Hope and Despair Since becoming a republic on 12th December 1964, Kenya’s political landscape has oscillated between optimistic epochs of a bustling democracy and dark interludes of authoritarianism. As with many African nations, ours started with the celebration of our independence from British colonial rule. But this joy waned fast when our first president, Jomo…
I wish I could see you as vividly as I see my reflection in the mirror. I wish you were here. Right now. I wish you could hear me as clearly as I hear my thoughts. Technology has not yet provided the tools for me to reach out to you in the future, and neither…
I arrived in Kilifi at the break of dawn on the midnight bus from Nairobi. In the final moments of the trip, as the bus crossed the Kilifi Bridge — the longest bridge in the country — I caught a grand mural of colours as the sun reached above the ocean to claim the skies,…
I remember when it first dawned on me that I was not just merely perpetually sad, negative, unmotivated or for the most part indifferent, but, that I was actually suffering from depression. At the time, I was only old enough to sprout three or four strings of hair on my chin, and I had not…
Parents often toss a prayer into the heavens when their little minions run off to school – their small hands clutching onto their jingling pockets, heavy with the pennies that they had stolen and those that their mothers had reluctantly given them. Parents hope that their children’s march…
THE IMMORTALITY OF MAN I fear the taste of an ice-cold beer. The lips of the brown bottle are as seductive as those of an African girl: its form is pleasing and its pleasures deep, cruising through one’s body and into the depths of his soul. Very few things are as enchanting and as intimate…
Every man drowned in deep contemplation Perceives the world as part his own creation. Nothing can outrun the clock’s relentless tick, Nor life control what death shall next pick But wit applied can soon buy us an hour To say a prayer, or bequeath our power, And embrace the bright light without a fight. Rejoice,…
The happenings of life often flee from memory like short dreams. The joys never linger long enough for me to enjoy them. They flee from me faster than they came, leaving me cold and disheartened, like a lonely bird far away from land, drifting above the endless sea. Sometimes I think that this is…
The plaintive melody of silence in the night in a softly lit meadow with white moonlight, is where my mind seeks to find peace, of everlasting kind. When calm, heavenly purity surrounds, the crisp rustle of daffodils all around, a gentle fragrance in the air and little angels everywhere! Among the little angels there, I…