Remembering My Classmates

I sometimes find it fun to reflect on my past experiences and the people I have interacted with. Recently, I couldn't help remembering some of my high school classmates and how they influenced me. Among them was Lawrence Sikuku, a disciplined chap who impressed me with his consistent stellar academic performance.

Sikuku was always either position 1 or 2 in our class, right from Form One to Form Four. But what I liked most about him was his warm personality. Apart from a time in 2003 when he commented that one could easily tell my brother Paddy and I were siblings because of our confusion, I don't think I ever heard him utter an unkind word about anyone.

I will never forget the afternoon I saw Sikuku working at a certain bank in downtown Nairobi while I was queueing up to be served. It was in December 2006, a year after we had finished high school. When Sikuku spotted me in the queue that afternoon, he paused what he was doing and came to me. He greeted me in his characteristic warm manner and after I informed him what I was doing in the bank, he served me, thus saving me time.

The other classmate in my high school class who had a personality as pleasing as Sikuku's was Wilson Chira. It must have been due to his pleasant personality that Chira was selected in 2004 to represent our school at a conference in the United States. To be frank, I am glad Chira was the only one in our class who attended the coveted conference. He was really a nice guy.

Another nice guy in my high school class was Rocky Mbithi. Rocky and I became good friends in December 2005 after we finished our high school career. We would go to a certain cyber cafe and surf the internet together. And during our first weeks at Starehe Institute in 2006, he would beg me for small amounts of money which I gave him.

Later on in 2013 when I was running for a political seat in Kenya's general elections, I requested Rocky for some campaign funds. And wow! He promptly sent me KSh 1,000. I am not sure if he recalled the instances in 2006 when I had given him small amounts of money but I am gratified to note that his financial situation had improved in a span of seven years.

Then there was James Wakyumbu, a classmate who was epileptic. I will always remember Wakyumbu for clarifying something that used to befuddle me: that is, why the Earth looks flat yet it is spherical. Wakyumbu explained to me on one afternoon in 2005 that it is because the Earth is so huge that its curvature appears straight to the human eye. Unfortunately, Wakyumbu passed away in November 2008, probably due to his epilepsy.

During my four high school years, I had several deskmates. The first one was John Njiru. Even though Njiru was not a star in academics, he had an eye-catching handwriting and a good command of the English language. When I started developing an interest in girls in 2005, I sought his help in crafting compelling love letters to the girls I admired.

The deskmate I had for the longest time was Martin Wamoni. We used to laugh boisterously, Martin and I, at silly jokes when we were junior boys in high school. Unhappily, our friendship diminished when we were at JKUAT, a local university where we both matriculated in May 2007 to pursue engineering degrees.

One day in 2011, I sent Martin a lengthy email, reminding him of our high school laughs and lamenting the way we drifted apart at JKUAT. Martin, who was then in London, was kind enough to reply to my email. He told me friendship is a two-way process, so I was as much to blame for our diminished friendship.

Throughout my high school years, I never managed to defeat five classmates in academics. Of course one of the classmates was Lawrence Sikuku. Interestingly, none of the five classmates were into girls. The ones who had girls swooning over them were Wilson Chira, Rocky Mbithi and another classmate named Charles.

Given the way I keep remembering my high school buddies, I think a classmate called Stephen Ngaruiya was on the button when he remarked on one afternoon in 2004 that we would miss each other after we left Starehe. I truly miss those classmates. Their humor, brilliance and friendship have remained uppermost in my memory. Ciao!

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above story on my high school classmates, you might also enjoy another one on "Part 2: High School Memories" which I wrote about four years ago. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.