MARRIED
BY MOTHER IN LOVE
The determination of Kemunto to get a wife had landed her in the
house of Moraa. She was ready to marry her and get a heir. “What will my people
say, when I tell them that you are coming to pay my dowry?” asked Moraa. “You
will tell them its my son but he had an emergency and that is the reason I why
I will pay dowry on his behalf.” She added a few more lies in order to convince
her to get a date for dowry presentation with Moraa’s relatives.
In the day she was singing and
praising her maker for the progress of her dowry negotiation. In the night she
was speaking to herself. “Gose chembo ne chiombe nikurusi.” It is I who will
pay the dowry… “gwaka na chiome, gwaka na chiombe”.She was ready to pay any
amount that they would ask. Her confidence was not in her richness but in the
fact that she knew that they could not ask for much. They would accept her offer
since their daughter had three sons from different fathers. In her mind,
Kemunto was sure that they would be happy that her sons will have a place to
call home and a father who will precede their circumcision. She knew Moyare since
they attended the same primary school. They had never interacted since she was
a few classes behind him and she came from Magenji village.
While Kemunto and her daughter in
law were planning for a dowry payment, Moyare the husband to be was lying in a
trench next to the railway at Githurai market. The last time Kemunto had seen
his son was two decades ago. Moyare ran away from home to join his uncle who
was making a lot of money in Nairobi. He left home to come and take a driving
course from his uncle’s house. He did not believe in education, he believed in
his dream. Kemunto was not worried when his son told her that he wanted to come
to Nairobi and live with his uncle. It was right for him to continue supporting
his nephew to become a man.
Moyare did not care about his education at Nyasore Primary
School. After all his mother could barely afford three meals leave alone paying
their school fees since their father died.
Kemunto had entrusted the future of his family
line to her brother in law. He was expecting Moyare to live with him and pursue
his dream of being a driver. He had many dreams driving Gusii Durex. He wanted
to drive a bus not the wooden pieces
that the boys used to put together. He wanted to drive one of the Nyamira Express
buses. When, Moyare left Bugetutu village he was determined to be a driver. He
was not aware that his uncle would not welcome him at his house. He never
imagined that he was not going to trace his uncle in the highly populated
Githurai.
He was stranded at Neighbours
Restaurant way after midnight. He feared
since from the restaurant, he could hear desperate screams outside. He knew
that people were losing their lively hood to ebibhago (rough thieves). He had
walked all over asking about his uncle, Nyakwemicha all day. He ended up at Neighbours
to feed and hopefully find the neighbor of his uncle. He was there from eight pm.
Time seemed to be keeping him there. Initially he told the waiter that he was
waiting for his uncle. At eleven PM he told the lady waiter that his uncle was
coming to pick him. He was stuck there till late.
Moyare did not understand why he
was stuck among men in blue and maroon clothes ordering for all sorts of food,
ugali madodo, chapati madondo, mayai madondo and mandazi madondo. Out of fear
he managed to ask one of them if he was his uncle’s neighbor. The driver
replied in kikuyu and later in Swahili when he realized that Moyare was not
replying to his question. He told him that he did not know his uncle Nyakwemincha
and it was very hard for Moyare to find the uncle if he did not have his office
telephone number. He asked him to write a letter to him, but assured him that
it would take more than a month for his uncle to reply. Moyare stoode up, one
hand on his head and the other on his hip, “Biii !!! ihakoigwa korua asende
biii.” (ooh my, uncle will never hear
from me).
It is at this time that Moyare unknowingly
shouted his dream to everyone who had ears. His dry, helpless and remorseful
voice made the driver to listen to him. Amid his strong chews, the driver
advised Moyare to start as a tout in the Pink Paradiso buses and as time goes
by he would learn to drive. Ruitha told him that he will learn from the best
and be even better than students who learn driving at Rocky. Even though Moyare
wondered why the driver was hewing beans like meat, he just thanked him and
shed a tear as a man ought to.
Moyare had not found his uncle
yet. Apart from the restaurant that was being cleaned as people got out, Moyare
did not have any other place to sit or sleep. The driver allowed him to come
with him to their house at a fee of one of his two shirts. The corridor next to
the parking lot at Shell Petrol Station became his house for years. He slept
there until the petro station was demolished in the expansion of Thika road.
His uncle had never replied to his letter, and he could not afford to travel
back to Mosocho Primary School and finish his studies even though he had a very
strongly desired to do so.
Moyare had been a tout for more
than ten years. Unlike his mother, Moyare was not worried about his life and
future. Based on their culture, a man of his age was supposed to be drinking
less and making children more. But Moyare was drinking more and had never
married. Dirt was on his face and on his clothes even on a Sunday a day that he
was supposed to rest yet he was the first at the Githurai bus stop. Initially
he was the best tout especially when Paradiso and NICCO were the only buses
flying the route.
Moyre was there before the
construction of the super highway. When the highway was completed, Ruitha his
omosacha othaiyo (his new found father) asked him to board a bus to Moyale. Ruitha
continually, called him Moyare from Moyale. He had asked him to go back to
Kisii severally. His plea was falling on deaf ears. Ruitha was used to Moyare’s
day dreaming kugenda ka, kugenda ka (go home, go home). It was Moyare who explained
to him how hard it was for him to go back home. When Ruitha asked him to marry,
Moyare told him that he was ready to get married to any woman. Finally, the
Thika Superhighway was completed, Ruitha told him to take advantage and board
Airbus to go and start a new life in Moyale since it was impossible for him to
go back to the land of my fathers.
A local police man who was known
to give thugs fare back home had already given him fare twice. The first time
he just went to Transline booking office. That’s where his journey to kisii
ended. He changed his trip to Kisii to trip to town .Despite calling out for
passengers to board buses to town; he had never been to town in years. Thus, he
had reached his destination after years of town tano, town kumi, tao mbao, tao
thirty, town forty, hamsini toa, sitini tao, sabini tao, eighty town, and
Nairobi mia. (Fare to Nirobi CBD is five shillings, ten shillings, twenty
shillings, thirty shillings, forty shillings, fifty shillings, sixty shillings,
seventy shillings, eighty shillings and one hundred shillings)
Moyare went back to the bus stage.
Since he was thirty five years, Moyare was not received in a friendly way at
the bus stop. He was told that he was no longer a youth and that he needed to
get himself another life and leave touting to the young clean youths. He ended
up at Loitokitok Bar and restaurant on Munyu Road just behind the flooded
Githurai stage on Ronald Ngala road. He had convinced himself that he would go
there to remind himself of how real beer taste since for more than five years
he had been drinking the other alcohols such as echangaa, Murats, Kane, Mutuku.
He had long forgotten taste of tusker. He also wanted to taste Guinness and in
the spirit of made of more he bought more for Ceri the new queen of his heart.
He knew his mother would not mind
Ceri since all she demanded from him was a wife and kids. He was not aware that
Ceri was just minding his pockets and had no further intention. At the end of
the day she stole his money, she stole his chance of meeting the wife that his
mother had acquired for him. Moyare missed his future once again.
Moyare was not involved in bridal
celebrations. In absentia, Moyare had a wife by default. Kemunto had finished
paying dowry. He had fulfilled the desires of her heart and the wishes of her
husband. She now had a wife and three kids. She asked Moraa to change the names
of her two sons. The second born was named after her husband and the last born
to be named after his son. Moraa retained her first born. After koarokigwa
eriata (renaming rituals), Kemunto got her two grandsons. She even agreed to
change their names at the County offices. “Kugenda ecounty…” every now and then
she wanted to go to the county offices to see if they have finished changing
the names. She wanted Moyare to be part of their names.
Moyare was thrown out of the bar, immediately
he finished his beer, he crawled to the bus stop, the stench, dirty clothes and
darkness made many give him way even when he was not going anywhere. It is at
the Kahawa West stage near Mirano Bar and Hotel. A driver recognized him and offered
him lift to Rysambo. It took three days for Moyare to get back to Githurai
Arrive.
A younger man found him half dead,
in the spirit of Kisii brother hood he asked him where he came from. He used
his networks and in good time, Kemunto had brought Moraa to Githurai to pick
her husband. Inside he was dead but on the outside he was happy and ashamed at
the same time. He was too embarrassed to meet a wife that his mother married.
On the way home he kept on wishing
that he was the driver of the Nyamira Express bus that they were travelling in.
His mother told him of the rituals that he had to undertake to break his
virginity. In every hour Moyare kept telling his mother, “Mama, Moraa no
omwanchi one koru rerona kare na baanha gose bataancha.” (Mother, Moraa is now
my lover from today henceforth, whether they like it or not). He seemed to be
telling Moraa when he touched the drivers shoulder and told him the same words.
Moraa was happy to have a virgin man for husband. Moraa kept on thanking her
mother in law for marrying her. At the same time Moyare thanked Kemunto for
marrying Moraa on his behalf. “omwana
one thagokomia” (My son do not worry) This conversation went on and on till they
reached home.
He met his sons at home and was very
happy to be called father. He asked them to keep calling father every now and
then to feel the father hood. Moyare believe that no woman could love him or be
associated with him. He never tried to court any lady. He believed that he was
uneducated, jobless and homeless thus ladies never saw any potential in him apart
from Ceri. He was glad that his wife came all the way to Nairobi to look for
him.
He was happy to remember Moraa as
the girl that was three years behind him in school. He was happy at the selection that his mother
did for him. He told Moraa that she was very beautiful, more beautiful than any
girl he had ever seen in Nairobi.
