A Kenyan-born man has narrated how his life took an unexpected turn after he was attacked by an unknown gang in the US three years ago.
Cyprian Ondieki of Minnesota says he moved to the US when he was 19 years old to join his father who had relocated there a few years earlier.
In the US, Ondieki joined college before dropping out in his second semester to join the army. By this time, he admits, he had learned that life in the US is not a walk in the park as he had expected.
“I used to take student loans and travel to Kenya but in the second semester I could not continue with my studies and therefore I decided to join the army,” he said in an interview with RN Media.
Luckily, Ondieki was enlisted into the US Army and after completing his training and graduating, he was posted to New York near the US-Canada border, where he served as a mechanic and team leader.
Ondieki says he was so determined to build his career in the army and was so passionate about his job until misfortune visited in 2017.
On that fateful night, the father of one had gone out to a party at a local club with friends oblivious of what was awaiting him. It is here where an armed gang attacked him leading to his hospitalization for several months. He says he was in a coma for two months.
Ondieki divulges that he fell victim to a ‘gang initiation attack’ whereby persons seeking to join a criminal group attack random people to prove they can be part of it.
“I happened to at the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have been anybody but I guess they chose me,” he said.
He says the gang would have killed him if his friends did not mobilize others to confront the criminals. Doctors were almost certain that he would not survive based on the injuries he suffered and the amount of blood he lost.
He was in a wheelchair for six months and had nursing assistants monitoring his recovery.
‘I think the doctors and nurses lied to me. They told me I would be normal and I tried to work hard because I wanted to get better and go back to the army,” he stated.
He was later admitted to the warrior transition unit, where injured military officers go to recuperate with the hope of rejoining the army. But he was retired on medical grounds after he began having uncontrollable tremors.
Apart from losing his job, Ondieki says most of his friends abandoned him after the attack. Despite the terrible experience, he says his child is what keeps him going.
Sorry Ondieki for your…
Sorry Ondieki for your encounter but atleast u healed.Tgank you for telling your story juu many of he kenyans/africans who move to states has lied how safe n haven states or uk/canada is comparing with home.I lost a fred 2007 at a bar in states,he was hit on the head by chupa by a a spanish n another one stabbed walking at around 7pm winter time so mauwongo mingi ati how this country r safer tueachangee.
Unfortunately everything you…
Unfortunately everything you have been told involved Ondieki and your friends getting hurt in bars. There are many other places one can go have fun instead of running to the bars and staying there until the wee hours of the night.
I do not understand how someone can leave Chagaa dens in Kenya to end up in Coors, Budweiser, Corona beer dens in America and then end up getting hurt.
It takes a lot of discipline to live in any country all of the world. It also takes a lot discipline to live anywhere in Kenya.
Both Odienki’s and your friend’s situation have left out a lot of details which could provide essential facts that led to their being attack.
Now it’s too little too late because every body involved is either dead or nursing severe life threatening injuries as in the case of Odieki.
Black man can easily enjoy…
Black man can easily enjoy life in Asia than in America land of genocide and slavery 400yrs ago.
You have no clue what you…
You have no clue what you are talking about. “Black men” my foot! What are you, Mr Piggy looking dude?
Are these not the same black peoples you are putting in the newly built concentration camps in Wuhan to jail Muslims too? Shame on you!
Asians are the most radical…
Asians are the most radical racist society in the world towards black people, that moron doesn’t know what he’s diarrhearing?
You are very right! Asians …
You are very right! Asians (mostly men) are very racist but they try to play cool!
Arrest this animal for…
Arrest this animal for telling a lie. It is well known that Chinese men hate black people and especially black men because Chinese women love black men. So the Chinese men feel inadequate and threatened by black men who sexually satisfy Chinese women.
Stop talking of American…
Stop talking of American history that you don’t know. Have your sister marry a black man then you can talk with a living example like, “my brother in law” is a black brother!!
Black men will not flock to…
Black men will not flock to China to be used as slaves in communes, the communist China large communal farms! China possesses a long dark history of its own. That is what you need to worry about than telling us about US problems.
And why do you think Chinese…
And why do you think Chinese men and women are moving to Africa in droves to enjoy life there? Because there is no life to be enjoyed in China. Black men have no need to go search for enjoyment in China.
China will never have a…
China will never have a leading role in the world; and especially now that China has used the biological weapon of mass destruction – the Wuhanvirus – to infect humanity.
The entire world is very disappointed and mad with what China has deliberately done to the world! What China has done to the world have completely diminished China’s ability to rule the world in any form.
No body trusts China! And China can never be the envy of the world even in another 10,000 years to come after infecting the world with a severely deadly coronavirus!
So don’t think the black men are stupid to start heading to China for whatever reason you may wish to think of @ wisecounsel. You can dream all you want but it won’t happen. You will remain to be a sour thumb in the eyes of the world for many years to come.
Have you ever thought maybe,…
Have you ever thought maybe, just maybe China had nothing to do with releasing Covid19?
Labs in Detroit Michigan USA play around with the very same virus.
In France there’s a Lab that plays with the same virus.
Who’s to say somebody didn’t sneak in Wuhan China, release the virus then got the hell out of dodge setting up China to take the blame.
I mean take a look at the sequence of events leading up to the epidemic assuming you didn’t just wake up from a coma
Your suggestions are just…
Your suggestions are just crazy cooked up theories of an illiterate outside observer. You are semi thinking while in a deep coma. Actually, you are making half dead assumptions in defense of China which will not alter the actual facts.
PFC Ondieki – I am sure your…
PFC Ondieki – I am sure your chain of command (squad leader, platoon sergeant, 1st Sergeant and the Company Commander) must have briefed you of the place to go and not to go near/or around your base at Fort Drum. More often than not, gang related incidences tend to happen in areas that are not very nice.
It sounds that your attack happened in the premises of a club where alcohol drinking/ drugs were involved. Such social environments are the worst hang outs for junior soldiers because you can easily be targeted and get attacked the way you did.
The military classifies bad locations around any base (conus/oconus) as the “Red Light Districts” to help the soldiers easily identify those areas so that they can take additional precautions to stay safe. Unfortunately, you ended up in the wrong place. How that happened; only you alone can explain.
The medics who treated kept assuring you of your recovery based on the best medical science reports they were observing as you continued to heal.
The medics job was to prepare/restructure your thought process to help you have a positive outlook in the progress you were making as a patient; so they did not lie to you.
The doctors and nurses may have recommended that you needed to be separated from the army because of the tremors you were having at the warrior transition battalion. Being a mechanic requires a lot of strength to get the job done.
The doctors were not to recommend for you to get back to work while you were still having uncontrollable tremors. Surely, they did not take the decision to terminate you lightly.
You failed to understand what caused you to enlist in the army by going out to dangerous places. You also failed to do some due diligence surveillance before blindly following your battle buddies to such unsafe environment outside the base.
Please do not blame your leadership and others for your failure to follow the simple prescribed guidelines. The US military trains it’s personnel to stay safe and healthy both in garrison and in combat.
The US military trains and teaches you how to take care of your family as well. The military wants you to be successful while enlisted and even when you are out.
Use the VA system to continue with your treatment since you were medically terminated from the active army. I just hate to see some people here giving you the wrong advice out of malice while they have no clue how the US Army works. There are lot of facts that you have left out here in you story…..
Please also remember that you are still in the greatest country in the face of the earth where you can turn your situation around than any other place. Those telling you otherwise do not know what the hell they are talking about; indeed they are wrong!
Since you were lucky to have survived the beating ordeal, it is now upon you to use the skills that you attained from the Basic Training and AIT to plan ahead and come up with other suitable alternatives to make a living and be able to take care of yourself and your child. I urge you to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get your mind gainfully employed into positive thinking to turn around your life. You are still young and I believe you can do it!
Best of luck and wishes you well in your future endeavors!
@Ogili You make perfect…
@Ogili You make perfect sense. This is a second case of a soldier being attacked by the gangs. There was another one like it in Richmond VA. The guy went to show off his boot-camp training by pushing to dance with someones chick and eventually proving himself by beating up the poor boyfriend (BF). The BF went out and came with his gang and the rest is history. See the story here
https://www.nbc12.com/story/20078129/police-man-beaten-inside-richmond-club/
@Odieki – please review your…
@Odieki – please review your statement, “ I used to take student loans and travel to Kenya…….”! To do what in Kenya while you are traveling with borrowed money?
While I do sympathize with your current situation, I honestly think you have personally contributed largely to your misfortunes as a college student and while in the US Army!
But there is a lot of life ahead and you need to do what is necessary to jump start your life by taking full responsibility of what has happened in the past so you can chart a clear way forward! Best!
I’m a black man. I lived in…
I’m a black man. I lived in a China. What you see happening in America is a bed of roses compared to the treatment black men get in China. Luckily I came out of China alive.
Only credit I can give is to the Asian women who are more sympathetic with black men. But the women are highly oppressed there by men and do not have much say! But the Asian women love black men more that their Chinese men.
There is no life to be enjoyed by black men in China – none whatsoever!! Don’t be fooled by this lying fella. Mistreatment of black men is every where across Asia. He is knowingly lying to you. End of the story!
Sorry for that horrid…
Sorry for that horrid experience. Mine was under a corrupt racist and xenophobic law enforcement in NJ. I was attacked by THREE black American thugs in my former home in Jersey city NJ and almost died.My ex wife- a black American was having an affair with her own cousin and they tried to kill me. Whites instead of arresting my assailants,arrested me instead and I spent the next 11 yrs being TORTURED in jails,prisons and a mental hospital. They even attempted to murder my late dad when he came to the U.S.wanting answers…The devil lives in America…Don’t believe the propaganda in the media…
Used student loans to travel…
Used student loans to travel to Kenya and then dropped out of school. The revealstion says a lot about this young man.
He is a joker! No wonder…
He is a joker! No wonder trouble seems to follow him every where he goes; to include in the Army! He blew up a golden opportunity to enhance his life in the military but partying was so important to a point he forgot why his father got him out of Kenya. Choices have severe consequences and he is paying it badly!
Odieki is wearing the second…
Odieki is wearing the second lowest military rank in the US Army as shown on his Uniform. Certainly he must have been thoroughly briefed by his chain of command about the sensitive gang situation outside the base! How come he ended up in a bar where gangs frequently went? I’m having a hard time believing much of what he is saying here. Trained soldiers in the US Army know much better and are extremely safety conscious at all times.
PFC Odieki is talking a lot…
PFC Odieki is talking a lot of things except that he is not telling the whole truth about his situation. His poor judgment may have landed him in trouble that fateful night at the club. He know exactly what happened leading to him being attacked, but he choices to meander around the issues.
@Odieki – DA Form 4002 (…
@Odieki – DA Form 4002 ( Military Blotter Report) must have been issued when the SIR was concluded. Due to the nature of your serious incident; the MPs, MPIs, SDO, SDNCO, local police, and senior military officials must have been involved. A conclusive serious incident was report (SIR) was issued to your highest command! What were the findings and conclusions written in the SIR? And who was at fault? Would you be willing to share that conclusive report with Mwakilishi so that we can all know the facts??
@Ogili; very thoughtful and…
@Ogili; very thoughtful and informative advice for our brother Ondieki. Wish you had communicated with our brother before his failures.
@ kujipanga – I can assure…
@ kujipanga – I can assure you that Odieki had already been briefed by his chain of command of everything I have said to him here and even more. The US Army takes care of its own and provides timely information to make sure everyone is safe at all times. Most likely, Odieki was in place that he wasn’t supposed to be; I say most likely!!
See another one like him…
See another one like him here.
https://www.nbc12.com/story/20078129/police-man-beaten-inside-richmond-club/
On America’s soil, always…
On America’s soil, always beware of the surroundings.. gangs are real, acha ujinga ya mungiki ama sungusungu, here they can slaughter you innocently and a new innocent recruited member of the gang forced to testify guilty against the murder charges just to be jailed and leave real criminals who committed the murder running the streets, America is dangerous but at least pray you’re not caught in a random shooting spree.. my advice is, always act naive, I said act naive.. usijifanye unajua.. they hate that, NEVER ARGUE.. especially those muthaf***kas that are naturalized citizens telling a real born American eti ata mimi naachia, nachua.. I know man, am American, watakata iyo ulimi akupee ule..?? pole kwa Ondieki