Ogutu rebuked me for openly asking for support from Hon. Kenneth. He thought that very ungentlemanly. And then he went ahead to share with me the email address of Hon. Kenneth so that I could contact him privately for whatever help I needed. He instructed me not to share the address with anyone, "even under torture".
Soon afterwords, I contacted Hon. Kenneth through that address in an email in which I mentioned to him that I was preparing to run for a political seat. Much to my delight, he replied to the email and invited me to meet him in his office on a day whose date I never recorded.
All I remember is that on the eve of the day I was to meet him, I was giddy with excitement. I phoned my friend Michael Njeru to inform him of my expected encounter with Hon. Kenneth who was emerging as one of the leading politicians in the country. Michael however didn't seem to share in my excitement since my calls and messages to him that night went unanswered.
When the day I was to meet Hon. Kenneth dawned, I found myself feeling anxious. And that morning before I departed to his office, perhaps to allay my anxiety, I entered into a cyber cafe, got into YouTube and listened to the wonderful old hymn "Pass Me Not, O Gentle Saviour" whose refrain goes as follows:
Saviour, Saviour, hear my humble cry;I arrived at the building that housed Hon. Kenneth's office before noon, feeling as nervous and timid as a mouse. After I was cleared by security agents, I was asked to wait for Hon. Kenneth in a waiting room where I found myself with another elderly and poor-looking man who was also scheduled to see him.
While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.
Being forced to wait for Hon. Kenneth only served to heighten my anxiety. It must have also bored me because I constantly felt like dozing on the sofa I was seated on. I attempted to ward off my sleep, for I feared dozing on the sofa would put me at loggerheads with security agents.
Hon. Kenneth did finally come to his office from wherever he had been. And after a while, my turn to see him reached. Well, my meeting with him didn't turn out to be as magical and monumental as I had anticipated. On the contrary, it happened to be an ordinary chat, the kind that people have in a pub.
As we chatted, he asked me why I was choosing to get into politics. He also asked me whether I knew Peter Munene. I answered "yes" because I have known Peter Munene since I was a boy. (At that time I was meeting Hon. Kenneth, Peter Munene was the councillor of my home area.)
Before we ended our ordinary chat which turned out to be short, Hon. Kenneth advised me to visit churches while campaigning for the political seat I would vie for. And that, my beloved reader, is my story of how I met a VIP. Adieu!
