Today at about 4.30pm, I was exiting a parastatal I usually visit for business at South C when the guard at the gate stopped me. The conversation went as follows, more or less:
“Sorry, mkubwa kukusumbua. But you are an old man and I think you can understand more than anybody else here. All these days you have come here I’ve never disturbed you about anything, but today nimefika mwisho. This security company we work for has not paid us for three months, and I have totally ran out of money. Nimekopa kila mahali and even mama mboga at home doesn’t want to see me. Imagine mzee niko na bibi na mtoto mmoja tunaishi Kawangware. Nitatembea huko miguu, hiyo si tabu. Shida ni hatuna kitu ya kula. Jana mimi nililala njaa ndiyo at least unga ya kupikia mtoto uji isiishe. Kama unaweza nisaidia tu mzee, hata kama ni loan, please nisaidie. Hata leo ni chai ya huku kazini tu nimetumia. Naumia mzee, siwezi lala njaa tena halafu natembea mpaka Kawangware na kesho nirudi hapa.”
It hit me, especially coz I didn’t have much money on me then.
Later, stuck in the jam I thought I should post this experience here and ask, is there a time you have slept hungry because you were broke? May be you were just starting out in life or were between jobs? Or like the soja your salary was delayed? How did you manage the situation? How did you cope?
When I quit employment the 1st years were tough, remember rummaging kwa seat cushions to see if I could get some coins remember thinking the mama mandazi net to my house is making more than me, pride couldn’t allow me to kopa breakfast kwa shop or kibanda, I skipped meals but can’t say I really went hungry or starved was lucky than most .
What we are seeing now is really bad that wachie represents a huge chunk of Kenyans !
There Was a time a biz partner pulled a fast one on us and we were left with nothing. I had to survive on githeri ya 30 Bob a day before my online businesses picked up. I was literally living hand to mouth. Funny thing is that my folks are somewhat well off and siblings doing very well huko majuu and they would have readily assisted had I asked for a boost but my ego would never let me.
A couple of times when I came to the city before I got a good financial footing… Ni vile schedule imekuwa tight but I’ll do a hekaya on it when time allows
i had only a 100 bob and no work na ni ile mathe amekushw ata hana pesa. sa so hapo naona itanipeleka 2 wks then after ndo nikufe. ilibidi niwe nabuy chapo nakula only one per day kama dawa for close to two weeks. naenda hoteli naekewa chapo na soup ya maharage ilikuwa free.Nilikuwa weak nakumbuka nikiletewa pu**y kejani na kwenda kumpea push(by the way round ilikuwa ni moja pekee), nikaanza kuwalk ni kama miguu imekataa-kutembea kama vile calf huwalk after kuzaliwa hapa ndio aliona the seriousness of the situation. Akaniingiza hoteli na kunishw nile anything nataka.
Did you help him? Hebu give coordinates and name if you managed to get, we see if we can send people there to him, we assist where we can Privately not sonko style.
kwenye inbox tafadhali.
I starved ile proper for days on end surviving on water and turungi and occasionally boiled rice only for about 3 weeks when i moved to another town to start life afresh. I couldnt get a job so nikaland kwa mjengo, a month in i clinched a gig, i was waiting tables, the only natural thing about that job was wearing ties otherwise i was the worst fit for that job but atleast it paid the bills.
I remember i got robbed coming from work shift ya 12Noon to 10PM, i was so busy browsing Kenyalist i just assumed the TukTuk fast gaining on me was ferrying guys home kumbe ni waizi:D:D:D:D:D, the hotel had a strict no-phones-at-work policy so i was catching up on 10 hours of endless conversations
I starved a few more times before i stocked up on food but atleast i was assured of either lunch or supper at work.
I remember when my daughter told me one morning, “sikunywi maji moto Mimi”? My eyes got wet with tears coz what she was refering to was “chai rangi” as hot water. She was 3yrs then.
Before then, I worked at a a certain clearing and forwarding company, exporting miraa to Europe, 3 days I chewed and swallowed miraa in order to have something in my stomach. That’s before I got paid my weekly dues. My ego and maringo mingi haingeomba omba. Used to walk from Pipeline to JKIA and back.
Back in college nlisota ile hadi panya na mende znahama kwa nyumba juu ya njaa. A friend of mine pia alikuwa amesota ivo so we combined our kusota,used to survive na 10/-. During lunch time,we’d walk from Poly hadi king’orani base flani walikuwa wanadeepfry mihogo,tunabuy ya ten Bob tunagawana half half,and we walk back to class…
after kula mhogo unateremsha na maji Lita kama tatu ivi tumbo inajaa,to make it worse afternoon unaingia lab ,unapigwa na ac hadi unakuwa white. jioni tunaenda kwa huyo ninja,he had like a full sack of boiled maize (ile mahindi inachemshwa alaf inaanikwa kwa jua inakauka unakula handful moja unaskia kufaint,juu the energy unatumia kutafuna is more than yenye utapata out of those mahindi).
day zingine ilibidi nichemshw mchele na heater,gas imeisha,stove haina mafuta na mbele na nyuma nlikuwa na 3 shillings…