In this earth we don’t know the exact span we are gonna breath , so it’s upon the youths to stride n achieve wat can be sow’d katika maisha ya uzee … Meet mzee meta meta … I don’t know his ID No. But as he was busy moping my shop for a few coins (20/= , will tell u why I pay him that) , I got curious to ask him about his youth life …
He laughs n tells me he has 4 sons , all addicted to liquor just like him , they all live in kiandutu slum , they usually visit him once in a while maybe once an year , and he is treated to the best Eabl brands he can stomach …let’s jump to his yester life …
So where did u get the name mzee metameta ?" I ask him puzzled …
He caughs, sio Corona but I bet it’s the excessive smoking of that cheap cigarrete called roster .
He tells me in early 80’s he had a thriving hotel in Thika town called Metameta hotel, he owned a Peugeot, Yamaha bikes, and few pieces of land here n there … He was in early 30’s , he tells me it’s at the prime of his achievement he made friends that love that Royce Rolls , rockstar kind of life … He tells me how they spoiled cash at blue post hotel dancing to the Beatles n Elvis persly rock music . He even tells me he once took a selfy with the legendary king of kikuyu music Kamaru himself back then …
So what Happened?" … It’s during his night of pleasures he got to meet a certain kamba lady calling herself fatuma, with nice Swahili accent … He tells me he left his wife n his toddlers n went to Mombasa with fatuma to have real fun , sex n party … It was party after party , he sold two pieces of land to quench his thirst for liquor n women … His wife wasn’t good in managing the business so it slowly started recording low sales n customers started dwidling . He came home once or twice an year , he had settled with fatuma in msa an opened a big shop there even his accent had changed u would confuse him for a giriama , he laughs n talks that coasterian slang …because of his love for alcohol n thirst for more bootylicious coast women na unajua Hawa wamama was Mombasa na kukata mauno wacha tu !!! He split with fatuma , fatuma was left with the shop n a plot he had registered in msa town under her name …
4 yrs later the hotel in Thika closed down , he sold the other assets n his wife ended up in kiandutu slum with the kids … A tear flows down as he tells me as he was back in msa he received a letter from His close friend in Thika , his wife had committed suicide n left behind a note , he was the reason for it coz of his list for women … She had sliced her neck with a knife n died a painful death … He was so broke even to get fare to come back to THIKA … The wife was burried in public cementary … He came back to THIKA during the multipartism in Kenya , he couldn’t trace his son n if he could how could he tell them he was the deadbeat dad responsible for the death of their mum …
It’s years later that he learnt they had become street kids only one was living in his late parent home in gatanga …
Mzee meta became an alcohol addict drinking cheap liquor n doing manual jobs like pulling Carts …
Coz of age in early 2000 he could no longer pull carts he came to the current small center we live in … Here he does funny jobs like washing business premises n being sent here n there, unclogging sewage , doing minor jobs like slashing here n there … His favorite spot was cleaning the bars for a drink n some ciggarretes , with the current Corona pandemic the bar is a no go zone… He lives in a desserted building whose owner is in Nairobi all he does is keep watch of the building no salary as he doesn’t pay rent …
If he gets 100/= bob he would rather drink 80/= n eat madodo ya 20/= or sometimes fail to eat …
I once gave him all my trousers n shirts I no longer wear , the old man sold them all n drunk to the last coin , he slept in a drainage thank God it wasn’t the rainy season …
In short hii maisha NI duara what goes around comes around…