Like @muendo has said, I was in upper primary, school had been closed the previous Friday and as I had done very well kaa kawaida tulikua tuingie “Gichuka” as Nairobi was affectionately called those days to get my present. I remember very well siku hizo the in thing was boots, yes, cowboy style boots. John Wayne, Bud Spencer and Terence Hill had popularized this boots with their famous movies and they were a must have for every young man.
Hio siku by 6:30am nilikua nimemaliza kazi zangu zote in the Happy Valley, I had watered my vegetables fed the chickens and split enough firewood to last three days. I was so looking forward to getting this boot coz it meant that the only other pair I had, a bata sandak moccasin sasa ingekua ndio ya kuenda shuleni sio kanisani tena, boot I knew ndio ingekua ya church. Ukiwa na kiatu shuleni you earned respect not only from your fellow pupils but also the teachers and workers, they knew your parents were people of ways and means. In the whole school only like 4 pupils had shoes.
That morning I ass kicked my bro who was moving around in slowmotion, mimi niliona anatudelay nikamvutanisha nahuko inje hadi shambani nikamsaidia kazi zake, its like he wanted to derail my big day na sieti yeye hangenunuliwa kitu, he had also done well in his class.Finally tukaoga na after a breakfast of homegrown Gwachi and Nduma the Meria Family ( Mom, me and my bro) tukachomoka from the happy valley. Ata kabra hatuja piga hatua nyingi momakastop akauliza kaa nimeanika blanketi na mattress ya bro, my bro was a bed wetter na due to my eagerness kufika town kununuliwa boot had forgotten to put his beddings outside, the keys were dangled on my face na sikua na budi but to grab them and rush back to the hse and get done with the smelly task.
Main road from Kikuyu to the city was about a kilometer away and I soon rejoined them na tukaendelea na safari, halfway up the valley Fafa Mukuru (my fathers older bro) stopped us and enquired where we were going, excitedly nikamwambia napelekwa city kuchukuliwa present kwa kazi nzuri. Calmly he informed us that we were not going anywhere, he then quickly explained to mum that “Thirikali ni igarurirwo” (the government has been overturned). He ushered us into his hse where we found everyone crowded near the transistor radio pale with unbelieving ears nikamskia Leonard Mambo Mbotela saying Serikali iko kwa mikononi ya wanajeshi, kila mtu anaulizwa akae nyumbani.
Mimi sikuelewa kwanini watu walikua wanaambiwa wasiende town, after a thousand questions ndio nilielewa eti Moi had been overthrown by the military, it was still early morning na haikua imejulikana ni wing gani ya jeshi which was in control. Sadly it occurred to me that sitavaa boot hio siku and my dream evaporated, ile chuki nilikua nayo kwa wanajeshi saa hio was tangible, kaa ningeshika mmoja would have used my tiny hands to choke the living daylights out of him. How could they do this on my big day?
We didn’t go back home but spent the rest of the morning in my uncles hse listening to the hissing transistor radio waiting for news of the goings on in the city 15kms away,more neighbours tropped into my uncles compound as he was the senior most person in the valley all looking for news, hio Sunday ata hakuna mtu alienda church, it was as if our happy valley had been cut off from the world.
Late afternoon around three ndio two low flying jets roared right above our heads, their thunderous engines shook me to the bone, yaani one second everything is silent and the next hio jet inapita hapo juu ya miti, scary experience for a 12 yr old. Unko akatwambia eti hizo zimeshika njia ya TZ. My uncle knew everything. After the jets kupita ndio the adults waliamua wafike madukani to gather more news on whats not happening, all the men folk left watoi tukabaki na wamama. Around 6 hivi ndio warirudi na scary stories of lots of deaths and mass looting in the city, the early birds from our village who were in town that Sunday morning had come back with lots of loot, kuna mmoja tuliambiwa alikua na watches za Seiko, Rado, Omega and Citizen kaa 300 hivi among other things, others walikua na manguo and electronics. He went on to add that a truck full of soldiers had passed hapo kambi na watu wote wakaamlishwa kila mtu aingie ndani. We spent an uneventfull night where the silence was only broken by a vehicle that was revving loudly on the other ridge. We suspected it was stuck.
Monday morning kindu saa nne asubuhi ndio kiliumana, soldiers in camouflage emerged from the sugarcane na nyumba zetu zikanzungukwa, we were all gathered in one place, from the oldest to the youngest na tukararishwa na tumbo, hakuna kuangalia juu, waliingia in all hses in our compound looking for looted gds, luckily kwetu hakukua any. Kumbe ile gari tulikua tunaskia usiku ilikua nimjamaa who had looted lots of things, packed them onto a truck and brought them home, he is the one who was causing us this miserly luckily no one was beaten but my hatred for soldiers increased
Baadaye kwenda kwa unko jioni ndio tulipata the full story of the soldiers rampage in our happy valley, anything that looked new, from clothing to furniture to electronics had been confiscated, the soldiers were demamding receipts for all items na kaa hukua nayo you said gdbye to your belongings. Yule mjamaa wa saa hakupatwa na kitu, small items are easier to hide.
It was not until two weeks later when public transport returned to normal that we ventured into town to see for ourselves the aftermath of the attempted coup. Our beautiful city in the sun was a mess, hardly any shop had been left untouched, debris was scattered all over but slowly life was returning back to normal na I had to wait mpaka December holidays ndio ni pate boot yangu.
82 I was there and 07 I was there too, in 82 I was not scared coz I was a kid and couldn’t comprehende what was going on, in 07 I saw it all, I felt it and was affected, at one point I was scared shitless watching the marauding mob approach knowing that I was helpless and there was nothing I could do to stop them. Thank God we survived Mbara ndiri mwago (war is no fun) my frens sote tuombe kuwe na amani, the first casualty in war is the truth and after that hakuna mtoto wala mama wala baba, everyone suffers. The magnifying glass is above us now and the whole world is watching hoping we tear ourselves apart. Dear brothers and sisters let show them Kenyans ni watu wapenda Amani.
PEACE PEACE PEACE