we were walking she was still at home. And she called me that day was, day 16 I was on a Sunday. And she called me telling me I'm afraid you guys might do things in vain. I can't see as if my leg is going to, I'm going to have an amputation. That's why I'm in so much pain unlike before. So I told her okay let us see what we can do. So I immediately conveyed a meeting, stopped walking, conveyed a meeting that is at the roadside. So we had to brainstorm along as ourselves, check how much we have raised. At that time we had 812,000 with us. 812,000. So what we did, we said it's fate that we have her airlifted. She goes to that medication and save her from the pain as we continue walking because there was no sense of us putting the man in the bank and she's at home suffering the pain. So we decided okay let her have her airlifted and so I called her sister told her you rushed the airport, have an agent book for you her plane. And successfully she was able to secure one in the open airline and had her flight scheduled immediately 2 days after that so on Wednesday 19th and we stopped walking that day, went picked her from her home took out the airport, Jamukeniata International Airport and she flew out exactly 1905 hours and went to India to start medication. At that time we had also communicated with the hospital in India that they would start medication as we continue raising because it's different there. Before you get the treatment you have to pay the cash. So if that's the process then we can have her with the litter that we have. When she goes to that medication she has to go to hospital we have raised amount and we deposit for her medication. Now at what point did you meet now the deputy president as you come to an end of discussion tonight? Now what happened? Let me explain this a little bit. When we came to Nairobi now in the capital city past Zika when our people are many and our mindset is that far from the villages and people are making money I would say we were really demoralized because you would approach a person riding and the next thing is just kiyoi kujo or you are trying to speak to them and then they would close the window close the window and we are left. So we had to retreat and do a strategy now we say I already do this and that's when we propose ourselves instead of going to streets we change the model from just raising funds to creating awareness a road safety campaign so we had those banners don't drink and drive stop over speeding all these manners that I would want to create awareness and maybe attract the attention from the drivers like these guys telling me not to drink and drive and that's when we are still walking where the deputy president was going to a bakasi and when we learnt of that we walked almost the whole night from Kasarani and down down up to Mehanga where he was having his Sunday service we waited him there there and had a banners up telling him deputy president please come and rescue us because the bill was she needs to have medication running but you are not making money so the only way let us appeal to the deputy president fortunately it got his attention when we had the banners up he would salute us from find we would pray and say God help him and somehow he came to our rescue and he invited us yesterday we went to see him at his office at the annex and he promised us he fulfilled his promise of one million shillings which he deposited to the account that they are using which is great for him but unfortunately we also need to raise more money because when Wangari went to India we had estimated that we would need to point for a million but unfortunately the doctors found that the segment or the fragment where the accident had hit where she was hit the bones they are already dead so we had thought that they would do a bone grafting but now they need to do a bone implant the whole of the hip bone need to be replaced so that have really affected the budget from 2.5 million it's going to a staggering amount of 3.8 to 4.2 million and we wanted also to have secured her education that when she comes from the hospital will be able to find her education and she continues she goes back to class and have her degree alright so very fast before I give you the chance to speak to the Kenyans out there now what's the plan of the group because there are so many Wangaris out here who would need such a help what plans have you come up with like this group will it end with Wangari or you looking up to something because as a nation and the government has the plan of universal health care as one of the big for agendas what is your plan, what have you thought of or you haven't my plan or what I would find I would want to pose a challenge because personally I am out of the university although I have not graduated I would challenge the university student leaders who are every day demonstrating here in town to go down, sit down and write a memoradam or rather a policy in guidance with the minister of health and minister of education and maybe appeal that the government should really come on board as they are having insurance health insurance covers for the high school students they should as well extend it to the university because there is no way you cover me today I graduate from high school then I go to the university and you leave me there you need to invest in food to ensure that there is something positive coming on it alright, I will give you one minute to speak to Kenyans out there there is your camera you tell us about the pay bill number the amount you are looking forward to getting and you could also remind Kenyans who Wangari is number 4 I am appealing to Kenyans because I know Kenyans are people of love I know you guys you really are people with good heart you are appealing to you to come and support us ourselves have risk life you look at me here I got an accident as we continue our journey but I have not given up I have not loose hope I would advice or request for an appeal or rather I would appeal you come on board help us raise the money help Wangari walk again tomorrow it is today to Wangari tomorrow is another person and it is always good that we stand with one of us as Kenyans and also most of us comrades, the students parents of students at the university please stand with us help Wangari walk again and by so doing God will bless you and God will make this country a better place and also maybe also advise the government to ensure that the universal healthcare program really is effectful to ensure that the many that really disturb so many people especially those who are not well up the poor down there in the villages who are dying due to terminal diseases the government should really invest in the health sector and we are proud that the UHC program is running in Nyeri and we really support it and we would want it to be implemented in the whole country and the majority of the poor Kenyans can really have an upper hand in terms of health services many thanks for coming and telling us the whole truth how things were and where you have got we are really hoping that Kenyans will react to this message positively once again many thanks what you are doing is so kind of you and we so much appreciate and hope Kenyans will once again reacts to this message so you have seen the placard with the pay bill number that you are supposed to send in your contributions remember as Jassi has said today is Wangari tomorrow is someone else we are Kenyans who are willing and ready to help any given time many thanks for coming again Karevi we will be getting to hear from you again what happened and next and back home many thanks for keeping us company for Lifestyle and Health my name is Dereva Hiliwi have yourself a good night