Hello everyone.  My name is Gitonga.  Mwenda and I are Nelson Koome Kiara’s two older brothers – many of us knew him as Koko.  Our thanks to you all for being here with us – it is heartwarming to see you all and feel your unquestioning love and support for our family at this challenging time.  You have embraced our family’s desire to remember and celebrate Koko’s life.  Our thanks also to St. Mark Church for their support and assistance.

Here we all are to remember and celebrate our son, our uncle, our brother, our friend and our colleague.  Koko is gone and our hearts have been torn asunder.  A certain darkness has passed over us and we have a void in our lives left by the death of this excellent young man.

I have the task of speaking briefly about Koko on behalf of our family: his parents (Stephen and Consolata Kiara); his fantastic nieces and nephew (Makena, Ruva and Kinoti), his lovely sisters-in-law (Loice Gururpira and Inosi Nyatta) and his brothers.  This is a most difficult task as I have often wondered in the past few days how anyone can speak briefly about Koko and how we have lost him too soon.

Koko’s life provides us with a real path out of the sorrow that we feel.  Koko is looking down at us right now and, if we could hear him, we would hear him say to us “What are you doing?  Why the sad faces?  I am ok, so you all should be ok too.”  So if you see a sad face next to you, in front of you, behind you, please turn and say, “Do not be sad.  Do not be sad.” 

Our baby brother Koko was born on September 11, 1974, which means he just missed his 39th birthday by a whisker – Koko will be forever young.  Koko attended primary school at St. Mary’s School and Kilimani Primary School in Nairobi.  He then attended Strathmore and Lenana High Schools.  Koko moved to the US for college in September 1993 and he graduated from Kennesaw State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science.  Koko lived, worked and studied in the Washington DC Metro area and in Atlanta and he visited many US states for work.

The brevity of Koko’s life belies its immensely positive impact.  The measure of a person must be the difference he or she made during his or her lifetime.  A quick look at Koko’s life will reveal a treasure trove replete with stories of the overwhelmingly positive impact that this excellent young man had in his short life – as so clearly evidenced by the messages on his memorial website.

Koko has been described as a man for all seasons, and I believe he truly was.  As many of you know, Koko was born into a family of two older brothers and, as such, he was basically in competition from the moment of his birth!  Koko was always hugely talented and indefatigable, and Mwenda and I were soon lagging behind Koko as he learned the life lessons that we taught him, become a better competitor and was soon teaching us quite a few lessons of his own!  Koko always had our backs and, when Mwenda and I got married and had kids, he moved seamlessly from a great brother to a fantastic brother-in-law to our wives and amazing uncle to our kids, to his kids – Makena, Ruva and Kinoti.

Koko was an adventurer, a man of great intelligence, curiosity and confidence and possessed of an enviable fearless spirit and competitive streak.  Koko was hugely generous in spirit, gladly helping many people that he would never know and never meet – from orphans whose education he helped sponsor to schools in Kenya that received computers through his efforts. 

Koko was ever entertaining – in conversation, in meetings, in business, on the stage, on the dance floor, in the swimming pool, in the kitchen, on the streets, in the air, you name it.  He had an electric charm, a turbo charged wit and a real love for interaction with people – and many, many people quite naturally loved him.  He moved seamlessly through cultures spanning the globe and left all who met him with a hunger to spend even more time in his company.  He was a team player who would try and get the best for and from his family, friends and colleagues.

Let us all take a leaf from the “Book of Koko’s Life”.  Let us bring joy into the lives of others.  Let us be helpful, most especially when we receive nothing in return.  Let us be curious about our surroundings and the people with whom we interact.  Let us see life as a wonderful adventure.  Let us not limit ourselves and always seek to improve.  Let us be confident and never complacent.  Let us undertake new endeavors because they can help us and others grow.  Let us be just like Koko.

Shakespeare in Julius Caesar tells us that “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.  Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear; seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”  The necessary end has come for our brother, but I can happily testify that our valiant Koko lived a very full life, that he feared not and that he tasted of death but once.

Koko, your necessary end has broken our hearts.  We love you.  We miss you.  We will not forget you.  We know you are being as great over there as you were over here, and that everyone over there is trying to get closer to you and bask in the glow of your love, warmth and happiness – the love, warmth and happiness that left us all too soon.

 

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