Lost and Found

Around August 2008 when I was in second year at JKUAT, I stopped attending classes but hung around since I didn't want to go home. When the university was closed following a students' strike, I slept in the open air like a wild animal.

The following day, I went to Nairobi City and stayed in two or three different places without bathing and changing clothes. And man, the day I boarded a matatu when reporting back to JKUAT, I feared I could be smelling bad. Fortunately, no passenger said anything to me.

Soon after we reported back, we began sitting for final semester exams. Since I hadn't been attending classes, I was clueless about how to answer questions. I therefore left most of my answers blank without a care in the world.

When we broke for a short holiday, I spent much of my time at Kenya National Library in Upperhill, Nairobi. The library became my refuge. And I liked reading its books and magazines.

Because I didn't go home during that short holiday, I didn't have money to pay fees when we reopened for second semester. That meant I couldn't book a room in the university hostels. So I again slept in the open air like a wild animal.

Eventually, university authorities found me out, took me to a police cell and then admitted me to hospital. Those experiences demoralized me. By the time I was getting discharged from hospital, I had lost my zest for living.

Not surprisingly, I spent my days lazing around, not even summoning the energy to shower, clean my room and wash my clothes. Once when my brother Paddy caught a whiff of bad smell in a sweater I was wearing, he asked me to remove it. I did.

I however seem not to have changed because two years later, Paddy caught sight of deep cracks in my heels. This time, he didn't ask me to do anything. But what a wretch I was! - if I may borrow the word from "Amazing Grace".

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