UDA supporters in Bungoma County have mourned the death of a Webuye-base politician, Charles Kyalo.
The late Charles Kyalo Mukonza’s sudden mysterious death has thrown residents and supporters of UDA party in Bungoma into mourning as locals call for a probe.
The 47 year old activisit who was a strong and urdent supporter of Deputy President Dr William Ruto, died on Friday morning at Webuye Sub-County Referral Hospital while on oxygen support system.
Mr. Kialo had been rushed to the facility by his wife, Ms Monica Kyalo, and neighbours in the wee hours of Friday morning after he devoloped breathing complications.
His wife said that he had previously had a history of having pressure.
His first born daughter, Mary Kyalo, said that their father arrived home on Thursday evening at around 7PM and was just fine and healthy, ate his supper and left for bed in jovial mood.
“My mother walk up early as usual to prepare our brother Junior for school and noticed that Dad wasn’t behaving normally as he was breathing heavily and throwing his hands,” said Mary.
“She called me from my room and we called our neighbor who rushed him to hospital where he was placed on oxygen before he died,” she said amid tears.
Mr Kyalo, who settled in Webuye from Kitui in the late 1990’s working as a driver and a tout for a local passenger services vehicle at Webuye bus station stage, was very instrumental in assisting UDA make inroads in Bungoma county.
Mr Kyalo was also a staunch catholic who worshiped at Webuye Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
He was an active member of the Catholic men’s association and contributed greatly to many issues affecting the Catholic church in Webuye.
Matulo ward MCA candidate on Ford Kenya party ticket, Mr Stephen Kaiser Simiyu, led residents in morning the late Kyalo.
Mr Kaiser described him as a ‘courageous and bold’ political activist with a firm stand on political matters.
“My heartfelt condolences to the family of Charles Kyalo. He was a courageous and bold political activist. May almighty God give his family strength and comfort at this difficult time,” said Mr Kaiser.
Mr Kaiser offered to transport the body to Kitui for burial, buy a casket and dress the body apart from donating cash to assist the family with funeral arrangements.
Bungoma Women Representative Catherine Wambilianga described the late as a ‘fearless political activist’ who will be remembered for his active involvement in local politics and issues affecting the ordinary people in the community.
“Apart from being my neighbor here at Cite and Services estate in Webuye town, we worshiped together at Webuye holy Trinity Catholic church and he was very instrumental in assisting me in mobilizing for votes from the minority communities of GEMA here in Bungoma during my 2017 campaigns,” she said.
Mr Kyalo, the father of two daughters and one son, hails from Matinyani village in Kitui county.
Early this year, he had hinted at contesting for a ward seat in Kitui county on a UDA party ticket but later shelved the bid.
It is not clear why he shelved the bid but sources close to him indicated that he had disclosed to several of his friends that UDA chairman Mr Johnston Muthama had promised to have him nominated as an MCA in any county across the country after the August elections.
Residents who spoke to the media praised Kyalo of his push for UDA popularity in the region perceived as a Ford Kenya party stronghold.
They called for a probe on what killed Mr Kyalo.
led by Cyrus Mukolwe, they said stated that Mr Kyalo’s death was a shock, unusual and demanded that investigations into his death be launched.
“This death we suspect it’s not normal and might be politically instigated. Let the security agents probe the politicians he had been walking with lately, especially during the just concluded IEBC clearance exercise,” he said.
He said that Mr Kyalo was a friendly outgoing person who never wronged anyone.
“We want an independent postmortem conducted by government officials to establish what caused his death since at the time of his death, its rumored that his phone had been detained at a certain local pub in Webuye town over a certain MCA aspirants bill of less than one thousand that they had drunk together” he said.
Webuye county hospital medical supretendant Dr Simon Kisaka said that an initial medical report had indicated that Mr Kyalo died of pressure adding that at the time of his death his pressure was at 255.