When I went astray at the university in JKUAT exactly ten years ago, I was forcefully admitted at Thika Nursing Home and then at JKUAT hospital for a period amounting to about four weeks. I didn't do any form of physical exercise or engage in any intellectual activity like reading during those four weeks I was hospitalised. All I did was eating and taking medication. Because of that, I grew fat by the time I was getting discharged from JKUAT hospital.

Several of my friends who saw me after I was released from JKUAT hospital commented on how plump I had become. My brother Bob Njinju was among the first to point out my weight gain. He once asked me in the December of that year 2008, "Thuita, are you really feeling comfortable in that weight?"

Several months later, my high school desk-mate Martin Wamoni was taken aback when we met on a path at JKUAT. He asked me, "Did someone pump something into you?"

Such kind of reactions didn't impress me because I had never wished to grow big all my life. In the months that followed, I battled to lose that excess weight which I eventually succeeded in 2011 thanks to doing a lot of walking.

I still do try to keep my weight under control by exercising regularly. These days, I have formed the habit of jogging and walking to Kiserian Town, which is about four kilometres from where I live. Good heavens, it's turning out to be fun!

And exercising physically is good for health and peace of mind. In his best-selling autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela wrote, "I have always believed that exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind."

Then Voltaire, the 18th-century writer, historian and philosopher, wrote to a friend, "The body of an athlete and the soul of a sage: these are what we require to be happy."

A wonderful book I own titled Glencoe Health: A Guide to Wellness, aptly sums up the benefits of physical exercises when it says that physical exercise:

• strengthens your cardiovascular system,
• helps you control weight,
• burns off unnecessary fat,
• improves your appearance,
• improves your sleep,
• improves your breathing,
• reduces stress,
• improves your mood and outlook,
• decreases your appetite,
• gives you more energy and decreases fatigue,
• uses time productively,
• reduces boredom,
• provides social opportunities,
• boosts your self-esteem!^[1]

Those facts about the benefits of physical exercises have inspired me to keep on exercising, come rain come sunshine. My dear reader, I beseech you to also join me in embracing a lifestyle that includes physical exercises so that our bodies may glow with good health. That's all I am saying.

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^[1] I have extracted these benefits of physical exercises from page 17 of Glencoe Health: A Guide to Wellness (Texas Edition) by Mary Bronson and Don Merki, published in 1987 by McGraw Hill.

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Around that time in 2011 when I was preparing to run for a political seat in the forthcoming Kenya's General Elections, I tried to solicit for support in a Facebook comment from Hon. Peter Kenneth who was gunning for the presidency. A friend of mine named Ken Ogutu happened to view my Facebook comment which made him rebuke me for openly asking for support from Hon. Kenneth. He thought that very ungentlemanly.

Then Ken Ogutu 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 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 that day I was to meet him, I was giddy with excitement at the prospect of meeting Hon. Kenneth who was emerging as one of the leading politicians in the country. I phoned my friend Michael Njeru to inform him of my meeting with Hon. Kenneth the following day but Michael didn't seem to share in my excitement because my calls and messages to him went unanswered.

When the day I was to meet Hon. Kenneth finally 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;
While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by.

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.

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 - something I feared would put me at loggerheads with the security agents.

Hon. Kenneth did finally arrive to his office. 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 turned out to be a normal chat: the kind that people have in a pub.

He asked me why I had chosen to get into politics, a question whose answer I can't remember what I gave. He also asked me whether I knew Peter Munene; for that question, I remember answering "yes" because I have known Peter Munene since I was a boy. Later on, I learnt that Hon. Kenneth had visited my home-town to establish connections where he met Peter Munene who was then serving as the councillor of my home-area.

Before we ended our normal chat which turned out to be short, Hon. Kenneth advised me to visit churches in my campaigns. And that, my dear reader, is my story of how I met a VIP. Adieu!

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