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How Ken Okoth spent his final days seeking cancer treatment

By Amina Wako August 1st, 2019 2 min read

“How long do I have to live?” Those were the words the late Kibra MP Ken Okoth asked his doctors when he learnt about his Stage 4 Cancer in October 2017.

Okoth was first taken ill in 2016 while he was in Mombasa and diagnosed with gastrointestinal infections.

A year later, he learnt that he had been misdiagnosed after the doctors at Aga Khan Hospital found out he had Stage 4 Colorectal Cancer.

Kamukunji MP Yusuf Hassan Abdi made these revelations during the late politician’s Memorial Service held at Moi Girls High School, Nairobi on Thursday.

When he learnt that he had Cancer in October 2017 Okoth only shared the information with Imran Okoth and they decided to keep the information secret from the rest of the family members until they had a way of dealing with it.

TREATMENT

“We agreed we would not share the information with anyone, until we knew the way forward,” Imran said.

His mother, Angeline Ajwang, only knew about Okoth’s condition three months later when the MP was already abroad receiving treatment.

Okoth informed his childhood friend, who leaved in the US, and the friend immediately organized for an air ticket from his pocket.

The MP flew out of the country beginning of November 2017.

The treatment in the US was very expensive and he had to look for a more affordable alternative. Okoth eventually settled for France.

OKOTH’S HEALTH

When he came back in January, his friends noticed he had greatly changed.

Its at this point that he shared with his many friends through a Facebook group he created on his health and the progress.

Okoth first came open about his illness in March 2019 when he shared details of his battle with cancer as he was undergoing treatment.

“Napambana na hali yangu kabisa. Chemo drugs are brutal on the skin and immunity system,” he captioned a photo while responding to a Twitter user who had enquired about his health.

In an interview early this year, Okoth said the cancer was discovered at a very advanced stage and cannot be cured, just managed.