Major General George Agoi died a sad man in 2021. Although most officers always remain silent even if they know very well that they had been treated unfairly, Agoi always told anyone who cared to listen that some jealous people had instigated his early retirement from the military.
The former Kenya Army General was in-charge of the rescue operation at the 1998 USA embassy bomb blast.
According to him, the international recognition he received did not please some powerful individuals. “I sensed all was not well after the rescue mission in which I coordinated all teams,” he told the Standard 14 years ago.
Because of the good work he had done, he was invited to attend disaster management seminars in Israel, US and South Africa disaster but was denied clearance by the government. Some invitations were even thwarted before reaching him.
The following year he was retired from the military and appointed Kenya’s ambassador to Ethiopia. Even though President Moi said he made the appointment “because of General Agoi’s exemplary military career and because he came from an excellent background,” Agoi believed it was a polite way of hounding him out of the military.
“When my services in the military were terminated and subsequent appointment as an ambassador, I realized I was being pushed out of Government,” he told the Standard.
He served as ambassador for only one term then left to fade into private life. The NARC government had just come to power and it is also possible that he was a victim of regime change as the Kibaki- led coalition got rid of Moi’s diplomatic appointees.
Agoi further claimed that despite his key role in the aftermath of the 1998 bomb blast, his efforts to attend the bomb blast remembrance were always frustrated.
” I have on several occasions tried to attend the annual remembrance function but in vain,” he said fourteen years ago.
Agoi said he was not bitter with anyone but pointed out, “People who wholeheartedly work for the country as patriotic citizens are not remembered like in my case. I have been forgotten just like many others before me,” he once lamented.
But according to others, Major General Agoi was a victim of the radical Tonje Rules, which had claimed General Daudi Tonje himself who was forced to retire in 2000.
By Star