PART ONE “That’s where you are?” she asked as she looked at the screen. At the Ngong Road – Ring Road Kilimani junction, buses and matatus encroached on the oncoming lane, forcing the drivers to turn off at the prestige route in an attempt to avoid the frenzy. The shaky camera was annoying her, but … Read more
shhhk… shhhk… clop… shhhk… clop… Planting its hooves into the gritty asphalt, the goat stiffened into a mannequin as it was being pulled by its horns. The sky was a deep cobalt when Vusi, a 40-year-old man with a stern face, dragged his gift from Lupane; proof that the village had been nice to him. … Read more
The end of the world was nothing like the movies. There was no tearful news anchor, no inspirational presidential speech, no bulletin. Sure, there were the sounds of sirens and helicopters in the distance, a few slammed doors down the street, and the screech of car tires every so often. But that was outside, and … Read more
On an ordinary Thursday night in Ngong Avenue Estate along Ngong Road in Nairobi, nine-year-old Jack Dulu had the most extraordinary dream ever. He dreamed that a donkey was talking to him. The donkey was at his bedroom window, tapping on the pane and calling his name. “Jackie,” it was repeating with every tap. “Come … Read more
Seabe accepted that his wife thought she no longer loved him. Despite that, Seabe also believed the world was a fair and just place. He had done everything correctly. He married his wife properly, going to her family, paying lobola before the marriage, not after like so many. He never cheated on his wife. He … Read more
It is the 3rd of October, 2017 AD. We are in Nairobi at a place we once called Langata. It is almost midnight and there is a woman lying in her bed; she is crying. It is an ugly kind of crying, loud and pained without restraint or decorum. It is the cry of … Read more
The gurney was the vehicle that brought in the dead. Limp, silent and unresisting; the dead laid covered in blue rumpled sheets. Sometimes their flesh quivered in the careless abandon of death. The men that wheeled the gurneys to the room where the bodies were kept had little to say. In their blue, numbered work … Read more
What if I told you there was something watching you right now. Something that was almost always there watching you. Hiding in the shadows but always around. A constant presence throughout your whole life. If you’re anything like me, I suppose you’d ask why you’d never seen it. Why you’d never even heard of it. … Read more
I There was a place in Karen where the Devil sometimes came through to Nairobi. It was an open field of about a quarter of an acre with a few tall trees, sporadic thickets, and patches of stunted grass. The trees and the thickets had yellow, sickly leaves and the grass was mostly burnt. But … Read more