Shattered by a bullet, protest survivor endures months of pain with no Ksh.50k for surgery

32-year-old Henry Omondi Ochieng’, a resident of Bondo, Siaya County faces an uncertain future after he was shot on the thigh on June 25, during the famous Gen Z protests against the 2024 Finance Bill.

Sounds of gunshots and tear gas canisters rented the air as Kenyans protested tax hikes, bad governance, constitutional violations, extra-judicial killings, high cost of living among other issues.

Omondi would face a life-altering setback when a police bullet inflicted severe damage to his left leg, subjecting him to physical pain.

“I was walking by the road when a bullet pierced through my leg. Boda boda riders took me to hospital, where a doctor said the bullet was lodged in my leg,” he recalls. 

He stated that through the intervention of Siaya governor James Orengo, doctors at Bondo sub-county hospital managed to remove the bullet which had been logged in his thigh. However, he could not continue with treatment since he was unable to raise Ksh.50,000 for surgery.

Over the four months’ period, Omondi has only been on pain killers to reduce the severe pain on his leg as he cannot raise the amount required for the correctional surgery.

Citizen Digital visited him in his single roomed rented house at Onyata Estate in the outskirts of Bondo town. Here, he tells how his life has been completely shattered as he can no longer undertake the boda boda business he used to do to earn a living. 

“Getting food is difficult, we survive on porridge and water,” Omondi narrates as tears fill his eyes. 

This has had a ripple economic effect on his family. For four months he has been unable to pay rent or fend for his wife and two children adding that the burden of the injury has been very heavy on his family to an extent that getting even a single meal has become almost impossible.  

The burden of taking care of the family now rests on the shoulders of his wife Lucy Akoth who often has to do manual jobs to sustain the family, as she endures a painful journey since her husband was injured in the Gen Z protests.

As their hope extended beyond recovery, Omondi and Akoth plead for support to enable him undergo the corrective surgery so that he could resume his normal duties.