Laban, the Farmers Own Agricultural Officer

Laban
I need to tell you something about our agricultural officer Laban and what a great chap he is. Despite severe finger injuries after the crash he came with me to Western Province with Elli Janssen from the Dutch donor ICCO and he managed Elli’s difficult and probing questions with great honesty, confidence and style. Elli was very interested in women’s issues and was concerned about women’s representation on the self-help groups (SHGs) and farmers action associations (FAAs). In fact she was so impressed by his responses that she has asked Laban to go to a workshop in Nairobi in November to discuss gender issues.
Right now Laban is Farmers Own, without him we would be lost, as he is the one with the key contacts with the farmers and it is clear that the farmers trust him and believe in him. We need to recruit more staff like him but until we can we must rely on him.
One of my priorities is to make sure that he has the best attention for the finger injuries.
Initially Laban’s injuries were severe, he badly damaged 3 fingers of the right hand, one had a lot of soft tissue missing, one was broken and one had a lot of skin removed. The wounds should have been treated straight away at the Nyanza district hospital but in fact nothing was done until 23 hours after the accident and by this time infection had set in. This delay was because we had to buy the necessary wound dressings and iodine antiseptic solution required but we were all being treated as well. The next day during the doctors morning hospital round one of the doctors pointed at the x-ray slide and said his broken finger should be cut off. Fortunately later a Masaai houseman decided that the finger could be saved and he did a good job of stretching it and fitting it back together. Later we all thanked this guy greatly for saving Laban’s finger.
Once admitted to Nyanza district hospital it was very difficult to get him out but when we did I took him straight to Aga Kahn hospital, Kisumu, for a check up where they were able to bandage him properly. When we got to Nairobi I took him to the Aga Kahn hospital here where he was a last able to get the proper splint. After recent visits to the hospital last weekend, on Monday and finally yesterday (Friday 7th) I am glad to say that the break has healed and the other wounds are healing well.