Former top Knut official Stanley Mutai dies in Nairobi

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) first national vice-chairman Stanley Mutai has succumbed to cancer at a Nairobi hospital.

This comes two months after Knut second national vice-chairman John Wesonga also succumbed to cancer at Nairobi West Hospital where he was receiving treatment.

Mutai appeared to have had a premonition as he repeatedly dreamed and predicted his own death long before he was diagnosed with the cancer that claimed his life.

He was elected to the union's top position from a hospital bed where, in his own words, he was "between life and death, fighting Covid-19", and spoke openly about it all in public.

Mutai was diagnosed with cancer in June this year after being admitted to hospital in Kericho for recurring acute stomach pains.

On July 14, he was flown to India by family members for specialised treatment, but returned to Nairobi Hospital a week later for both outpatient and inpatient treatment.

The former longest serving Knut secretary for Kericho branch died on Sunday after being moved in and out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Collins Oyuu, Knut secretary-general, confirmed in a brief statement that Mutai had died while undergoing treatment.

"It is true that Mr Mutai succumbed to an illness while undergoing treatment at the Nairobi Hospital where he was admitted. It is a very sad moment for us as a union, the teachers of this country and the education sector," Mr Oyuu told the Nation.

Family members said Mutai died at 1.37pm on Sunday, but the matter was kept quiet until Monday morning when his close friends were informed.

There was a sombre mood at Brooke area in Ainamoi constituency, Kericho County, where Mutai resides, as news of his death spread.

"We have lost an educationist, a unionist, a leader, a family man and a friend to many. Here is a man who spoke his mind and his soil. A true champion of teachers' rights and welfare," said Malel Langat, Knut Bomet branch secretary and a member of the National Executive Council (NEC).

Mutai seemed to have had a premonition of his imminent death even before he was diagnosed with cancer and spoke about it without any prompting. "I had been to too many funerals during the campaigns, four in a row. Then I had a dream that I had actually died and my body was being viewed here in Sotik (Bomet County). But suddenly I woke up, pinched myself and realised that I was alive. It was scary," Mutai said last year at a teacher's funeral.

This year, Mutai gave a moving speech touching on death during the Imarisha Sacco Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kericho, urging officials and staff to be prudent with the Sacco's finances."We have come a long way in looking after this Sacco which was established by teachers from this region (South Rift). We want you to assure us that long after we are dead and forgotten, our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will be proud of what we started and nurtured into a thriving financial institution," he said.

Mutai said, "The teachers of this country who are the pioneers of this Sacco, the majority have died and we will follow them (in death) and will not forgive you if you let them down by mismanaging it. As you open the doors to non-teachers as members and shareholders, please exercise a lot of restraint so that we do not bring on board people with bad records and reputations who have the capacity to sink Imarisha Sacco".

Two weeks before the KNUT national election on 26 June 2021, Mutai fell ill in Kericho. Initially, he dismissed signs of illness as malaria and fatigue.

Mutai showed signs of illness during the union's National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, which he attended in Nairobi on June 12 to plan for the election, before travelling back to his rural home in Kericho by public transport on the same day. Before falling ill, he had travelled to most of the country's counties to campaign with a team allied to Mr Oyuu, who was then acting national chairman.

Mutai had just climbed down the ladder from contesting for the secretary-general's post, settling for the first vice-president's post in a deal struck to beat the union's then top gun Wilson Sossion - who was also the Orange Democratic Movement's (ODM) nominated MP, who later pulled out of the race a day before the poll.

But even as he took the drugs, his condition worsened within three days, leaving him unable to walk and in respiratory distress.

Mutai was rushed from his home to Fig Tree Hospital in Kericho town on 15 June, where he was tested for Covid-19, with the results coming back positive a few hours later.

"Shockingly, the doctors told me that medical tests showed that the inflammation in my lungs was at 81 per cent.

I only had 19 per cent left to die and it would have happened within three hours. It was a very frightening moment," said Mutai. "It was to be the beginning of a torturous 16-day battle with Covid-19, and it came at a time when we were at the peak of the campaigns. I could not believe I had contracted the coronavirus," Mutai told Nation.Africa in an exclusive interview shortly after being discharged from hospital.

He was immediately put on oxygen and started on a cocktail of drugs as doctors battled to reverse the effects of the infection on his vital internal organs in a critical race against time.

"I used up a number of oxygen tanks that I have lost count of. I was lucky to be in a facility that had a steady supply of oxygen as many patients have died in both private and public facilities due to lack of this essential commodity," said Mutai.

The unionist, a church elder, prayed a lot in his hospital bed and at one point thought he was losing both battles - the election and his life - but his family and friends were a rock of encouragement he turned to when all else seemed to be failing.

"In hospital, I remembered that if I died, my family would agonise over my finances as they did not even know what bank accounts I was operating. I called my wife (Jane) to my bedside and gave her all my ATM pin numbers and account numbers. I also wrote down other bank account numbers in my name," Mutai said during a recent church service.

Mr Mutai: "On your deathbed you realise that life is so fragile, that acquiring wealth and power is not everything in life. It is only you and your creator (God)".

"I initially went into a state of denial, but acceptance set in.I was automatically removed from commitments with KNUT delegates from across the country and had to delegate my responsibilities to a strong team we had formed," said Mr Mutai.

Fortunately for him, he had already had his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the time he fell ill, and doctors believe it helped him a lot in his recovery. "I was told that if I had not been vaccinated, the chances of me leaving the hospital alive would have been slim. When I was discharged from hospital, I was instructed to wait another month before taking the second dose of the vaccine, which I have since done," said Mutai.

From his hospital bed, he was reduced to following the campaigns on his mobile phone, and at one point doctors told him to cut back and focus on his treatment and recovery. Unknown to many, it was Mutai's daughter, Ms Mercy Mutai, a Nairobi-based lawyer, who presented the papers to the Labour Officer at the nomination on June 25 (the day before the election) at Ruaraka Sports Grounds in Nariobi, using the power of attorney given to her by her father, who watched the proceedings from his hospital bed.

"It was a very tense moment for us as we knew we were going into an election without our candidate's physical presence and anything could go wrong. We continued to pray and eventually emerged victorious by a landslide," said Mr John Musere, the Rift Valley Regional Council chairman who acted as Mutai's agent in the election.

Mr David Rono, the Kericho KNUT branch chairman, said it was only on election day (June 26) that delegates were informed that Mr Mutai had been hospitalised with Covid-19.

"By the grace of God, I fought and won two big battles at the same time - COVID-19 and the KNUT national election. I don't take it for granted," said Mutai who polled 1,431 votes to defeat his challenger Dan Aloo who polled 276 votes.

But cancer was too big a fight for him as the killer disease finally claimed his life.