Louis Otieno’s son hits out at dad, again

Veteran journalist Louis Otieno’s son Silas Miami has again opened up on his fractious relationship with his father. Miami, in a lengthy post on social media that is addressed to NTV journalist James Smart, says he 'doesnt know' his dad well because the two have only met three times in their lifetime. He further says he was forced to share the emotional post which includes his reactions to the subject after Smart reached out for an interview. Miami claims his dad rejected him at some point when he was growing up. “Louis made it abundantly clear he wanted nothing to do with me. I struggled with it. It hurt in unthinkable ways," he wrote. "Thankfully, trauma therapy and years of unlearning ‘survival mode’ have gotten me to a place of acceptance and healing.” added Miami, a South African-based filmmaker. He adds: "At 22, while in my first year of film school, I got a call from my estranged mother asking me to visit my estranged father in the hospital because he was ‘dying’. I jumped on a flight to Nairobi the next day. When I get to his bed, he spends the first two minutes denying that I am his son. Until he quickly deduced that he could potentially earn money from me." “Louis Otieno is many things to many people, that I understand. To me? Louis was a trash father who didn’t care if I lived or died. I was a child. On the virtue of THAT alone- I deserved better.” Miami further recalls how his father would supposedly punish him and his mother while abusing other women. “He did everything in his power to punish my mother and me by proxy for needing help. This was all happening at the height of his success; polishing the tires of his car with kiwi, shaping the political opinions of a fractured nation because he ‘sounded smart’, and wrecking homes by physically and emotionally abusing women. He’d made it his mission to break, belittle and embarrass my mother.” The proud member of the queer community described his father as an absentee parent and that he had to work hard to earn his love which turned out to be futile. “So I take this opportunity to ask everyone to stop asking me about him because you’re asking me about a stranger. I know nothing,” said Miami. Once a famed news anchor, Louis Otieno's stock diminished considerably when he lost his hearing ability a few years back. At some point, he appealed to Kenyans to help him raise funds to enable him to undergo cochlear implant surgery, which he later announced was successful. Other than the illness, Otieno had had to prove his innocence in a court case linking him to the death of Careen Chepchumba who was found dead inside her apartment in Nairobi in 2012. Otieno has repeatedly pleaded his innocence in the killing of the former employee of Kenya Power Company even though he admitted they were more than friends. But the deceased's father maintained the journalist extorted money from his daughter to finance his flashy lifestyle, claims to which the journalist refuted saying that he earned an income that he relied on.