Ugandan boy shot in Kenyan riots
An eight-year-old Ugandan boy is nursing gunshot wounds at Busia County Referral Hospital in Kenya after he was allegedly shot by Kenya Police who were dispersing rioters last month.
William Guliti, a resident of Marachi ‘C’ Village in Busia Municipality and pupil at Marachi Primary School, who lost both parents when he was aged two years, was caught up in skirmishes called by Kenyan Opposition figure Raila Odinga.
Mr Odinga has been calling for countrywide protests against the President William Ruto-led administration over high cost of living.
Ms Violet Omoto, the nurse-in-charge of Busia County Referral Hospital, said Guliti was wheeled into the facility by police “over a week ago” after sustaining gunshot wounds.
“Police brought him into the facility with gunshot wounds and we have been treating him since then,” she said yesterday, adding that an X-ray assessment established that Guliti had suffered a broken thigh bone on his right leg.
Ms Omoto, however, added that whereas Guliti had lost a lot of blood, he was in a “good condition”. “He has twice been to the theatre and today (Monday), he will be going back for further examination,” she said.
She added: “We are concentrating on treating the wound so that it does not become septic and later metals are to be fixed in his thigh so that he is able to walk again.”
Since Guliti is not a Kenyan citizen, he has to pay twice the medical bills that a Kenyan national would have paid. Kenyan nationals pay KShs700 (about Shs21,000) for each day spent in the ward, while a non-citizen pays KShs1,500 (about Shs45,000) each day.
According to Ms Omoto, apart from the ward charges, the victim has to pay bills for treatment and also buy metals which are to be fixed in his thigh.
“So, we are currently talking about more than KShs30,000 (about Shs900,000), yet the bill keeps accumulating each other day because he is in the ward and continues to receive treatment,” Ms Omoto explained.
Luckily for Guliti, at the Busia County Referral Hospital, admitted patients are served food. Mr Thomas Loyok, who has been volunteering to look after him, said they have been surviving on drinking water, which he collects and fills in bottles, before waiting for the meals served by the hospital.
Ms Omoto, however, said since the minor bled a lot, he needed some special diet to help him replenish the blood levels.
According to Ms Omoto, the boy’s family has not been able to meet any of the medical bills.
“We have learnt that this child is a total orphan and has been staying with an aunt who is not able to pay the bills,” she said.
Monitor traced the aunt Natalia Achila, who brews malwa, a local drink, and picks cereals in Busia main market for survival.
Ms Achila said she received the sad news of the shooting of her nephew allegedly by Kenya Police.
Guliti said on that fateful day , he left his aunt’s rented house for Busia-Kenya to buy second-hand clothes. “All that was on my mind was to buy clothes using the little money I had saved from selling plastic scrap,” Guliti said.
He added that he succeeded in buying clothes, but on his way back home, just around the Busia-Kenya County Stadium, he was caught in running battles between rioters and Kenya Police.
He recounted: “I saw a group of youth stone the police who responded with teargas and a volley of live bullets. But as I escaped from the scene, the police surged towards me, shooting, and I suddenly found myself on the ground.”
The next thing, he added, he saw a police pickup truck arrive, pick him up and take him to hospital where he started feeling “a lot of pain”. “As blood oozed out of my thigh, I realised that I had been shot,” he said.
At Marachi Primary School, the headmaster, Mr Bashir Guloba, said Guliti was in Primary Four, but he had taken time without seeing him at school and only came to learn from a medical officer, who came from Kenya looking for his parents, that he was shot and hospitalised.
Mr Michael Ocheng, the Marachi ‘C’ Village chairperson, said the family is in urgent need of support to enable Guliti to get good treatment and be able to walk again.
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