Buy The Newspaper.

I still buy the newspaper, especially the Sunday Nation. I think my baby sharks are the only ones in their peer groups who are still sent to the shops by their dad to get him a gazeti (newspaper). Last Sunday’s Nation featured the stories of two prominent Kenyans, but maybe one more than the other. It was JM Kariuki’s 50^th anniversary since his death. He died in his 40s around the time I was being born. I’ve had a lot about the former Nyandarua MP, how brilliant he was and full of swag. If there was ever a finishing school after Kenya’s independence, JM would easily have been the principal he he.

History is a good transporter because it takes us to times and places that existed before we did, and we get to meet people long gone who affect our lives today in one way or another. For example, JM had a home on Ngong Road. I wondered how Ngong road looked like 50 years ago as I compare it to the dual carriage that we drive on today. Though I still remember the Adams arcade roundabout and the 3 wheels local. Sometimes, it feels like the world is unable to accommodate outliers or people who seem to be born before their time. Was JM Kariuki too fast and furious for his time?  

That’s what I think happened to JM. He was too hot to handle for the post-independence establishment then, so the system had to get rid of him. Tom Mboya encountered a similar fate at the young age of 39. JM even attended Mboya’s funeral despite the animosity towards the Kikuyu elite that prevailed then. Not even his wife would change his mind from travelling to western Kenya for Mboya’s funeral. I wonder what Kenya would have been like today if we hadn’t dimmed the light of these shining stars. I feel we shot ourselves in the foot literally by assassinating Mboya and JM. Well, may they continue resting in peace and may continuous comfort be upon their families.

What’s the lesson from JM’s life? There is nothing new under the sun. Even today, Kenyans are being silenced in one way or another. It is tragic and unfortunate. I wonder how mercenaries (and those who hire them) who take out people sleep at night. JM’s widow said that she would tell her husband’s killer that she had forgiven them if she had the chance to meet him. No one has been brought to book over the last 50 years, but our conscience is a prison we cannot escape when we do wrong. Despite the risk, good men have to speak out; otherwise, evil will have the run of the house.

JM (and other leading lights of our country) lived a short life, but we are still talking and writing about them 50 years on. Their years may have been shot down, but their impact lingers. And that’s consoling because it’s not what we take with us when we go that matters; it’s what we leave behind when we’re gone. JM left a family (though they have been fighting for the properties he left behind), but that’s not what stands out for me. He was brave enough to stand up for his values and speak his truth. I want to be more like that. Serve my country by being authentic and using my gift to make people’s lives better. I believe JM did that even though it cost him his life. What will you stand up for, folks? What would you like us to remember you for long after you are gone?

The other story that caught my eye in Sunday’s paper was the passing on of former Barclays Bank boss Samuel Ambundo. He died last month aged 95. Samuel and JM would have been about the same age. It’s funny how these two men have been featured in the newspaper on the same day. They both ran their race, left their dent on the universe and exited. Samuel first saw a bank while taking his mum to the market in Kakamega as a small boy. He saw a baton-wielding askari at the entrance of a building in town and got curious. Upon inquiring from his mother, she said that was a bank where the rich (mzungus mostly) kept their money. He then told his mother that he wished to work in a bank. Many years later, he did rise through the ranks and became chairman of Barclays Bank (now Absa)

Childhood dreams do come to pass. One lesson for me here is to take my baby sharks with me wherever I go as much as possible. Seems some visions are caught, not taught. I never got to meet Mzee Samuel in person, but from the obituary in the newspaper, he lived a good life and has left a good name. That’s what a good man does: leave a name that will open doors for his children. I’m blest to have had my mzee do that. Asante baba. Now, it’s my turn to do the same, so help me, Sir God.

On retirement from Barclays, Samuel was given his official Mercedes-Benz car. Guess what he did? He declined the offer of a free Mercedes. Reason being? He had children in school and didn’t want another child to take care of. Reminds me of a friend who was once late to a meeting because his BMW had stalled on the road. He called BMWs slay queens. Clearly, Mzee Ambudo viewed his Merc back then as a slay queen hehe. I hope most of you folks aren’t spinning slay queens on these streets, unless, of course, you can keep up with the maintenance.

I pray that we all exit this world at a ripe old age like Mzee Samuel of Barclays Bank. And that when we close our earthly account, we will leave behind rich deposits in people’s lives that they will tell our story for many years to come. Buying that Sunday Nation was a good idea, for I picked quite a few gems about life from two proud sons of Kenya. Try buy the newspaper this Sunday, folks. It might be the best 60 bob you spend.