I was a literature student in secondary school and my English teacher appointed me Editor in Chief of the school magazine. He also encouraged me to pursue writing and advised me to consider pursuing a career in journalism at the University.
Unfortunately the University of Nairobi had not finished establishing a Journalism faculty at the time – 1970. So i ended up joining Arts faculty and pursued Economics and Literature as my major subjects and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Literature.
One of my lecturers was Ngugi Wa Thiongo who inspired me into authorship but i ended up in a career in civil service as a Tax Assessor. After retirement i recalled that i needed to pursue a career in writing and that is how i started writing in 2012.l am now 74 yrs old and have authored 11 books and am working on the 12th one.
My books are:
1.Set The Last Captives Free
2.The Tale of Innocent Imani
3. Born To Die
4.Amazing Love
5. Why Jesus Christ
6.Mateka Wa Mwisho Wakombolewe.
7. Hadithi Ya Imani Asiye na Hatia
8.Kuzaliwa Ili Kufa.
9.Mahaba Ya Kushangaza
10. Kwa Nini Ni Yesu Kristo
11. Imani Otari Na Mamocho.
I am currently a nominee on Born To Die, a story of street children bound together in life and in death, leaving their foster father and adopted family devastated. The book is intended to bring to the attention of the world the suffering and anxieties of the downtrodden, forgotten and the abandoned in the society eg street families. They go through a life of struggle to survive, that is beyond imagination. Their end is not often victorious-it can be tragic. They are also lured into crime and end up being killed .
In a sensational narrative full of suspense, a remarkable will to survive, even triumph when dealt the worst blow, is brought by a trio of young men brought and bound together for life. Towards their tragic end, in one of their conversations: “Brother, you seem to have ideas, Who wouldn’t like to be rich? Even those beggars you see out there want to be rich. If there’s a way you can help us , help us. We have families now and our wages cannot meet our living expenses”, rejoined Nameless. “You’re people who are burying your heads in the sand, I will show you the way, replied Bouncer.
Getting rich quickly led to their tragic end. In Mara country, getting rich quick by any means had become respectable. The society caused the deaths of a trio who had made inroads into getting an identity and recognition in society. How is it that Mara wouldn’t attend to the issues of deprivation and hopelessness and fight rampant corruption and immorality?
Mara society and governments are guilty of social neglect. It never bothered them that there were thousands of street families in their cities. Their grand plans didn’t include them. They had no moral fibre.
What happened in Mara is happening in many parts of the world, extreme poverty in the midst of plenty!
What a story! This shows how the society has increasingly neglected some people and issues and focused on something else. How I hope this book lands into the right hands and changes the narrative of street families, one at a time.
Congratulations 👏👏👏
Congratulations Sir, for coming up with this piece. Street kids is a subject that needs to be adequately addressed indeed and thank for bring it up. Inspired by our very own Ngugi Wa Thiongo. It’s a great piece
Congratulations for handling this topic. It’s unfortunate that our government have neglected this time bomb(street kids) and no one seems bothered at all. Thank you for bringing out this critical topic. Even the fact that you got inspired by our very own Ngugi Wa Thiongo, the book articulates the issue very well