My long-life walk that began at Pumwani Maternity Hospital in Nairobi on the 15th day of August 1957, landed me on the 67th rung of my life ladder on Thursday 15th August, 2024.
What a wonderful and eventful journey it has been.
Shortly after arrival I was whisked to Ithokwe in Central Kitui where I spent almost 5 years of my infancy with my maternal grandparents (Philip Masili and Damaris Nditi) before rejoining dad and mum (Philip Odero and Esther Mukeli) in Narok (no recollection), then to Fort Hall (now Murang’a).
I was in Fort Hall on time to welcome our Mau Mau Freedom fighters and usher in Uhuru (on the shoulders of my dad off course!).
It is in Fort Hall that I encountered jiggers, was enthralled by green snakes, learnt Gĩkũyũ as a Primary School Standard 1 entrant and first witnessed sadness in my mother’s teary eyes when her my grandfather (her father) passed on. That epic bus journey to Kitui to bid him our eternal byes took us days due to the infamous rains and floods of the very early sixties. I was to see more tears in mum’s eyes when she learnt from BBC that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. The newspaper with Kennedy’s radiophoto was later laid to rest in my mum’s kitchen cupboard, where JFK stared back at me whenever I was sent to fetch a cup, plate or spoon. These memories reside in the inner recess of my memory. Incidentally, it is in Fort Hall that I heard of the very dreaded diseases; “Tuberculosis” and “Carcinoma”.
Thereafter I seem to have lived everywhere… Mombasa, Nairobi, Pune (India), Murnau (Germany), Auckland (New Zealand) and Manila (The Philippines). I have also travelled like crazy… Sudan, Israel, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, China, South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia, England, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Singapore, Malaysia…wow!
It is not only countries but the great organisations and institutions that have trained and employed me. We begin with the African Union Primary School, Eldoret (1964-1967) and then to the Hill School, Eldoret (1968-1970), Nairobi School (1971-1976), Medical Training Centre, Nairobi (1977-1979), Fergusson College of Pune University (1979-1982); National Beekeeping Station of the Ministry of Livestock Development (1982-1984); The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE, 1984-2008), University of Auckland and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) located in Mt. Albert, Auckland New Zealand (1985-1989); Consortium for National Health Research (CNHR, 2008-2015); African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC, 2022-2023) and PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PwC, 2015-Current). In between I have done loads of consultancies, sat in a number of boards and even chaired the development of a strategic plan for my church, believe it or not!
Every year since I arrived on planet earth, I approach my birthday moments with a sense of trepidation and unease, but I quickly find solace in reminiscing on my varied life experiences. This past year is no exception. As a family, we continue to rise to challenges of meeting treatment and care of our ailing dad. On my part, beginning last October 2023, I experienced a scary idiopathic health condition that is now beginning to fizzle out with no one wiser as to the cause.
But I have also bathed in a measure of some very exceptional achievements. I enjoy and celebrate my family and a whole host of friends. I have continually benefit from unparalleled support from my best friend and wife O’beth and from our children; Mumbe, Kivungi, Michelle & Michael, and from the one and only JB Laito (who bears a name given to me by late grandfather Masili). It is a year that has seen me regularly join worshipers at the All Saints’ Cathedral, Nairobi to ruminate and deeply reflect on this year’s theme: “Be Ye Transformed” (Romans 12: 2).
A recent experience has wizened and prepared me to welcome being hailed as ‘Mukhulu’ or ‘Mzee’. A Friday night-out at the Nairobi Club sees me imbibe a couple of ales and shortly after 11 p.m. I leave for home by driving past the City Mortuary, now newly named ‘Nairobi Funeral Home’ by H. E. Governor Sakaja (as if that lessens the morbidity that resides therein!). As I drive down Raila Odinga Way, I notice a trail of red lights ahead. Jam? At this time? I query a tow truck driving past me, if there was an accident. The answer almost makes me get a heart attack.
Alco-blow! Jeez!
The late author James Hadley Chase knew how to describe fear and that solitary cold drop of sweat that slowly flows down ones back to the fleshy valley below. I navigate the corner and there they are, with a police truck its rear end flung open, beckoning. I am now trully and completely finished. We inch closer and I notice a red Vitz with doors wide-open, paper cups strewn on the road and a woman breathing into that dreaded gadget from the abode of the damned.
At such times it is wise to remember the bible verses we were taught at Sunday School. I recall the verse: Psalm 121: 1. I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. Amen.
The cop flags me down and asks if I am OK. I meekly say I am and the unbelievable happens. He waves me away by saying “Go home, Mzee”. Sweet Lord!
I have lost a number of good friends and family members this past year. I met and made friends an exceptional young man by the name of Ashok Rodricks in Pune, India in the early 80s. I was then leading the African Theatre Group and he was a member of a group of young Goan catholic students. We formed a collaborative initiative named Shades and undertook a most memorable production of Joe de Graft’s Muntu. Our theme song was Koth Biro and our musical director was Jack Odongo. I made wonderful friends in their spiritual Jesuit Father Cyril Desbrulais sj. Through Shades I met with Ingrid Medonca, Brian D’Cruz, Rabby D’Sa (and his lovely Alsatian dog that would carry his script home) and Audrey Fernandes. I kept a close contact with Ashok and he was there to meet me at the then Santa Cruz Airport in Bombay on my way to undertake my PhD studies in Aotearoa (New Zealand). My better half and late I visited Pune in 2012 and had the plessure of being hosted by Ashok and his partner Sarika. Imagine my shock when he told me that he had developed lung cancer in 2023. I was with him in thought and prayers as he struggled with chemo but he fianlly succumbed in May 2024. Rest in Eternal Peace, my friend Ashok. “You have fought the good fight, You have finished the race, You have kept the faith.” Till we meet again.
Such is the journey we we go through in this life. We taste both the swwet and sour with a rulers garce.
If you live in Kenya, transformation has been upmost in our minds these past recent weeks. The economy has gone out of control and each one of us is caught up in a spiral of rising prices and poor services. My birthday celebratory mood was jarred a couple of days ago when the taxman gave me a ten-day notice to pay tax for rental property which we sold in 2018. All required paperwork was filed with the tax authorities at the point of sale. Why this?, Why now?
I came across an excellent piece that aptly describes the conundrum of the present:
“The more things change, the more they stay the same. Today’s social dislocations arise in part because we have still not found answers to the basic demands of our human consciousness: how to feed the hungry, house the homeless, and love the stranger. This rudimentary concept of social solidarity is becoming increasingly unintelligible. The global right feeds off of the corresponding despair this produces, doubling down on an ethic of “every person for themselves.”
How very true!
As I near each birthday moment, I face flashback’s lovely days with late Mama Esther, our matriarch and mum, who left us at the turn of the millennium. Two hymns are vividly rekindled that my siblings Ken and Damaris and I loved to sing with mum by the jiko-side warmth during the very cold months of June-July in Eldoret West at the very edge of the Uasin Gishu Plateau:
1. Usinipite Mwokozi (Pass Me not My Saviour) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYoD0ONNNjY
2. Cha Kutumaini Sina (My Hope is Built on Nothing Less) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4c_Ty7Bl3k
Oh Yes! It is well with my soul!
An so to you all:
“I wish everybody here a long, long, life filled with you all tons of:
*Love to care
*Health to share
*And friends to care…”
(Quincy Jones, 82nd Birthday 2015)
“Learn to deal with the valleys
The Hills will take care of themselves”
JPR is a scientist, author, playwright, blogger, and
beekeeper, all rolled into one!