KDF officer killed in plane crash called pillar of home

You were the pillar of our home.

That's what family said of KDF pilot Jack Agunda, 34, who died with a colleague in a helicopter crash in Machakos on Monday last week.

Agunda will be buried on Friday in Masongo village, Ahero, Kisumu county. His body left Nairobi on Thursday morning by road after a ceremony at the KDF  Memorial Hospital. 

“Go well, till we meet again at Jesus's feet,” his uncle Jared Owiny said.

The father of one died after the chopper bound for Nairobi crashed in Masinga area.

“Kadambe! Your childhood nickname I called you all these years. Even as a major, you’d still answer to it with great joy and a big smile. It hurts so much and I don’t understand but I accept that it is God’s will, and he will guide us through,” his aunt Grace said.

Agunda, the secondborn in a family of four, had educated his siblings, seven relatives and three neighbours. He also secured good jobs for them after he was recruited in the military as a cadet in 2016 when he was age 21.

“Things changed for us immediately he got the job with the military. He constructed a big farmhouse that we were to open a couple of months from now. It's sad,” his young brother Alfred Agunda told the Star on phone on Thursday.

“He spent most of the Covid lockdown here putting the final touches to the big farmhouse he had built for the family. We had planned for visitors immediately Covid cooled down. Sad!"

Agunda, who preferred shorts and sandals, spent most of his free time in the village with relatives or fishing on the shores of Lake Victoria.

“He loved socialising and with people in villages. That way he connected, got to know them and secured jobs for them," his brother Alfred said.

“My cousin in Machakos University and my sister at the University of Nairobi were among those under his care," Alfred said.

“He was the family’s breadwinner and I can tell you we came a long way thanks to him. His job as a cadet really helped us," his brother said.

(Edited by V. Graham)