Tracing My Roots

I was born on the last day of 1987 but as it is with every person, my awakening to life began a few years later when I vaguely recall hearing political campaign messages from loudspeakers as I feasted on a meal in our then small sooty kitchen. That was way back in 1992.

Because my home area of Kiserian was bustling with life in the '90s, I made numerous friends as I grew up. Most of my friends were boys since I was girl shy. I can count on the fingers of one hand the girls I befriended in the '90s. Among them was Irene, the daughter of Miss Alice who taught me from Standard 1 to Standard 3.

A couple of years ago when I visited Naru-Moru Primary School where Miss Alice taught me, I was surprised to find her still in the school. We exchanged pleasantries during which I learnt Irene now works for the Kenya Police Service.

The other girl that I remember most is Veronica Kitmet who joined my class in 1998 when I was in Standard 5 at Naru-Moru. Owing to her beauty, she became a star attraction for boys in our class, including me. I fantasized taking her out for dates. But being the girl-shy boy I was, I never expressed my feelings to her, not even by winking.

As for the boys I befriended in the '90s, they were too many to mention here. There was, for instance, Robert Kahando, a handsome boy who later on in 2006 shared with me a few true stories that made me understand life better.

Then there was Thomas Waweru who was a classmate of my eldest brother Joe Kagigite. In 1995, Thomas Waweru was charged with the responsibility of keeping the keys of Naru-Moru classrooms. He therefore had to report early to school every weekday to open the classrooms before most pupils arrived.

The Ngong Hills, the streams, the small valleys, the sloping paths that we trod on our way to school - these were the landmarks in our lives.

Virtually all the streams that crisscross our home area are seasonal but they turn into mighty rivers during the rainy seasons. Back in the '90s, I sometimes heard that people had been swept away by the streams-turned-rivers. Fortunately, that never happened to me or to any of my friends despite the fact that we crossed the streams on our way to and from school.

All the streams that crisscross our home area originate from the world-famous Ngong Hills that form the western horizon of Kiserian. I was lucky to hike through those hills on a clear Saturday in 1999 in an expedition organized by Mr. Sakuda, a geography, history & civics (GHC) teacher at Naru-Moru.

And yes, the sloping paths on which we trod on our way to and from school were also landmarks in our lives. The paths meandered through small valleys and dainty hills which kept us as fit as fiddles. It was on those paths that I developed a love of walking which came in handy last year when I desired to lose weight safely and naturally.

While walking on those paths in 1995, I composed a lovely and lively ditty with my classmates James Koigi and Timothy Ndiki. The ditty was all about taking turns in singing our full names and the year we were in. We would, for example, sing, "John Thuita Maina, 1995." Of course it is difficult to convey in cold print the loveliness and liveliness of that ditty but trust me, it was lovely and lively.

Later on in this decade when I touched base with Timothy Ndiki, he reminded me of that ditty as we reminisced about those halcyon days of our childhood years. We truly had a blessed childhood. Adieu!