Living in Muruguru Village in Nyeri County is Sgt (Rtd) Timothy Theuri, a 75-year old veteran hailed as a hero by Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers after cheating death despite being shot twice in the head.
KDF's Majeshi Yetu Magazine, Theuri joined the military at the young age of 21 in March 1964, at a time when the country was fighting against the nuances of the shifta bandits (1963-1967).
The shift war was a secessionist conflict in which ethnic Somalis in the Nothern Frontier Districts (NFD) of Kenya attempted to join fellow Somalis in the greater Somalia, a matter that was met by brute force in the early days of the Mzee Jomo Kenyatta regime.
After one year in the army, Theuri and his colleagues based at Lanet were directed to deliver supplies to soldiers stationed in Mandera and armed with a camera, Theuri joined his colleagues hoping to capture the memories.
Unknowingly, however, the photos he took would be the last he would ever see of his colleagues as en route to Mandera, an army of 300 had laid an ambush and they sprayed their car with bullets, killing two soldiers on the spot, including the truck driver.
Theuri recalled that with the driver dead, the vehicle veered into Dawa River which was infested with crocodiles, further compounding the problems for him and his injured colleagues.
According to the reports, the tough exchange lasted for hours with many of Theuri's colleagues being killed since the enemies vastly outnumbered them.
Theuri recounted that after a tough fight, he and his colleagues started running out of ammunition and with the attackers relentless, he offered to get more ammunition from another truck a distance away.
He further narrated that his colleagues gave him covering fire while he ran to the vehicle to get more for them to stock and engage the enemy, an activity that he successfully undertook for three trips before tragedy struck.
"I was pretty sure that I was going to die. After being shot, I felt like I was being hit by a sledgehammer on the head. I was bleeding profusely and my whole body became very frail.
"I lay in the mud writhing in pain crazily pulling the grass surrounding me. I remember I was trying to beckon to my friends when I finally blacked out," Theuri recalled his unlucky fourth trip to the truck.
He further added that the enemy came to visit their spoils after the battle had died down but left him alone with the thought that he was already dead.
Later on, a reinforcement team from the then Kenya Rifle Headquarters swooped in and pushed the enemy away after which he and other soldiers were airlifted to the King George Hospital (currently the Kenyatta National Hospital) where he recuperated.
To this moment, Theuri walks with a limp and with bad memories of the day when he was lucky to have escaped with his life.
