After primary education was over I was excited to be joining high school. January was here and I was waiting to get a response from a school to join for high school education. During our time after KCPE the whole of January we stayed home (Matiang’i generation poleni sana). While at home I got a letter to join a prominent school in Meru. The letter was from the school I chose but then my parents declined reason being the school was invloved in cases of students using drugs. The school performed well but then indiscipline and drug abuse ranked high. I dont know if those cases are there but I remember a case that was even highlighted in the media where students were caught by police in a bar.
So my mum chose some school still in Eastern province but in kambaland. I was noy happy but I decided to go anyway. I reported and it was fine. That was in February. At our time monolisation and bullying was outlawed ukipatikana bullying a form one my brother that was the end of you but then there was a new type of bullying that was in that school; soft bullying. A form one finds you washing your clothes anakurushia shati yake umuoshee ukikataa inakuwa emotional torture imebaki umeosha tu. In kambaland form ones were called nzoka. Nzoka was the kamba name for nyoka (snake). I dont know how a student and a snake were related. So to make it bad they used to call us form ones nzoka kile. i have no idea what it meant since I couldn’t give a single fuck about it.
Any school of course ysed to have common abuses. In that school there were three abuses; muthiti, katimba and kino. Muthiti and katimba meant ass while kino meant pussy that was what i was told. The most common abuse was kino. So if any thing happened in the dorm or anywhere the abuse would be meted out on form ones.
“kino form one amenibia shati”
“Kino form one amenikojolea”
“Kino form one mi ni maskini”
“Kino form one kino nyinyi”
“kino form one nyi ni makino tu”.
In that school being a form one was like a curse. Our uniforms were labelled with our admission numbers and so anyone knew we were form ones. So as for me niliibanga toja, sweater na shati ndo nikizivaa nakaa mwenyeji. There was this bullshit where if a form 2,3,4 finds you fetching water kwa tap niggas would take your water pour it to their buckets alafu wanaenda wanakuacha hapo. Ukijaribu kuteta unaskia " Kino form one unaa miaka nne hii shule". Another type of bullshit was where someone would come and take out your bucket completely and put his. Iyo shit ilikuanga inanikatsianga sana. You would find a short form 4 shorter than @Midget and @Panyaste combined doing that shit na huezi muzushia na urefu yako unakuwa mpole.
So tukavumilia ivo first term ikaisha. In second term I decided to join rugby. While in rugby I found another nigga called Michael Mutua. He was in form one too but in a different stream. He was tall too like me but was more muscular. Seems like he used to play rugby in primary because he was too good he put some form 4’s to shame. “Wewe umekaa hii shule miaka nne hujui kuflow ball na form one hapa anakushinda”, the rugby captain would be heard saying. The training was tough but then with time I got used to it. Even press ups and push ups became easier to do since my body was used to such. On weekends (Saturday and Sunday) we used to wake up at 8 in the morning, take breakfast, go to assembly for briefing then break to do cleaning followed by inspection at 12. After which we took lunch and then proceeded to do personal cleaning and later entertainment. Anyone who had schooled in Kambaland knows this routine well.
While others woke up at 8, we rugby players woke up at 6 (Saturday only) for practice. The practice would go on till 8 and proceed to follow the school routine. So there was this Saturday where we woke up at 6 as usual for practice. In the middle of practice Michael twisted his ankle. You know how twisting your ankle is very painful. It doesn’t require any treatment because it eventually goes away but then the pain is unbearable and walking becomes a herculian task. So we (Michael and I) served the last people and it appeared that we were late for the assembly briefing. So some form 4 prefect called Kiilu Brian nicknamed King’ee such an asshole of a person was on duty and instead of us running like the others we walked. He was with other prefects 3 of them. In that school there was this bullshit where prefects saw themselves as demigods such that they saw they could hit you physically and you couldn’t do a thing about it especially form 4’s. I had sworn no prefect would put a hand on me even if he was the school captain otherwise he would find himself hospitalised. I couldn’t understand why a fellow student could beat you up yet a teacher couldn’t. Since I was in that school I never saw any teacher whoop a student. If you are found on the wrong you are punished by being given a heavy job to do and after that its all over.
So when we reached where King’ee was Michael was the first in line. “Nzoka mbona unatembea na wengine wanakimbia?” Michael tried to explain to him that he had a twisted ankle and so he couldn’t run but then King’ee couldn’t have none of it. King’ee started causing a commotion by pulling Michael by his tshirt and saying “kijana unaona nyanya yako hapa”, and saying other obscenities while shouting we were some metres away from the assembly ground and people could hear what he was saying. King’ee was shorter than Michael, Michael was taller like me and huge in body but King’ee saw he could mistreat him since he was a prefect. Michael then told him " Wacha kunivuruta utaniharibia shati", king’ee then shot back “ati umesema nini form one?” then a sound was heard. He had smacked Michael in the face. I have never seen Michael that angry. The attention of those at the assembly turned towards the commotion, the 3 other prefects after seeing what happened tried to calm him and told him to let that go and leave us go. King’ee was determined to show Michael what he was made of. While he continued pulling Michael’s tshirt; Michael unleashed a blow from nowhere and hit him on the cheek hard. King’ee alichapa chini akakula vumbi kwanza. Nigga stayed down for a few seconds not knowing what went wrong. The other prefects after seeing that they retreated back. Michael went for him while he was down and meted out several blows on the poor prefect. The assembly was stopped and Michael had to calmed down by fellow rugby players. Niliingiza baridi kiasi hata mimi. He can beat the crap out of me anytime. Michael was peaceful but after seeing what he did I knew he had reached his elastic limit. He was expelled from the school immediately. Coincidentally he went to the school my parents had refused to take me.
King’ee lived with that shame till he cleared high school that year!