The demons stared back. Coiling in my bed at 2 am with a sleepless body in the dead of the night. A heavy bag of daunting thoughts. Mum and dad endlessly argued in their bedroom. My heart pounding hard. A woman had called mama, threating to throw her out of our home with us, her […]
Let me count you the ways I love myself: When I was 6, I lost my five month old sister, Jael. Jael Apondi. She died while feeding, food went through her wind pipe. I helplessly watched her life fade away as she choked in the struggle. The lady tried everything to get the food out. […]
I left my parents’ house on the evening of 13th June 2004, with a Sunday Nation newspaper in my hand and a walkman in my pocket. Running. For peace of mind. Trekking through the abyss that is Mombasa Rd to town from Mlolongo, two days to my 16th birthday. Drained by life. Betrayed. Lost and […]
Uncle Mark would call me Sibuor mang’ang’a. Meaning “the great lion”. He bought me my first toy car. It was a huge tough plastic thing I loved so much. I was born at Pumwani Hospital on the 15th of June, 1988. It was a Wednesday evening. 7pm, mama said. Hence my name “Otieno” which means […]
Kawangware. Omorisia Hotel. Clearly a Kisii name whose meaning I should look for. The hotel is two roomed. One area the hoggers sit. The other room a kitchen. I find a round man plumped beside a young woman on the far left as I enter. Her lips smeared with what I see is brownish lipstick. […]
