Former Prime Minister Raila Odinga is in India for her daughter Rosemary Odinga’s treatment. According to a report that appeared in the Daily Nation on Thursday, the visit to India by Raila and his daughter is a a follow-up check-up on Rosemary’s eye ailments that have dogged her since 2017, when she lost her eyesight.
The treatment is being undertaken at Sreedhareeyam Ayurvedic Eye Hospital and Research Centre in Koothattukulam.
“Odinga is being taken through Ayurveda, a traditional Indian system of medicine that aims to preserve health and wellness by keeping the mind, body, and spirit in balance and preventing disease rather than treating it,” the report in the Nation said.
The daily further quoted the chief physician of the centre, Dr Narayanan Namboothiri, saying that the Odingas will be at the hospital for a couple of days while Rosemary undergoes various eye care procedures and treatments prescribed in the traditional ayurvedic system. Rosemary suffered a minor stroke in February 2017. An operation led to her losing her sight.
In a previous interview with Citizen TV’s Victoria Rubadiri, Rosemary explained that while with her children in Naivasha, she had collapsed following constant headaches, an occurrence that saw the start of her health problems.
“I was called for breakfast and I couldn’t open the door… eventually, after knocking and opening the door, I just collapsed onto the help who was there,” she had said.
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She explained that after her collapse, her shocked daughters immediately called an ambulance to take her to Nairobi for treatment but considering the trip would have taken long, she declined.
“My older daughter ran to the clinic and they sent an ambulance which came and picked me up. Then they said we could drive to Nairobi but I said I couldn’t make it so they sent for a chopper which brought me to Nairobi,” she narrated. Upon arrival at a hospital in Nairobi, Rosemary was diagnosed with aneurysm, an enlargement of an artery caused by weakness in the arterial wall and a brain tumour that was later on removed in China.
Raila has previously shard how his family was forced to move from one hospital to the another, locally and outside the country, in search of remedy.
“We got to appoint where we nearly gave up as a family after unsuccessfully visiting many hospitals including those in Germany, China and South Africa before she was finally healed in India” he said. “Doctors in South Africa said she will never regain her sight. However, a friend introduced us to a doctor in India who used herbal medicine to help her recover.”
