LIFE IN MY FIRST WORK STATION…..(WELCOME TO MITI MBILI GSU BASE CAMP)

After traveling for two days we arrived at this ‘strange’ place called Miti Mbili that I hated from the word go but with nothing much to do as I had no other option, I joined others and we started taking out our belongings from the lorry and as we were doing this, other officers who we met at the camp were busy erecting a new tent that was big enough to accommodate all of us and after they were done, we got in, un packed our belongings, made our beds and from the look of things, there was no life here. No privacy, no electricity, no clean drinking water, no well done toilets and even the bathroom was a poorly done structure without a permanent door.

We were given time to settle, mingle with other officers, be taken round for orientation and after this was done, we were good to go! Life in a General Service Unit camp is not easy. It is more or less a routine set up. One wakes up in the morning, makes breakfast, shines the boots, puts on the uniform and makes sure that by seven forty five in the morning, he is in a Tamaam parade and is ready for inspection . In this case, inspection entails checking whether ones head is clean shaven, beards too, boots well polished, the fire arm well cleaned and in general that one is in good physical state. This is usually the time to apply for permission to get out of the camp for personal matters, request for an off duty and also time for any communication which is usually done verbally or via a signal that is read to the officers by the section commanders.

A GSU camp is worse than a boarding school if i may be asked. This is because an officer is mature, well trained and past eighteen years of age but leaving the camp without permission usually attracts a booking into the occurrence book as it is an offense namely ‘breaking from the police camp without permission’. This leads to what is commonly known as ‘kushitakiwa/mashtaka’ which is also inserted into ones service file and also attracts a salary deduction whose figure is usually determined by the presiding officer. This is usually not a welcome story as being punished in this case can prevent one from attending a promotion board, from a transfer or even consideration for any new deployment that may arise.

From inspection parade, it is usually time for what is commonly known as ‘Fatique’ which is time to cut grass/slash grass, prepare our tents and make sure that in case the rains fall, there is no way that water can come in and even ferry with it our personal effects. This involves fastening the tents, preparing trenches that can easily contain water flow and in some cases undertake other manual tasks that the platoon sergeant may find necessary.

This is usually time to allocate work duties that may have arisen over nite and when there are no foot patrols, Lost animal recovery missions or any other out of camp assignments, officers break from the fatiques and head to their tents where the process of preparing lunch starts. In here, one rarely cooks alone. We used to get into groups of twos or threes, do some collaboration and then cook together. Early lunch is valued as one may be called for an emergency assignment hence staying full is important. Use of charcoal jikos was the common thing here and kerosene was only used when making breakfast. At times though, one would light the jiko early and after preparing breakfast hand it over to other colleagues who would use it for the same purpose.

At times, officers would not be set free after the morning parade but would be assigned some silly tasks by the officer commanding through the immediate supervisors. The worst that ever happened when we were here was when a senior officer used to allocate juniors duties like cutting and ferrying timber that he would sell to timber Merchants. This would result to a conflict with forest officers and someone would use his connections to silence them. One day, a GSU lorry ferrying timber to Kitale was intercepted by forest officers but thanks to a well connected cartel the officers involved negotiated a deal and the vehicle was released. One of the officers who was a lead scout in this trade would later be sacked after they were caught with a similar cargo on board a GSU lorry elsewhere.

At times, the officers would buy maize or collude with corrupt agricultural development corporation officers where maize would be stolen from their farms, sold to the senior officer where he would then force us to sort the maize, pack it in bags and then load them to a GSU lorry ready for transport and sale.  This is just a tip of the ice berg on how senior police officers used to mis-use the human resource under them and even government resources too.Any attempt to raise a red flag would meet the worst form of punishment and one could either be transferred, intimidated or even sacked over fake allegations hence the only option was to comply.At times though, some  days days were cool and we were free to do our things with minimal interference.

In a relatively normal day and when matters seemed favorable, some officers would sneak into the nearby villages namely Kambi Nyoka, Cherubai amongst others which marked the beginning of a Busaa/Chang’aa drinking spree. This would take place till some minutes to two so as to ensure that one was back in camp in readiness for the afternoon tammam parade which is more or less similar to the morning one apart from the fact that this was usually the time to allocate duties which involved night and day camp guard duties, foot patrols, and ambush duties which involved providing all night guards to the Agricultural development Corporation farms. This was in a place called Ngata firm and Njapata firms.

Due to lack of well locked rooms, some officers would steal blankets, Kerosene Lamps and stoves and other personal effects, sneak them out of camp and sell them to some village merchants and then use this money to buy the illicit brews. One would even come across what was once his during the foot patrols and when we investigated on how the item left the camp and found itself in the village, we would establish that one of our own or several others were responsible for this. In here, officers ceased to be living beings and turned to be  'animals' as one could even sell his own belongings just for a cup of illicit brew. Others would get lost in these dens and lose their jobs !

When it was peak time, work was not easy over here owing to the fact that this was a bandit prone area and at times, they would hit nearby villages, take away cattle and even kill the villagers. This called for an immediate response where our work was mainly to track them, recover the cattle and take them to their owners. It would take some days or even a week to recover them and at times even after fighting the bandits, a number of them would be left engaging us while the others were left driving the cattle away and tracking them would not be possible. This would in future attract retaliatory attacks from the affected ones and the cycle continued.

When Sunday came, it was usually time for church and one had to ask for permission to attend church service outside the camp. This i did most of the times but at times I would be working hence could not go to church. This was not easy for me as it was routine work from Monday to Sunday hence my desire to seek for a better way out grew stronger and stronger.The catholic church here was a mud walled structure where we used to sit on logs and was located some considerably short distance from a Uganda people defense forces camp along the Kenya~Uganda boarder and gun shots were the order of the day but still, we conducted our mass without much worries.

Basically there was no life there if i was asked....!

AFTER THE PASS OUT PARADE, AND THE JOURNEY TO MY NEW WORK STATION…..

After the pass out parade, we were granted 30 days annual leave and left to our respective homes. I travelled safely, arrived home and let my folks know of the posting which went well with all having known Kitale as a maize producing part of this nation. (Little did they know that there was another bandit prone part of Kitale and to be specific the place where I was posted)

I spent most part of the annual leave at home with mum since she had by then  closed down the butchery and the small café that she was running before I left to Embakasi owing to low business activity and was now doing dairy farming and other household chores. One of the hall marks of this leave was sharing with her how life at training school and Magadi was. She was shocked of what I went through as I narrated it bit by bit and In details but was also glad that I had successfully gone through the training. She also used this opportunity to help me to remove some small thorns ‘Commonly known as ngoja ngoja’ from my palms which were as a result of the field training and had been immersed in my body for some months.

Friends still visited, came with gifts and were ready to help me start my new life. I was given money to buy household items and I must appreciate that the sum was handsome and by the time my annual leave was over, I was ready to go and start a new life. It was my hope that as much as police officers were known to live in deplorable conditions, I would have a different experience having seen the GSU being more organized that out counterparts, General duties….(Little did I know that the biggest shock of my life in the GSU was awaiting me ahead…..)

I left home ready to start life in Kitale. I was escorted to the stage, left for Nairobi and then to Embakasi where we were all required to report and board Lorries that were supposed to take us to our newly posted camps. At Embakasi, we chatted with those who we were to travel to Kitale with as we loaded our goodies onto the Lorries ready to travel. We shared so much, asked each other questions and also were eager to know what our new stations looked like.

After packing all that we were to carry to the bush, in huge convoys, both carrying personell and goods, we left the training school and our journey started. Since we had started late, we could not get to kitale by night fall hence we were to have an overnight stop over at Eldoret State Lodge where we were expected to sleep and then very early in the morning embark on the remaining part of the journey. This would turn out to be one place that I would never like to experience what I passed through on that fateful night again.

This was the day that a watchman ‘saved’ my life and career too….!

While in Eldoret state lodge,we felt that there was no need to sleep as we had to spend the night in the Lorries and since most of the collegues that we were with were from this region, they came up with a plot that we were to sneak out of the camp having our  military uniform intact but we were to conceal it with civilian clothes at the bottom and  put on civilian Tshirts on top. One notable case was that we were all in our shiny military boots thus anyone could easily identify that we were sharing a thing or two in common. However, this was not a big deal as we were out for a mission, to enjoy and party all night long.

We left for Paradise hotel where we were noy only partying but were up to out do each others drinking and dancing prowess. We started drinking beer and dancing and owing to our huge numbers and our ‘fat’ wallets, we literally took tool over the club as almost all tables were occupied by us and the twilight girls were also in plenty as they took this opportunity to welcome the new boys in town. We partied for hours and before midnight, I and two of my friends were very drunk having swallowed one two many. The ladies who were in our company having been not drunk like us tricked us into leaving the hotel to their residence where we would ‘rest’ and then wake up very early in the morning and head back to state lodge.

We walked outside the hotel and one of them signaled a Cab/Tuk Tuk that was to take as to Langas where they were claiming to reside. As we were boarding the taxi, a watchman who was standing outside the club noted that we were police officers and were new in town and having known these ladies signaled me to get out for a minute. Luckily and I would say by the mighty hand of God, I responded to his call and he told me that once we left to where we were going, we would be robbed along the way and all we had taken away as this was what the ladies were well known of.

I took  his warning seriously and I guess from the shock of what was waiting us ahead, I got a little bit sober than my colleagues and demanded that they alight from the taxi. With some resistance, I forced them out and told them what plan was in place and luckily they listened to me. Would we have fallen into the trap, that would have seen us stranded out there, left by others as they went to the final destination and the GSU Known not to compromise on discipline issues, am sure we would have been sacked immediately.

We went back to the hotel and danced till some minutes to four where we started trooping back to the state lodge ready for the remaining part of the journey. I took it upon myself to ensure that every officer who was here left the place but shockingly most of them resisted to leave the company of ladies that they were sharing the table with while others were almost out of order. Either way, we were able to convince them to leave and in their drunkenness were at last in the lodges ready for the journey.

The journey started and after some few hours, we were in Kitale town. We had a stopover and trooped to Khetias supermarket where we were to do some shopping. Hoping that I was to go to a house, I shopped huge using that money that most of my friends and visitors had given me so as to start life with plus money from my savings. The supermarket attendants were very helpful in helping me identify some essential house hold items. After choosing what I thought was necessary for a starter, it was time to pay and then all was packed in cartons ready for transport and use.

The time that was allocated for shopping elapsed hence we all congregated at an agreed spot, loaded the shopping onto our trucks ready for the last leg of our journey. We left Kitale town and headed towards the Suam-Endebess road which was an all weather road. To my dis beleif, we had left the town area and were headed to another place that had rained so much, the road was muddy but passable. We soon got to Chepchoina shopping center and hoping that we were home at last, that was not to be. We had to travel approximately a kilometer and a half from the center, leave the main road and now join another road that was heading to the camp. I started sensing some ‘danger’ now that I thought that we were going to a town only to leave all the towns behind, the all weather roads behind and now onto a poorly done road to an isolated camp on a hilly location.

From the main road, it was a five minutes drive but on this material day, I found like it was taking ages before we got to the camp. All in all, we were there and standing on the top of the troop carrier, my worst fears were confirmed! I saw bush tents, uni huts and no permanent structures that resembled houses that I thought would be my new residence. I was really upset by these findings and I must admit that it took ma ages to accept that this was my newly found work station.

It was time to alight from the lorry and for sure, I was in a lot of conflict with my self as I never thought that one day in my life, I would live in such a place. In this case, I had no better option but to agree to the fact that I could not change the situation as per then but with time, I vowed to do something and this would be through a letter that I received while in the training school giving me an opportunity to study at Kenya Institute of criminal Justice.

This gave me hope, at least for a while....!

OFF TO MID COURSE BREAK AND LIFE AFTER MAGADI FIELD TRAINING

After being given permission to  proceed  for mid course break, i woke up the following day, so early, got prepared, picked some few photographs so as to use them to explain to my family, friends and relatives of what I was going through and may be they would get a rough idea of what life at the training school was like as was captured in the photos.

Having visited this part of the country for the first time in my life, commuting from Embakasi could not have been easy. Luckily, the training school management had put in some arrangements with Citti Hoppa bus company to come up to the Training school gate hence we were picked from there and dropped  in the town center. How I got to Tea room, where I picked a matatu to Kerugoya remains unclear but thanks God, I got home.

On alighting from the stage, in my home town, I realized that things had changed. 'My statu's had changed in that those who never cared to say hi when I was a butcher, had a reason to do so. Those who never knew me before joining GSU Training school were made to know me by my friends; those who thought that I was on a full salary could also dare demand for some few coins for soda and tea. Young men of my age could ask for some few coins for ‘removing lock’ which means a bottle or two to beat the early morning hangover.

There were mixed expressions from different people but all in all, I was the first from my immediate village to join the General Service Unit hence had to answer so many questions on the same. There were so many myths about this Unit hence I spent the one week break trying to demystify them which was not easy as I had not known all about GSU in and out. The one week break elapsed so fast having been one that I was trying to catch up with most of my friends and also visit my extended family members who lived elsewhere.

After the expiry of the break, I later boarded a Matatu to Nairobi and was directed to Embakasi stage  by the conductor without wasting a minute lest I got lost or even mugged. I boarded the next moving vehicle that took me up to GSU Training School gate in Embakasi. I alighted and joined my colleagues for the last leg of training. The evening was characterized by each of us narrating a story of what that week outside the training school gate was all about and one similarity was that the break was much needed and was a fruitful one in search of ‘finishing power’.  It was soon time to retire to bed that I really had waited for.

After nightfall, we woke up and got ready to start the days activities. Were invited for a brief meeting by the officer commanding junior training wing Mr Kodi who made it clear that it was time to start fine tuning matching drills in readiness for the big day, the pass out parade.  This would later see us spending much of the remaining time at the drill square so as to ensure that we would not be the first batch of recruits to lower parade standard as  the GSU is well known for a well organized and almost perfect parade and in our case, we never let the standards drop not even an inch lower!

Days passed on faster than usual as we were rarely mis treated as was the norm before and after some time, our counterparts who Joined Police Training College Kiganjo passed out. This was a pointer that our day was close  too! It is worth noting that this last session was not very difficult as we were treated with some degree of dignity and the all time nasty instructors had engaged a low gear and could now sit with us and reason with us too. This was a much needed moment as for once, i enjoyed life inside the training school to some extent.

Some weeks to the big day, i was called at the Junior training wing office and handed over a letter that came from Kenya Institute of Studies in Criminal Justice. I had been called upon to study a higher diploma in forensic science and Criminology. To me, this came early enough and in time as I translated it to mean that I would be posted at the training school or at a station/camp within Nairobi so as to start my studies. This was not to come as on enquiring, I was informed that I would be posted anywhere irrespective of this letter but was advised to officially apply for permission to study once I got there. (This permission would never be granted…..!)

Putting that behind and not losing the whole picture. I swallowed the bitter pill and still never lost faith that one day, I would graduate with a degree irrespective of any existing and forthcoming obstacle. We were later informed that on 10/09/2005, we were to pass out and hence required to communicate this to our family and friends. The Big day became a reality and as early as 0300Hrs in the morning, families, friends and relatives had started trooping in. By six in the morning we were in our ceremonial attire and ready to ‘Ice Our Cake’ after months of baking it!

We did our parade, took the oath, listened to speeches, dis missed from the parade, returned the G3 rifles used during the parade to the amoury and then time to meet those who had come to celebrate the big occasion with us came. I was and will forever remain grateful to the Lord. I was visited by so many. Young and Old, male and female but also guess that nay Sayers also came in to confirm whether I had completed the training or it was just a PR exercise. To their shock, I had done it!

They brought with them cash and non cash prizes, words of advice and encouragement and one lady named Rose Kinyua, who is  my neighbor had made me two delicious cakes that really made the occasion be more colorful. I also thank Mum for being so well organized as she was accompanied by a large number of friends who were never ashamed of expressing pride in a son of one of their own! We sang, danced and had merry.

I was also advised on so many matters and on this day, one uncle of mine, Mr Gachoki told me something that backed my long time desire to undertake further studies. He told me that it was time that I took it upon my self and enrolled for part time studies now that it was possible to do so. The day was superb and must admit that it was one of the most memorable days of my life. Time passed on so fast and  soon, it was 1700Hrs. Visitors were required to leave and we were left behind so as to be informed of our posting. 

The posting list would later be made available and read to us . I was posted to GSU Miti Mbili Camp in Kitale. This was located some few kilometers from the Kenya Uganda Boarder. We were granted our annual leave, left our luggage at Embakasi where we would later be picked and taken to our work stations. To God be the Glory that I gotten to this point after what I would say was 9 Months plus that changed me into the officer that I am today from a ‘raia’ that I was before 28/12/2004!

LIFE IN GSU TRAINING SCHOOL EMBAKASI, MY NEWLY FOUND HOME FOR 10 MONTHS....!

Today was not a bad day, training for a weekend game between Kenya police hockey team and Green Sharks hockey team was not that easy but thanks God i got time to update my blog....

Welcome.....
 Life in GSU Training school was one of that I will never forget. There are so many details but i will highly summarize and capture what i can remember well.....

 After reporting here, the first two weeks were marked with what the instructors called ‘kutoa Uraia’, to literally mean removing the ‘civilian mind’ in me and inserting ‘an officer’ into my blood stream. We were supposed to move from one point to another at a double which meant running and never to be found walking. We would cut grass using our bare hands and take it to a dump site at terrible speeds where along the way the instructors would practically, whip, and slap and do all manner of harassment to the recruits as a way to tame our tempers as they were putting it to us. With all this harassment, no one was supposed to retaliate or even utter a word however hard we were harassed! If one dared to act in a manner likely to suggest that he/she was getting hot tempered, the instructors would leave any other thing that they were doing and charge onto the recruits, pinching, slapping and doing all that was possible to inflict pain into his / her body and more so warn anyone who would be tempted to do so to refrain.

In here, we were taught how to basically do everything like a cop. From making our beds, washing our barracks, scrubbing the pavements, walking, shaving our hair, maintaining our hygiene plus another whole lot of things that we were to do like cops and not as ‘Raias’, to mean civilians. Notably, we were to stay for more than two weeks before we were given the police uniform. All this time, we were in our casuals and anyone who did not have  several pairs was literally surviving in what he/she had. As we were doing this, one guy disappeared from the training school in a manner that none of us could explain. I guess he could not stomach the harassment that we were going trough. We would literally be whipped like primary school kids for no apparent reasons. Here I met what I would call hell on earth. All manner of abusive language existed here. Instructors would practically call you anything without caring. One would be a pastor on Sunday and be someone very different when you met at the drill square, in the barracks or when we were doing the manual jobs like slashing glass which is a big component in GSU training.

I was shocked to hear men past the age of my dad utter the most mannerless words that I had ever come across. This was shocking  to me since as much as I was a bad boy in my hey days, I never got abusive and never came across such abuses in our family even from my ever drunk Grandpa. There was nothing much we could do but stomach this harassment in hope that one day we will pass out and start earning our salaries.We would later get into what was referred to as squads which were organized depending on height with mine being squad 17 commonly refered to as ‘mandururu or Masumuni’ to just express how short and tiny most of the members were.

Hoping my memory treats me right:~A normal day would start at around some minutes after four in the morning where we would be woken up, get into our truck suits ready for road run. In song and dance we would run in darkness to and from a distance that the squad in charge felt that was the best we could have done. We would then get back to the training school some minutes to six, go to the armory to pick our rifles, have our breakfast, get into our well ironed uniforms and boots and then proceed for inspection.

At the inspection stage, anyone who had not polished his / her boots to the required standards, one who had not ironed the uniform, shaved his beard and basically who could be said to be dirty in person was the target. If found, this was the beginning of a bad day because if not thoroughly beaten, one would be told to go round the camp with the G3 rifle lifted up high, would be told to go down in press up position for a long time and incase he/she fell down whipped and in other cases would be sent back to the barrack and be forced to put in all that was given as kit which included a sweater, a military /smoke jacket, a rain coat, a ground sheet and what we called 58 Kit and would be taken to the drill square for further punishment where one would run round with the rifle lifted up, jump up, match and by the time the instructors were done with him / her, no more tears could be seen flowing down the cheeks!

Those who had attained the cleanliness standards would head to the drills square and start the drills session where we were trained on how to match. This is where comical episodes existed. Some recruits could take ages to learn how to match despite tireless efforts to make then learn it. Others, especially the EX NYS did it with minimal struggles. Some never got it even after being beaten and taken through extra training.This was the training area dominated by instructors like Pc Mwaria, Corporal Chai, Pc Ahmed Nassir, Pc Chergut, Pc Kiptoo, Pc Letoya  among others who were not jokers and anyone who missed step during the matching found it rough. (Eight years down the line, most of these have risen up in ranks and hence may hold different ranks now)

We would then head to classes where we were taught signals, police practical theory, skills at arms amongst others and not forgetting the physical training at the Gym. Part of the recruits would be at the Gym whereas others were attending different lessons. At the Gym, things were tough and at times one wished the ground would open wide and swallow him or her! Taking tae kwon do, un armed combat, log exercises and even obstacle crossing in the open field was not a joke. Looking for what we called stamina was hell on earth. Failure to complete such tasks attracted beating which I must say was merciless as we had instructors like Malaria, Kirinya, Karanga, Mathenge, Gitonga, Kebaya and others who never gave laxity a chance.

This would later see us break for lunch, que for the meals that at times was not the best we deserved. I just remembered times when Ndengu was almost in equal proportion with ‘small stones’ but we had no option but sort it out that way and call it a meal. Those who never minded to que for a second share also did so hence we nicknamed them ‘flying squad’. In this case, a recruit was ‘proudly’ referred to as mnyama,to mean an animal and surely we were treated as such and fed as such too where  instructors said that we exhibited animal like behaviour. After lunch, we would match to the respective venues for afternoon training that would later end some minutes to supper time where we went back to the barracks, picked our plates and then que again for super which marked the beginning of a sleepless night.

After supper, we were supposed to start what was known as ‘fatique’. This means cleaning the barracks, the wash rooms and bathrooms too, cleaning the slabs by scrubbing them with brush and then applying soap so as to look whitish after they were dry and other areas that were to be attended to by us. Mugambi who was a University graduate was the squad leader hence he would subdivide the tasks to all the members of the squad so as to ensure that work was well done. This would end at around 2045Hrs which marked the beginning of time to take care of our personal  hygiene ready for inspection come the following morning.

In the Company of my close friends nick named Ngahu, Mandaraka a.k.a Kawangware, Tanui, Bajun ya Nyeri and others, we would assist each other since others were good at ironing the clothes while others were good at shining the boots. In some instances, Instructors could sneak into the barrack un noticed which was a crime as we were expected to shout 'UP' in case one was spotted and bring recruits to attention and give him a chance to address us. Failure to notice them attracted beating and all manner of harassment till late night hours where we were left to struggle and clear what was left before time for road run. At times, this would mean that we trans night where one could have ended to have not slept not even a single minute!

In the GSU Training school standards of personal hygiene and cleanliness are usually high! Trousers and shirts were to be ironed as we were taught, boots needed to be polished and remain shining like diamonds and heads clean shaven. The sockets for ironing purposes were less than ten and were to be shared by over sixty of us residing in the same barracks. We were at times forced to send the instructors to buy us extension sockets to make work easier. These were delivered at inflated prices but we could not do anything much! The Ironing session could be interrupted by our instructors who quite often came, soaked everything (Uniforms and Military boots) in water, ordered us to fill all buckets with water and poured the water under our beds. We would then be ordered to get under and swim as they mercilessly beat us. They usually came in numbers and I guess our squad incarge, Cpl Seif loved this as he quite often invited his friends Cpl Katana and  Cpl Jilloh who loved this game and had perfected in it.

This could have resulted from an inspection trip where the Instructors noted that some areas were not properly done, someone may have messed the toilets and left them that way and even a cigarette filteror any litter could be found on the floor. This attracted collective punishment as getting the culprit was not easy. We would later be left to clean the barracks at night, wash the uniforms and dry them using an Iron, use any means to make dry the military boots and make sure that by morning inspection parade, they were shining as expected. In other times, we would have done all that was expected of us but still be subjected to this treatment.

One nasty day, Cpl Seif, our squad in charge passed by the toilets and found one messed up and not flushed. Water was a problem at times but he did not care. He ordered us to get out of the barrack and each one of us, with our bare hands collect the human waste and have at least a piece of it and take it to him. In fear, we fought to have a share and those who were 'unlucky' did  not get any hence found it rough and forced us to share what we had! Allow me to stop there and not to say where we took the ‘Human cow dung’ after showing it to him! You should have seen how he was grinning as each one of us passed by him showing him what we had managed to get. Disgusting as it was, that was it!

Most of the times, some instructors who were known to be notorious drunkards could pass by our barracks, after the mess was closed, harass us in their drunkerdness and keep us awake till some minutes to road run time. Sergent Kimutai and Corporal Maganga were two notable instructors who had perfected in this art. We had to come up with a way to tame them since their presence in the wee hours of the night meant that sleeping for three continuous hours was not very possible. At times, we would contribute Ksh 100 each and send our squad leaders to these instructors as a means of taming them disguising it as morale! This would result to reduced disturbances but would only last a while before they were broke and back to what they did best, making sure that life in the training school was hell on earth.

Some months down the line, we were to be paid some cash to keep us moving. This was done using vouchers where we would be paid some little amount, the other bit was banked on our behalf ( …banked in whose account, that I can never tell because I do not know…)  and would be paid to us after pass out parade and the rest was taken away as a deduction to cover costs of whatever personal kit we were issued with. The shocking details were in what the deductions would amount to. We felt that we were being overcharged. The costs of an iron, truck suits, beds, mattresses, bed sheets, sports shoes, the military version of wooden boxes called AMRA (A poorly done wooden box that would be used to store our military kit once in the jungle or on transit from one point to another. Please note that almost eight years down the line, lifting this box from the ground even when empty is not a joke).

For all these and more, we were charged amounts that we thought were as much as three times the market price. All this was coordinated at the Office of the officer Commanding junior training wing. To me and other recruits, we could do nothing as we feared that we could be even sent packing in case we dared to ask this legitimate question. Either way, all is vanity! 

After Months of training at GSU Training school, it was time to leave for field training at Magadi Filed training grounds. See you there......!