The Thirteenth Widow (A Novel): The Story (Part 2)

You, Tom Okoth, accepted your new circumstance as a two-woman man, and you drowned the sounds of protests and disagreements from your friends and family in alcohol and more alcohol, and before you knew it, waking up in houses of widows, near and distant, became a habit; before you knew it, waking up in emergency wards with stitches across your face became normal; before you knew, it inheriting widows became a habit; before you knew it missing school became a habit. With a few years you lost your job: first as the headmaster of Soko Intermediate School, then as a teacher. Chief Omolo, your “friend,” chaired the school board that sacked you. At a local bar, he fed you some beer then hired a cyclist to drop you somewhere behind your home. What a fried you had in Chief Omolo! You left home the day after, never to return for another three years!

You never returned home the day after the sack, not because of your shame as the man and headmaster of a school who had drunk away his job, but because you met a jewel bedecked, pearly mermaid in a Homa Bay hotel. Yes, you met the mythical mermaid, except yours was not a myth. She was a real woman with flesh and blood: She was intelligent, ingenious, and beautiful, and apparently wealthy. That was your mermaid. The morning after you met, you thought she was not real; she had suited you and dumped thousands of shillings on you. Her name was Luna Green. She hence gave you the name Mr. Tom Green. You were her new husband, and more. You had found yourself in Luna’s arms in a classy hotel in Homa Bay, where you’d landed the day after the sack, having filed an appeal against your dismissal by your school’s board at Ndhiwa KNUT (your local teaching trade union) office. Well, you had filed your case, then visited Homa Bay to drown your shame—once and for all—in the may many bars in town. Then you met the mermaid known as Luna Green. By midmorning of the morrow, you (now Mr. Tom Green) were touring the waters of Lake Victoria in Luna’s personal motorized boat, The MV Lunar Rock.

A week later into the whirlwind of a tour, dazed, dazzled and believing that you’d met a mermaid out of the Lolwe, you wedded Luna or she married you (if you get my Luo sense of the verb ”marry”) in Ahero Town—some bishop presiding. A day later, you were in a dreamy mansion in Ngong—that famous land of the Maasai. You would lead a dreamy three-year life as the husband of Luna the Gemstone dealer. By the end, that came, suddenly, you’d a degree in business administration.

Then your life with the gem dealer known as Mrs. Luna Green came to a screeching halt, when she disappeared while in advanced pregnancy with your child. Within a short order you watched and listened as Green Gems Inc crumbled. The mansion you called yours was put on sale by creditors of Green Gems Inc. Apparently still controlling events from her hideout, Luna, willed that you be paid 39000 shillings, and that you left home immediately. In no way were you to leave with any other clothes except the ones on your back.

Scared, you scampered off with your life after a brief enquiry with Nairobi Police let you know that there was no person in Kenya known as Luna Green or Tom Green. Even you didn’t exist. If you had suspected that Luna was a genie or mermaid, you’d no more reason to doubt. You’d be back to Korondo Village to your longsuffering wife and your children, never to use the name Tom Green again. In three years, you, Tom Okoth, had travelled to hell and heaven and back to another round in hell!

(To be continued).

RATENG’ AND BRIDE (A POEM)

AMEPEDIA ARTICLE:

I am author Joseph R Alila, author of the Poetry soft cover RATENG AND BRIDE (A POEM). My past works include such novels as WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART and SUNSET ON POLYGAMY.
In RATENG AND BRIDE I have revisited political humor and satire, and used imagery in challenging the reader, through the hero (Rateng') to abandon a lifelong ambition of reigning in a killer, illusive Bride, because attempts to redeem our pride and personal honor often blind us of our more important contributions to society. In the long poem RATENG' AND BRIDE, in which certain tragic political events in Kenya's short post-independence political history are recalled and mourned over, I remind my audience through the hero RATENG' of the corrupting, material allure and deadly charms of unregulated power (here, Rateng's illusive Bride—call her Power or The Presidency). The message here is that power is dirty, is often over-glorified, and like a genie, its gains to the holder are brief and blissful. The reader is reminded that Power otherwise brings personal anguish and sacrifice, and has the universal tendency to corrupt those with it and their cronies. Through Rateng' the reader is warned that like a gem, unregulated Power (the Presidency) corrupts everybody it touches, and its corrupting effects linger like the nauseating smell of a scared skunk. Employing the rich Luo Oral tradition, and generous with its literary vehicles such as song, self-praise, satire, imagery and proverbs, and never shy to go Luo vernacular with proverbs specifically, I have tried to uplift the role of poetry and song in Kenya's post-independence political discourse. I have tried to walk delicately with the reader into, and out of, a more recent, and more deadly, political match between two powerful suitors (Rateng' and Milo) over one Bride, with one biased Referee in the ring, and their adversarial supporters fighting ringside.

Coming Soon

Sins of Our Hearts (by Joseph R Alila)

Pastor Rew Smith heads the affluent New Hope Oakpound Church in which things appear to be well, but there is a deep spiritual problem: His church suffers from a shortage of Love. New converts are called names by his Board, and go unattended to as the young Pastor spends most of his evenings at Oakpound Big Boys Health and Fitness Club. His Church’s Lay Leadership basks in self-righteousness, and a form of spirituality without of any force of love behind it. Led by Mrs. Smith, some members of the Women Wing have introduced a controversial Foot-Washing method for its convenience, but in which the virtues of humility and selfless love are virtually dead.

The Milayi Curse (By Joseph R. Alila)

In Joseph R. Alila's "Milayi Curse" (Lulu(http://www.lulu.com))%20centuries-old/centuries-old bigotry, prejudice, unresolved issues, spiritualility, myths of curses, and intraclan rivalry, meet the reality and power of frienship between two innocent boys, and the power of charity from one rich man to a boy from the other side of the clan divide, with Fr. James O'Kilghor as a witness and Keeper of Secrets. Mrs. Milayi's prejudice must be cleansed by her Priest in her self-made spiritual deathbed. She would live as a witness and agent of peace, understanding and intraclan healing in this spiritual drama.

Joseph R. Alila (Author)

ODM in Power Sharing Arrangement with Kibaki?

Here it comes:
The news out of Nairobi (Kenya) indicates that ODM has agreed to "a power-sharing arrangement" with Kibaki's government. Will it be a coalition? Will it be a GNU? For how long will it be in place? Who will be the President, V-President? What will be Odinga's role? What will it mean to multi-party democracy in Kenya?
Check this space .....

JR Alila

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?cat=TOP&sid=1447

http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=1&news...

Which Way ODM?

Let us face facts here. You should find this assertion rather simplistic and naive, but in my view, the talks in Nairobi are aimed at "baby-sitting" ODM as Kibaki settles into his seat. I may be wrong, but listen to the latest word from Annan: under the present circumstances in Kenya, a re-run of the Presidential vote is not feasible for at least one year. Now, this statement comes after he has received ODM's evidence as to how the Presidential tally was rigged. Prior to this, Kalonzo, that pretty face from Masaku, is stomping world capitals promising that peace has returned in Kenya, and Kibaki is in control, and chairing IGAD.
Meanwhile, ODM is being told by PNU that, indeed, ECK membership messed up, and will be reconstituted. Secondly, ODM is being advised by "alien friends" to swallow the bitter pill and take ministerial positions (Agriculture and Fisheries!) in a Kibaki Government (Coalision Arrangement!) as a new constitutional order for 2012 is being worked under WAKO, Karua and Parliament. To show that they are serious, these Western Friends have given a number of ODM MPs (and PNU too) DO-NOT-ADMIT cards so that they accept a coallition arrangement.
ODM has been trapped; if it walks off City Hall in a huff, the label "Rebel" will follow it quickly. It will be miraculous for ODM to leave these talk as a solid entity: It accepts a coalition, and it dies as a Party of any relevence in 2012, and multi-party democracy with it. It walks off in protest, and the country burns with it, which ODM will not do.
I have known African dictators who gleefully inspected guards of honor mounted by skulls and bones. The PNU band appears to be the dangerous sweet-talking type that can declare that there are floods in Garissa in the middle of a drought. This PNU band will not compromise its position, and will be willing to sit it out long and play the plight of IDPs in Kibera and Rift Valley to the international media. That land has become the contentious matter makes this scenerio the more likely (Look at Zimbabwe).
In the unfolding tragedy, the noblest thing ODM will do is to decide that too much suffering has visited the people; and that it does not want "a bride with blood on her hands," and becomes a formidable opposition in parliament. For this to happen, the leadership and MPs must be in it together, and the people must be willing to join them on this long journey to 2012. Bitter? Yes. But it is for the same reason that our men do not mourn the deaths of infants.

JR Alila

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143981602&cid=4

http://politics.nationmedia.com/inner.asp?pcat=NEWS&cat=TOP&sid=1443


http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=2&newsid=116296

The Last Straw That Broke the Camel's Back

"We only have stones!"
This cry, from young man amidst a battle with GSU paramilitary police in Kisumu, captures the current tragedy in Nyanza in the current electoral crisis. In the Rift Valley we have read of the dreaded GSU personnel being detained by locals at roadblocks; in Kisumu, unarmed kids are practice targets of some police officers, as a recent TV footage doing the rounds on the Web taught us. What makes Rift Valley different than Nyanza? The answer is that unlike Rift Valley, Luo Nyanza is irrelevant to the nation of Kenya: it is farflung and landlocked; Anyuongi has killed navigation and fishing on Lake Victoria; Kisumu is in ruins, sugar can be imported; no other ethnicities live there; only her electoral vote matters to any politician after every five years. The Gov't forces will continue to operate in Luo Nyanza with impunity to teach the locals to "vote otherwise" next time.
Which way Luo Nyanza?
Would this election be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back in Luo Politics?
I believe so.
If Hon. Raila Odinga fails to sit on the covetted seat (the Presidency), or fails to agitate for and get the Premiership before 2012, most Luo Nyanza voters will sit out the 2012 elections, and it will not matter who runs in ODM, which will have died anyway.
I'd rather watch Gor Mahia FC matches, commiserate with fellow elders than vote again in a fatally-cursed process that only generates anguish and gnashing of teeth among the people. We were there before in the '60s and '70s, and may survive it, again. But if not managed well, this elctoral mess may be the last straw that broke the camel's back in Luo Nyanza because pride to the point of apathy is a virtue, at least in a Luo psyche.
Ask yourself this: why are there no Luo names in Kibaki's National Dialogue and Reconciliation Committee? The answer is that Luo Nyanza is irrelevant to his political schemes; he never campaigned there anyway.

Joseph R. Alila

(Author: "The Wise One of Ramogiland," ISBN 978-14303-2554-3)

Read this for AE Standard, Kenya ....

http://www.eastandard.net/news/?id=1143980596&cid=16

Kenyan in Crisis

1. Uganda Role in Kenya in Crisis

THe Kenyan Blogs are awash with sitings of Museveni's Soldier's in Western Kenya; the leading Kenyan publication The East African Standard reports such sitings too. Why on earth would landlocked Uganda be agitating for chaos in a region of Kenya through which its Oil, industrial supplies and domestic consumer goods pass by rail and pipelines?

Lessons from History for the young among us
That great philosopher son of Africa, the late HE Presisdent Julius Nyerere once declared when Idi Amin invaded Tanzania, "If a Snake invades your house, you must chop its head." Nyerere WENT ON TO HAND AMIN A DECISIVE VICTORY over a much overated Ugandan Army that constantly threatened Kenya with invasion. Obote, Okelo, and Museveni would ride on Nyerer's back to oust Amin. Museveni appears not to have appreciated historical lessons in which he was an actor as a young man out the University of Daresalaam. Our wise also say that "You don't chop the hand that feeds you." Museveni does not need an unstable Kenya. Kenya has an Army and her women still give birth to sons; it does not need Ugandan forces for any purpose.

J. R. Alila, PhD
(Author: The Wise One of Ramogiland)