Meet Abdi Wako: On Triumph over Disability and Life

When a lot of children are born with disabilities in our society we tend to neglect t and stigmatize the children. Most of the time, the young children get locked indoors from the rest of the world ending up spending their time there. Moreover the society believes that disability is caused by witch craft.

Abdi Wako is one of the many people in the country who are disabled, when he was born 35 years ago, he was born normal but as time went by he got sick and become disabled.

At the age of 7, young Abdi was diagnosed with polio, polio is a crippling and potentially fatal infectious disease that has no cure but there are safe and effective vaccines for prevention given to young children.

And from that incident Abdi became paralyzed on the lower part of his body and hence started using wheelchair. Luckily he had his family who helped him come to terms with that reality. For many this would have be a death sentence but Abdi raise beyond his disability.

Abdi promised himself that he would never beg for anything in his life time and that’s why he is an inspirational to many in his community.

He lives in his elder brother’s compound and has managed to build a wooded  one bedroom house for his family .Abdi is married to Mrs. Halima wako and has three children, two beautiful girls and a cute baby boy.

For many years Abdi has catered for his families well being for he has been the breadwinner of the family. He works as a day watchman at {name of school} a post he has held for nearly 5 years.

Though the pay is not that good, Abdi is grateful to the community for giving him that chance in life. According to the school principal [name of principal} Mr. Abdi was recommended by the community and the religious leaders around the area.

What keeps Abdi going is that he has learnt to appreciated and accept his situation and use it to his advantage.

A normal day for Abdi starts at around 5.30am when he leaves his home to the nearby mosque to lead in the Morning Prayers, a responsibility he was entrusted by the religious leaders at the mosque.

According to them Abdi had a calling in him and his disability was no barrier to that.

After the Morning Prayers Abdi returns home for the breakfast before leaving for his day job at the school, Abdi is usually accompanied by his elder daughter who helps him with the wheelchair. At some point the wheelchair cannot move thus the help form his daughter in pushing the wheelchair.

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After the end of business at the school, that’s around 5.00pm Abdi leaves the school premises and heads to the mosque,  at this time  his daughter is already home so he gets help with his wheelchair from the passersby. He meet up with his friends to catch on the days happening  at the mosque  as he waits for the evening prayers  after which he leaves  to be with his family.

As much as Abdi has learnt to accept his condition, he still faces a lot of challenges, according to Abdi it’s expensive for him to acquire a new wheelchair once  his breaks down and at such times he is forced to use a clutch, which according to him its painful when used for long.

During the rainy season, his movement is limited because of the mad, most of this time he stays indoors to avoid getting stuck in the mad. It’s also hard to use the washrooms because of how it was built.

Abdi recalls one incident when he was unable to run for his life;” it was one afternoon when I was still at work, for many days our community and the neighboring  turkana community had be fighting but on this day the fight intensified and the warring group started approaching the residual area”.

“We could hear the gun shots at a close range and at that point the pupil came running towards me and leaving the school compound, everybody was running to safety and I saw my daughter running towards me saying “baba baba harakisha tusikufe”

“She pushed me to safety but I was so scared and at one point told my daughter to leave and run to safety but she refused. So at times like that I fill hopeless and start to question God.”

Apart from the challenges he faces in life, Abdi is grateful to God for the far he has brought his family. His family’s support has seen him through thick and thin and that is the strength that make him face a new day.

Abdi has learnt to accept his condition, for him his disability is a blessing in disguise.

Article by Amina Mbuthia.