I am seated in the business class of this plane. It is cold, freezing cold. It is also dark, pitch dark and all I see is this…
I am puffy, thick from wearing two sweaters and one hood. I absolutely look like the chairman and treasurer of Pikipiki Owners Sacco. The time from my phone reads 00:43. It is also grave silent and only the squeaking sound of the plane is heard.
Luckily, am in first class, the place where VIP’s like me get to ask the pilot very silly questions. Questions like, ‘Where are we now?’ ‘How many people are we picking?’ ‘And they should do something about this road, sindio?’ And this was how I happily celebrated my birthday in Oloitokitok.
Let’s recap here. I took a trip to Oloitokitok with my sister, cousin and little brother. Am always the boy of the hand. I handle the luggage, I handle the wiring in the car, am always the last to prepare and I get blamed for everything. Let’s not forget am also their photographer and deejay. In all these I do not complain for God says we should love those who don’t treat us well.
Can you spot me behind the camera? I mean the logo in the picture? That’s me. So after doing various shots as they improve their skills in modelling, I really thirst for a photo and ask lil’ bro to take me one. It is always sad that we are always getting late when it is time for me to get that snap.
This is me, sad and worn out from bending, lying on the ground and adjusting my camera. I even look thin. You guys should probably think of giving me unlimited membership to Subway and Pizza Inn.
It happened that we were to come back to humanity on 9th July which was my birthday but I thought that I should not spend this special day on the road but rather spend it alone, eating. After my siblings sang me happy birthday at 12:03am, (I really wonder why they had to wait for those 3 seconds) we made some few stories and went to bed. So the next day I woke up looking for a chicken.
Wait… You don’t know where this chicken lives… Let me show you how Oloitokitok looks like
I just live behind the camera. This is how a typical homestead looks like here…
So this is where it all goes down, home. Ready to put my Luhya skills to task, I wave goodbye to my siblings really pitying them as now they have got no one to help them with everything. It is bad to floss and am not saying ati am the good guy here, I am just saying that am useful. So I light my kuni and set my pot and sufuria ready with that hot water. I slice the chicken’s head like those Saturday Nation’s comics exaggerating Batman’s slap. I know Kaluhi’s Kitchen cannot hack this recipe of mine. I am not going to go much into details because I mind my words…
So as my kitchen is set and my kuku is warming up, heating the goosebumps from the chicken that just lost its life (RIP) I prepare my pot.
Some Luhya friends can relate here; Pages, Don, Givens, Alister?
I even decide to take a selfie…
And another one
And now the main game begins…
Wait… Am I going to take all that ugali? I have been having bad company of late. Bad friends from the Kitale Bee Keepers Association where all they talk about is food. At the beginning of the month we hang out and eatchicken, mid-month we eat chicken products like eggs while the harsh third week of the month we eat like chicken e.g. sukuma wiki. Am lucky that today is my birthday and I get to eat the animal itself, or is it the bird? After eating half the jogoo all by myself I set up for a walk. Alone.
So I decide to go to my auntie’s place. It is a crime for a mgeni not to sit at the ‘sitting room’ (in Nairobi they call it living room) Notice how well the ‘vitambaas’ look.
And most of all, it is capital murder not to take something, especially tea. I insist am not a visitor so I sit outside as my tea is prepared.
This is the kitchen, notice the firewood, the drum and where utensils are placed. Tea made from this kitchen will take 1,000 man hours to get cold. It takes its time to get ready and it is just as sweet. So I sit to sip my tea when suddenly…
‘What’s with you Nairobi people? You take photos of everything.’
Meanwhile, my small cousins were playing FIFA 16
And they had the latest ball of the season
There’s something sweet about Oloitokitok, the air is not like Nairobi’s the nights are not like the city’s. There just but this awesome breath-taking scenery and dusk that settle the stress off your daily hassles. The sleep is prime, sound and sweet. You can walk for miles enjoying every step you make. So I decide to leave but before I do…
Auntie knows what love is.
So I get into the pathways that lead back home and now I use the long route. Look at this virgin land, beautiful and unscathed, not revealing but pure. In Maasai we call this a lopololi.
And look at what I found… An X-Box controller for the Need For Speed Edge or Forza Motorsport 6.
Kids of this generation would not understand what this is. In the same way, people from Makueni would not understand what this is.
Hello people from Makueni, the above is called a shamba, it is where humans grow crops while you are busy making catapults, in other words ‘manati’
Notice the iron sheets… Who wouldn’t love to enjoy the natural beauty of such?
I hate these flowers with a passion. One thing that you may hate about Loitokitok is that there is not creativity in plants. All plants produce one kind of flower, yellow flowers. If you are a kao this will be your ideal place to live.
I get startled by this…
I simply love this tree. It communicates to me, I do not know what exactly but I hear a voice speak, maybe telling me never to give up or maybe, ‘I have lived so long and watched over all your ancestors, I know much, yet am just here in the same cycle of life, watching you.’
Oloitokitok is the best place to be. The best roadtrips are done in the Emali-Oloitokitok road not mentioning the pleasant view of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the sweet neighboring town in Tanzania called Tarakea. I took time to enjoy my birthday alone. It was worth it and it stands out to be the best birth day I have ever had. Though the following day reminded me that I came from far, the fun and food I had the previous day was fantastic. I boarded a mat at 12:43 am just to reach town at 6.30am.
It was also fantastic to make all those rounds picking up passengers who were heading back to town, through the bad roads and corrugations, through the dust and stories from fellow passengers who want to know you more, all that was just as humbling. Now that am back to the city, poignant thoughts still bombard my brain. The thought of how amazing Oloitokitok is is prime.
I thank God for one more year, one more year to write. To give hope, inspire, motivate and entertain. I thank God for you, because I channel my art to you. Why don’t you subscribe?