KATUA, THE MAN IN A MISSION
Both Katua and Kamau worked in ‘Pat-Supplies’, a hardware
owned by Patel in Kariokor. On that Thursday Katua was so nice to Kamau and
everyone wondered what was happening because Katua was a lot of things but nice
to people was not one of them. Earlier that week Katua was told by their
employer- Patel that he could have a three day off from work. He had waited for
the good news for nearly four months and so he was excited that he would travel
home after nearly a whole year away. He quickly told his parents who lived with
his five other siblings in Mumbuni-Machakos that come Friday he would finally
be home. Everyone at home was excited: His father knew he would get money to
brag while drinking beer at the local brew den, his mother knew that she would
finally cook chapati and upon thinking about how her neighbours’ would envy her
she felt so good and of course his siblings knew they would eat a lot of good
stuff that was not githeri and they would have the coolest story to tell in
school.
Even with a meager wage he managed to save and so shopping
for his family would not be a problem: But he had one major problem in his
mind-Mueni. Mueni was the yellow skin girl Katua had a serious crash on since
they were in primary school, and now that he had been in the city he knew he
had an advantage over Mutune who according to the village rumour mill was
dating or sneaking (let your imagination go
wild) around
with Mueni. He thought it through and decided that a smartphone would definitely
topple Mutune who was a cook at the local Secondary school. Among all the
workers only Kamau owned a ‘smartphone’ although Onyango and Onyancha said it
was fake, but Katua cared not. He approached Kamau and asked if he could borrow
his phone over the weekend, “Na nikikupea mimi nitasaidika aje?” he retorted
(How will giving you my phone benefit me?). Katua promised to bring Kamau five
kilograms of green grams for free from Mumbuni and so the deal was on. Kamau
was however well known for going back on his promises and Katua knew he had to
be in good books with him, so he played nice through the week.
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| photo courtesy of: modespices.info |
That Thursday was the D-day, Katua would find out whether his
plans to impress Mueni would be thwarted. At the end of the workday Kamau
seemed to avoid Katua and he knew he had to step up his game so he bought him
rice viazi (rice with potatoes stew) at the food vendor to soften
the grounds for negotiations. Kamau finally gave in and gave Katua the phone.
His act of generosity was however loaded with commandments and warnings, “Ukiharibu
hii simu utanipea 20K bila negotiations” (If you cause any damages to my phone
you will pay fifteen thousand shillings and there will be no negotiations about
that). He made sure to speak so loudly that everyone present would be a witness.
Everyone including Katua knew Kamau’s price was an extreme exaggeration but he
still had a reputation of collecting his dues no matters how dubious they were.
Nevertheless, Katua agreed and left to his house to get some sleep and most
importantly to learn the way around the ‘new’ phone.
Upon arrival in his home in Mumbuni, Katua made sure that Kisinga
his youngest sibling went to Mueni’s home and yapped about him having new and expensive
things: a phone, shoes, a trouser, etc. Over lunch his siblings sat around him
as he narrated to them about life in the ‘city under the sun’, his job and off-course
‘his’ expensive new phone. He dropped names like: Whats-app, USB, power bank,
selfie and all the other cool things about and around smart phones that he had
recently learnt, he did not care whether he had not actually used any of them
but he was sure by the time Mueni came to say hi to him he would be flawless
bragging to her and would obviously win her love or overthrow Mutune, he would be
content with any of the two.
After lunch Katua put the phone under his pillow in fear of
tampering by his siblings as he wanted to visit the latrine which was a good
distance from the main house. When he came back from the latrine Musau, one of
his siblings was whistling from the smoke filled kitchen and Kisinga and the
others were playing hide and seek, basically no one was in sight. He smelt
something had gone awfully wrong while he was away, he rushed into his bedroom
praying that whatever it was, it had nothing to
do with his phone, but no it
had everything to do with it. The phone was on the table and its screen had a
bad crack, he tried to put it on with no success. His pulse rate increased,
thoughts on how to pay back Kamau and impress Mueni were competing for his
attention, he began to sweat profusely and got out to catch some air, and then
he saw Mueni. She had just arrived and by the look on her face Katua could tell
she was ready to give him a chance or rather give the coolest man in the
village a chance.
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| photo courtesy of: roguenaturopath.com |
The broken phone had already ruined everything. In the split
of a second he decided that figuring out a way to pay Kamau was his priority.
He hurriedly said hi to her and excused himself. He needed to come up with a
payback formula that inevitably meant structuring a fail proof lie to help him
get some money from his grandpa who owned the biggest herd of cattle in the
village and who fortunately was also his best friend.
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