KDF helicopter crash: The interesting life of Captain Hillary Litali while growing up in Shabab
Dickson Litali and Evelyn Litali the parents to the late Captain Hillary Litali who was among KDF officers who died in a chopper crash in Elgeyo-Marakwet.
Evelyn Litali was in church with her fellow worshippers yesterday when she saw two of her friends talking and decided to join in.
She then found out that they were discussing a news alert they had seen on social media about a tragic air crash in Elgeyo-Marakwet involving Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) officers.
At this point, she suddenly becomes anxious and begins to contact her son, who she knows works in the KDF.
Her son was unfortunately unavailable at the time, so she contacted her brother who also worked in the KDF, but he was also unavailable.
She decides to call her husband, who tells her to come straight home from church, but he doesn't tell her anything.
When she arrives home, she is met by her husband and it is confirmed that her first-born son, Captain Hillary Litali, had lost his life in the tragic air crash at Elgeyo-Marakwet.
She fondly remembers the last time she was with her son, during the Easter holidays, when they travelled to their home in Kitale to put the finishing touches on the family home they were building.
As for the father, he kept getting different reports from his colleagues and friends about the tragic plane crash, but he insisted on not following up on it, knowing that if anything happened, they would be able to get proper communication from the KDF.
His worst fears were confirmed when President William Ruto read out the names of those who died in the crash.
According to his father, he raised him to be a disciplined man and this enabled him to grow up and even join the disciplined forces and as the first born he was a role model for his brother.
His success filtered down to his other family members who also aspired to follow in his footsteps.
His pride and joy now remains as a memory he will cherish for as long as he lives.
Captain Litalu was born in Kitale in 1994 as the firstborn son of him and his wife Evelyn Litali who lived in Trans Nzoia at the time after moving from Kakamega county.
The family then moved to Nakuru where they rented a house when he was a young.
He attended Muslim Primary School in Nakuru where he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2008, scoring 397 marks to gain admission to the top-performing Emining Secondary School in Mogotio.
In 2012 he sat for his KCSE exams and scored B+ plus. However, the high grade did not impress him as it was below his target, so he decided to re-sit the exam at another school and enrolled at Anestar Boys High School in Bahati.
While at the school he applied for a cadet position advertised by KDF and was lucky enough to be shortlisted for an interview.
He successfully went through the recruitment process and was one of 140 successful candidates out of a total of 1,000 shortlisted.
After completing the nine-month training, he graduated as a lieutenant cadet in 2013 and served in this position until 2017 when he was promoted to a second lieutenant.
He received a second promotion in 2020 where he was made a Captain. In 2021 he was appointed as an aide to the former Chief of Defense Forces, General Robert Kibochi, a position he held until 2023.
After General Kibochi’s retirement, Captain Litali took a short break before enrolling in another promotion course in 2024.
At the time of his death, he had completed the course and was awaiting promotion to Major.
Additional reporting by Joseph Openda.