Many years ago when I was growing up in the village, there was very beautiful home across the ridge. The palatial home had elegant green lawns, a well trimmed kei apple fence reinforced with chicken wire; a metallic gate and casuarina and jacaranda shade trees.
By Collins Wanderi
But it was ghostly. Besides Njamarī, the casual labourer who did the gardening and three fierce dogs, nobody else lived there. The home belonged to one Mûkiri wa Gîthīi, a Mûnjirû from Hinga Clan.
His mother Nyokabi, was from Maitha Clan. Legend had it that this home was deserted because Mûkiri had committed an abominable act against his parents.
That at one point his father got sick and had to be driven to Nairobi by Kīgonyi, the only driver who could expertly navigate the treacherous muddy and slippery roads of Kîanjege in wet and chilly July.
It was said that when Gîthīi and his wife arrived in the city, they were driven straight to Mûkiri’s workplace and before he shook their hands he ordered his juniors to spray them with a strange chemical just in case they had carried vermin from their mud-walled and dust floored huts.
The spraying was done by two workers who wore white and blue overalls, green gumboots and yellow helmets on their heads. It is only after the ritualistic spraying and change of clothes that the elderly couple were allowed to shake hands with their son.
Kīgonyi was not that lucky. His fees was delivered to him at the parking bay by one of the hooded workers in a sealed envelope and he was dismissed. He never talked about the incident in the village, understandably, because the Hinga’s were his in-laws.
It was rumoured that Mûkiri was banished from Kîanjege by members of his clan for this intransigence. His wife and children rarely visited the home, and when they did, they kept to themselves. Perhaps out of fear of being infected with village vermin; 'ndutu'(jiggers), 'ndaa'(lice) na 'irofoto' (fleas).
However, later in life after I had read enough books and joined the rat race in the city, I discovered that Mûkiri is a marine biologist who worked in one of the scientific research institutes in Nairobi.
It is mandatory procedure to be sanitize and wear protective gear before a visitor is granted access to some sections of these installations. Mûkiri was a man ahead of his time and wanted to impress his elderly parents.
This is why he had them sanitised so that they could get access to his resplendent corner office. He was the boss of the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Section. The Gîthīii's being Híngas were reclusive people. They didn't talk about the incident.
But the villagers told anyone who asked about the majestic ghostly home of the mystery. Gîthīi & Nyokabi passed on before a few years after I had left the village. Mûkiri is now a scholar of note in the Eastern Africa region.
Now that 'Korona fairas' is almost going away, I plan to go to Kîanjege and find out why the villagers have been advising their children to avoid; actually run away from visitors from the City of many Lights (Kîa-Matawa).
I will also ask them if they have been “spraying” their elderly parents with 'SATINIZERS' and what they think about their famous son, Prof. Mûkiri, now. Answers will be posted next week.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Captain Collins Wanderi comments on topical socio-political and economic issues. Follow him on Facebook HERE.