Via The Star
Details have emerged of the injuries Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju suffered in an early morning accident while heading to Mzee Daniel Moi’s burial.
Tuju, the Jubilee Party secretary general, suffered 12 broken ribs and three crushed vertebrae.
The CS also suffered head and neck injuries as well as a dislocated knee that has caused what he described as “excruciating pain” for weeks.
“I lost a lot of blood bleeding internally. This [accident] you only survive by the grace of God. There is no other way…I have realised God loves me,” Tuju said at his Karen home on Sunday, in his first media interview since the accident on February 12.
Tuju, a close ally of President Uhuru Kenyatta, was involved in a road accident at Kijabe while en route to Kabarak for Moi’s burial.
He was rushed to the Kijabe Mission Hospital where he underwent emergency surgery.
Tuju was later flown to Karen Hospital, where he stayed for eight days before being flown to London for treatment.
He jetted back to the country on Saturday, after two weeks stay in a UK hospital.
The CS has predictably lost weight, remains weak and walks slowly with the help of a cane on his right side..
Flanked by Jubilee regional director Steve Mwanga, Tuju for the first time opened up about his health, which has been a subject of speculations for weeks.
“The main challenge I have now is a lot of pain. It’s a lot of pain,” he said emphatically. That is something you don’t want to wish even on your worst enemy.”
But he says he has improved tremendously, although he is still under round the clock medical supervision.
“Ideally, I should be in hospital still because I need a lot of care. I actually have two nurses here,” he said.
He regrets that he has lost a few weeks of his life but is happy to be alive.
“You thank God to be alive. No plans are more important than your life,” he adds.
Tuju is twice lucky. Seventeen years ago he survived a plane crash that killed one minister and two pilots.
“I survived a plane crash before but this was more difficult. I had more injuries than in the plane crash,” he said.
Tuju, then Tourism minister, was in the company of NARC politicians who had gone to Busia for a homecoming party to celebrate their three-week-old election win.
After the party, they boarded a 24-seater Gulfstream at Busia Airstrip for Kisumu. The plane hit a power line on take-off and crashed.
Labour Minister Mohammed Khalif together with two pilots died; the others sustained injures.
Among those injured included Linah Kilimo and Martha Karua.
Medical journals warn that a fractured rib could injure the spleen, blood vessels, and even puncture a lung.
“That is very painful but not very dangerous. It’s the vertebrae that were dangerous. I broke three vertebrae. That was the most difficult one. That is what was operated on abroad to protect my spine,” he said.
Tuju has very little recollection of the morning of February 12 when the accident happened.
He was seated on the back seat of his Toyota Prado quietly reading news on his phone when the crash that involved two other cars happened.
He remembers that Sports CS Amina Mohammed, who was in a vehicle behind him, helped get him to Kijabe hospital before his world went dark.
“I don’t remember anything after that. I only found myself in bed in the UK, that’s when I recognised exactly where I was,” he said, noting that he was put under sedation.
During the interview, Tuju profusely thanked President Kenyatta for “ensuring that I got the best possible medical care”.
“It’s been a tough war but the first thing I would like to do is to thank his Excellency the President. Under those circumstances, he never abandoned me. He made sure that I got the best care possible,” Tuju said.
The SG also thanked Kenyans, saying even strangers turned up at the Karen Hospital to pray for him
“Many people came to see me but I was in the ICU under sedation…There are many strangers who came to pray. I didn’t even know,” he recalls.
“I am thankful.”
