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Showing posts from June, 2017

UHURU NA KAZI: 2002 AD

UHURU NA KAZI: 2002 AD “Weweeee! Amukaa!! Mwanaume ghani ako na ndigiree analala saa hii!” That was my Mom’s unmistakable voice . I had graduated a month earlier, and the Monday after the graduation ceremony, I knew nothing but grief. Every day at 04H30, Mom would knock on my crib's window and shout all manner of things till I left home before 06H00. “Hapa sio kwako! Hapa ni kwa Mzee M'Kaurugo. Enda tafuta kwako! Kwenda kapisa. Unanona nona hapa bila kasi tukuchinje?” I’d pick my man-bag full of my education certificates and wander off to God knows where. I thank God for my Mom, with her unconventional brand of motivation. My childhood friend, Wanjohi (Wanjo), had recently lost his dream job at a local brewery after a freak accident in his official company car. So, I’d go to his house, stretch out on the couch and catch up on my sleep till mid-morning. The year was 2002. President Moi had done his two five-year constitutional terms, and the country’s political landscape was ...

H E President Uhuru Kenyatta & Chris Kobia: An Unlikely Encounter

H E President Uhuru Kenyatta & Chris Kobia: An Unlikely Encounter It was an odd hot, dusty afternoon that day in April 1988. The school holidays had started in earnest and the Safari Rally was around the corner. We were busy building our Rally Gum sticker collections and the Coca-Cola promo was in full gear with the crown-liners all over the place. Boys playing Bano and the girls playing Kati. That day, I was getting on with my favourite game of Chobo-Ng’oto, and with the designated safety-post like half a kilometre away, that was perfect recipe for action/drama. Nothing in the skies signalled my chance encounter with a future President of Kenya. Suddenly, a white Subaru Leone appeared behind us, moving at snail-speed; with the driver seemingly trying to make out the numbers on the house doors. As it turned out, the vehicle stopped where I was, and the single occupant donning a NIKE sports jacket - emblazoned with the Kenya flag on the front-right, the All Africa Games '87...