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Rosalin wakes up early in the morning. She rises at the rooster’s second crow, Or at the muezzin’s first call to prayer, if you may, To make tea for her husband And porridge for her youngling. To milk, to wash, to sweep. Her husband, Wesili, Wakes just after sunrise, Red-eyed, musty-breathed. He asks, “Why is…
“Well, you have to know what we found,” he said, his voice growing slightly louder and firmer especially at ‘you have to know’.
My child, I did not want to hear it, whatever it was. My heart was literary racing. I kept thinking about the four possible causes of hyperplasia, none of them anything to write home about. The visuals he had drawn on that first consultation while explaining the four possibilities lingered in my head stubbornly. I wished there was someone to squeeze my hand with assurance. The tension was nearly palpable.
One evening early last month, I walked into a health facility for admission like a tourist walking into her hotel room. I had with me a black backpack and a sling bag whose contents proved to be vastly inadequate as well as irrelevant especially for an admitted patient. Ridiculously, I had packed my earphones because…
Dr. Maya Angelou’s memoir, I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is a courageous and a deeply human story of pain, troubled childhood, ache of abandonment, longing, trauma, guilt, resentment, endurance and love. She’s only three when she’s sent, along with her brother Bailey who is four, to a ‘musty little town’ of segregated Stamps,…
My Lessons at 30. I turned 30 on January 27, 2022. Isn’t it incredible how time flies? Just the other day, I was twenty-one and a new, clueless mum. Then I was twenty-four, seated in a dimly-lit, poorly finished office, busy flipping Excelling in English Form Two Learners’ Book. Then I was twenty-seven, reading and…
My name is Chelangat Naomi. I prefer that order to Naomi Chelangat without any intellectual explanation whatsoever. Can we agree that when you say, Naomi Chelangat, it’s not me you are talking about? Thanks for understanding. I think it is important for me to mention at this point that that (Chelangat Naomi) is how my…
On Monday of last week, I travelled from Nairobi to Mombasa via a Toyota Noah with five other people; four women and a man. We expected to be in Mombasa by 9:00pm latest, in order to beat the 10:00pm curfew. That was not to be, however, for we got in trouble with the traffic enforcers,…
Linda rose lazily from the bed to adjust the louvers and increased the fan speed to its maximum. It swirled angrily, ruffling a sheaf of papers on a table that sat at the center of the single-roomed house. She reached for them, put them together, and placed a padlock on top to keep them in…
On the morning of her 25th birthday, Rita was in exceptionally high spirits. Apart from it being her birthday, and her 25th birthday for that matter, she had just been finished with her period without having experienced a single seizure throughout the five days. She hated that time of the month. Since she started…
Cherop nudged the male passenger in front of her and signalled him to open the car window. It was a torrid afternoon. The air outside was dry and still. She had sat in the car for twenty minutes and sweat beads had begun forming on her face. She kept adjusting and readjusting her face mask,…
What I do know is that, irrespective of the justifications I attempted to construct, this was a clear case of racial discrimination. What saddened me even more was that the perpetrators were individuals within an industry tasked with ushering in a transformation in our treatment of one another, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic status.
“Babe.” Chemutai called her lover from the bathroom where she stood in front of a mirror as she squeezed a blob of toothpaste onto her toothbrush. She had a spotlessly white towel draped around her from under her arms to a few inches just above her knees. It was vast as bathrooms go, unlike the…
She sat there, lost in thought, a shadow of her usual vibrant self, her characteristic radiant smile nowhere to be found. We exchanged pleasantries and some updates on a matter that had been on my radar. She responded weakly, acknowledging awareness and explaining her actions to the relevant person. Her lips tried to conjure a…
In a spacious conference room, Gina found herself in an unexpected spotlight. Seated unassumingly, she listened intently as a senior figure she’d held in high regard launched into a critique. This leader, seasoned by years, seemed to relish the opportunity to critique, her motives were unclear yet piercingly personal. Gina sat stunned, uncertain whether what…
Oh life, how fickle? My day unfolded seamlessly, the rhythm of life dancing gracefully to the well-orchestrated plan. I met some interesting personalities, their stories etching lasting impressions on my mind, teaching invaluable lessons that got me reflecting on life. There was a golden moment as part of my day: a fundraiser for a noble cause. The…