GOODBYE KITALE, WELCOME MARRIAGE LIFE, BUSINESS AND THE UPS AND DOWNS OF THE TWO.

At Last! Time to leave Miti Mbili, say  goodbye to life in Kitale and Welcome life in Nairobi ....

Breaking from a camp and the journey to the other is not a joke.On this day, we woke up so early in preparation for a journey that was to start the following day. We were required to break the camp, pack all that was ours, load them onto the trucks ready to leave after handing over the camp to another Company. This took place successfully and the following day, at around three in the morning, we left for Nairobi where we were to stay for the next one year. While traveling, there is what we call convoy discipline during such a journey. No waving to passer by, no throwing trush from moving vehicles and no exceeding time given to relax in case of a stop over. The journey was a safe one and we arrived in Nairobi with no major incidences. The best thing here was that there were houses to live in and not tents. We settled and each one was allocated a single room and in case the rooms were not enough, we shared which was oky compared to when we were living in bush tents. The only problem here was that those who shared rooms with married colleagues had to be displaced when the partners visited.

Generally, life was good here but with places like an infamous iron sheet made joint called Mabatini, I joined my colleague Njiru almost every day for a cheap brand of Liquor called Napoleaon a.k.a Naps after exhausting a better part od my salary. With this ease of availability, my drinking behaviour was now running out of hand. As much as the tough rules where one is supposed to take permission in case he wanted to get out of camp applied here, it was easy to sneak to town drink, party, visit strip clubs and spend most of the time in the down town part of Nairobi popularly known as river road. Here, it would not take two or three days of drinking before I exhausted my salary which meant surviving for the rest part of the month was by taking the ‘Naps’ brand. The only option that was left was to now drink the spirits and this time round, Napolleon Brand worked well for me. This we would do with the same colleague called Njiru at a place called Mabatini or at times in Mathare area One, two and three. Any free moment was time to drink and I must admit that I saved not even a single penny from my salary. This was beginning to make me feel worried but I felt helpless hence I admitted that I was destined for such life. My dreams to join school could not feature anywhere in my plans at that moment. All that was left was to enjoy life in Nairobi.

The lifestyle was made even worse during the annual inter company sports competition where representatives from other companies congregated in Nairobi for various sports which included football, that i played, athletics, darts, first aid and volleyball. This meant that most of my course mates were here hence after the games, night time gave us an opportunity to try to outdo one another on the bottle. This continued till the games were over and time for all sports men to return to their mother station came hence the peers left. The drinking trend continued and not even after I married, i could not stop this. I Could leave my house and join my friends for a drink till late night without caring much. This must have been the beginning of what would later cost me my marriage hence lose the girl I had dated for two years. Either way I learned the hard way…..!I would later join the Kenya Police Hockey team where i have been till now. Will later tell of how i joined and how i have benefited from this Team....

This is how I had met her.

One evening as I was sitted outside a friend's shop in the village, a young girl passed by and was in a uniform similar to that of my sister who was by then a student in Kerugoya girls high school.I woke up and followed her just to establish where she was heading to. After five hundred metres, I passed close to her and the most amazing thing, she asked me where Mr Kabere’s home was from where we were standing. Mr Kabere is my day hence I had an an opportunity to engage her more. This was also an opportunity to escort her to our home and here, I had scored the first point. She happened to be a visitor to my sister who had been sent away for school fees. I offered to take her up to mum’s door step where she met my sister. This young girl was beautiful and despite the fact that I was already working, I developed some interest in her which I would express come the following day. I wrote a small note and gave it to her which had a message that I was interested in a friendship. That was so soon but yes! It happened! By the time she was leaving home, I had managed to convince her that I would keep in touch even if I was far from my home town. Upon leaving our home,  I escorted her and my sister back to school and with much excitement we took photos, and after my annual leave was over , I had to take with my self the photos to Kitale. When I showed my friends the girl I was in a relationship with, many got shocked and could not understand how I was seeing a school girl or was in a relationship with her whereas I was working but I was convinced that despite their  mockery, this was the girl of my choice and had to wait till she completed form four and marry her.

Over the weekends, we used  to communicate over the phone where she could  beep me and I called her back. She could notify me of the day school was crossing where I took an off duty, traveled to the country side and could  go up to the school gate, get her, and escort her up to the stage where she boarded a matatu to her home. On the day that she was supposed to get back to school, I could also ensure that I was there for her and could escort her back to school. This issue led to many questions than answers as I could even take her to a  saloon, wait for her as her hair was made and then escort her back to school. This relationship would later be known of by her mother who was not also very comfortable with this development and as she later revealed to me, she was constantly warned against it. She gave it a deaf ear and continued visiting me without telling me of what the mother was telling her. The friendship continued and after form four exams, we were now free birds and no one could dare accuse me of dating a school girl. By then, I had already moved from Kitale to Nairobi hence she could easily visit me over the weekends and leave by Sunday evening to the country side. Later on, I visited the village, invited her to visit me and I introduced her to my Mum and told her that I was intending to marry her. Everything led to the other and in the year 2007, we started living together as a couple. By this time, I had already rented a shop in Huruma, had a kerosene pump, cereals shop and a small grocery where I had employed one guy and she was supposed to run the others with the help of my sister.

We started well and all I could do was to go to Gikomba and Marikiti Markets where I could buy the Groceries, then head to Nyamakima for the cereals and lastly to Eastleigh for the shops stock. This I did on a hide and seek basis (that is hiding from the place of work) as I went to  Gikomba early in the morning before going to  work, went to Nyamakima over Lunch hour and when am free to Eastleigh. All this I did so as to ensure that my young family had a strong financial foundation.This whole venture was  financed through a bank Loan that was advanced to me by Co-op Bank. Despite doing all this, the venture was not doing well owing to factors that I could not establish by then as I was doing my part but am sure the other parties were letting me down. This was a cause for constant squabbles in my family where I always threatened to close doors but my wife used to convince me that things would be well one day hence struggled to keep doors open. Later, my sister and the other employee were left running the business as my wife was expecting and on September 2007, we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl who we named Njeri. Things went from bad to worse as the ventures were no longer profitable and during the post election violence, we crossed doors. To me, this was a blessing in disguise as I was always looking for a reason to close shop hence this violence offered a good reason for me to order closure despite being miles away. By this time, I was stationed in Kisumu during the elections and since Mathare was like a war zone with the violence escalating to Huruma, I was able to convince them to close shop and salvage what was left instead of waiting for looters to do what had suddenly become their way of life. All the remaining stock was carried to our house where some was sold, the other feasted on and the rest kept in a store. Justus, the kerosene pumpattedant Kept safely all he had sold and gave it to me after the violence with no single cent missing. I can only thank God for him.

I worked in Kisumu through the 2007/2008 post election violence time and after the signing of the peace agreement between Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga, the situation calmed and I was able to leave Kisumu and come back to Nairobi to the reality that I had left the place having a business under my name but came back to a closed one which was okey with me. This was no big problem to me as i always believed that failure was part of learning and never gave me much headache despite the fact that I had lost a substantial amount of money which was from a loan that I had procured Co-op Bank. All that was left was to send away Justus, the employee who was running the Kerosene pump as he was not willing to re locate to the village, carry the pump and tanks to the countryside and try to re establish the business that up to date runs with the help of my ever amazing attendant named Wachira a.k.a Ras who has been running it from 2008 to date.  These  two gentlemen are the most amazing men that I have ever met in my life. Men that can be entrusted to a business and run it like one of their own.

Here in Nairobi, a friend of mine called Mama Ken sold me another small business that was selling house hold items, baby clothing, men and women clothing amongst others items. It was not a bad one as we were operating it on a Kibanda and in the evening, we could close it down, carry the stock and keep it at a place provided by the same lady for safety. As my wife by then was running this venture, things started going south between me and her and after we could not agree on the differences, we parted ways in 2009 and I decided to leave the business to her. She later closed it down to concentrate on other businesses that she later established.......