Senator Harold Kipchumba - my parents abandoned me because of polio

Baringo county nominated senator Harold Kipchumba (left), head of the Division of Disease Surveillance and Response Unit Dr Ian Njeru (center) and polio survivor Onesmus Muite (right) in the past. PHOTO | EMMA NZIOKA | FILE 

In Summary

• Five decades of hope and regrets later, he has taken the decision to help parents prevent their children from contracting what befell him.
• Living with polio has never been easy for Mr Kipchumba. Many a time, he felt life was unfair.
• Although polio has affected many in the past and reduced them to cripples, medical practitioners believe Kenya has made great strides in fighting the disease.

By STELLA CHERONO
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At just six years old, former nominated Senator Harold Kipchumba saw the last of his mother. Forlorn and sickly, he lived by taking whatever the world offered.

 

Mr Kipchumba had been an active boy who played with other children and climbed up and down the hills of Kaptiony Village in Baringo North to fetch water from a river. He also looked after the family’s livestock.

Then one day, the boy, who had been the source of hope in the family fell ill. His limbs became numb and he had watery eyes and a running nose. He couldn’t even talk. He had contracted polio.

Fear of witchcraft and curses engulfed his family and his father chose to take off.

Five decades of hope and regrets later, he has taken the decision to help parents prevent their children from contracting what befell him.

“Had my parents known 50 years ago, they would have taken me for polio vaccine. Parents, do not let your child go through what I went through,” is his call in a commercial sponsored by the Ministry of Health.

What he does not say in the campaign is the torture he has endured.

“After my father left, my mother carried me on her back and trekked to hospital 70 kilometres away. She did so on several occasions,” he says.

One day, he was admitted to hospital and his mother seized that opportunity to disappear too.

“I had become a very heavy burden, both physically and financially,” he says.

He was treated for several months and when he was six, he was taken by Nyabondo Catholic missionaries as an abandoned child.
Kipchumba’s parents never came for him. He could no longer walk, but the missionaries took good care of him.

“After passing my O-Level studies, I joined the Duke of York (now Lenana) School in Nairobi,” he says.

Unfortunately, his sponsorship was terminated and he was almost dropping out when the school board agreed to retain him.

He completed studies without any more hitches and joined college.

Living with polio has never been easy for Mr Kipchumba. Many a time, he felt life was unfair.

“It is hard to live a life of lagging behind everyone else. I have had to deal with many challenges, especially those bordering on mobility,” he says.

He has endured slippery floors and lack of disability-friendly premises. But the worst is the trauma caused by a disapproving public.

“Many people believe the disabled are probably lower humans. They do not value us at all. I was rejected several times by the girls I wanted to marry,” Mr Kipchumba says.

Although polio has affected many in the past and reduced them to cripples, medical practitioners believe Kenya has made great strides in fighting the disease.

Key of these is the anti-polio vaccine drives whenever a case is reported.