When I walk around places, I like to play a face guessing game. I pick out a random stranger’s face and guess their age. Of people I come to know their ages later, I have a surprisingly good success rate, and only extremely neanimorphic faces throw me off, (that’s people Read more…
A running joke in Nairobi is that if you slap the word ‘executive’ in front of an item, it doubles in price. A haircut can cost Ksh 100, but the same haircut, branded as ‘executive’ will cost Ksh 200. Replicate that across apartments, furniture, transport and you have an idea Read more…
We waited in line, intimidated and silent, words had a cost, and we were paupers. A starving, ailing, beggarly country had waited for months to remove them from power. Overhead, the sun was scotching, but the mood in the booths was like a laundry day on the dreariest day of Read more…
The whole of that Friday, Joe smelled blood. In the morning, as he laboured to get himself off the bed, he smelled the raw, nauseating smell of platelets and haemoglobin. He patted the large shock of coarse black hair that covered his head and (thankfully) didn’t feel any fluids. He Read more…
It’s about half past nine, the streets are deserted, and the wind blows slowly. Disinterested. Like a worker who can’t wait to go home when morning comes. It blows away the loose pieces of litter left behind by a careless population, pieces of paper, groundnut wrappers, shopping bags, promotional material, Read more…
Lewis Kobatek is a worried twelve-year-old. Since March this year, COVID-19 has suspended learning for him and his classmates. The time in between has been spent trying to catch up with schoolwork, attending to chores, and stressing about what now seems like a wasted year.
Tuesday, 15th January 2019 In Nairobi’s blistering afternoon heat, a tabby cat lies lazily on a ventilation system, oblivious to its surroundings. In the adjacent building, Club Sabina Joy is open for business, it’s almost as dark as it would be at night, like it’s an ingredient to what’s being Read more…