The Catawampus – Caanan Estate Experience

HIGHRISE, KIBERA ROAD. 

(CAANAN ESTATE)

mbagathi Road

This happened last week on Friday Night. It was a long  night as I can remember. As usual, people who have just come to college must enjoy as they say. Yeah, we must enjoy. I was in that category of people. I really enjoyed night raves and booze. A little bhang (ndom) too and not forgetting ‘muguka’ (jaba) complemented with ‘njugu – karanga’. The last stimulant was my appetizer before now the actual drinks. This was my schedule during the weekends. My after-Friday schedule was very tight due to the hunger I had to at-least taste these things. “tulikuwa tunachana hadi zinashika. Najifeel niko hukoooooo” cloud 9. I knew it’s gonna lit up every Friday evening. 

Let me tell you a brief history about me. I am a tall dark student. My name is Ojaamong. I live in Caanan Estate – A newly established gated estate along the Highrise – Kibera route. My friends normally call me “The Bull”. The bull because I am the know-everything type of person. I guide them home too when we are all drunk and also protect them from bandits. Nobody would like to go to the club without consulting Bull. Sometimes, I get free drinks just to take the other students out so they can feel safe under my cover. To touch a little bit of my education level, I am a 2nd Year Business Administration student at a university Around the place I live. I am a sharp Student though this drugs are kinda taking me to a cloud that makes me deviate from my normal reasoning. At the moment, I feel they are taking away my intelligence gradually. 

Let’s keep off the block stories. The story today was about that Friday. Last week’s pre-weekend partying. It happened in a way that wasn’t expected. Friday 19th was the date. In my business class, normally on Friday’s, the turn up is low for Students. They take it as a holiday. But the few present, dress like they have come to stay for a few moments and later walk out to the clubs. Men have their clad well put while the women are dressed to impress and arouse the “creativity” of a “holy man”. Let’s not get into the details. Since it’s Friday, new partnerships are usually formed. If last week you had some lady, you get to choose another. It’s a day where men get ditched for other men and ladies get Dumped for some better curves, looks and tastes.

Yeah,  that was a Friday. You get to feel good when you bumped on  a good partner. Are these the so called “prayer partners”? I don’t know. 

So this Friday. We ganged up. This time round, we didn’t want to include the ladies. It was to happen in my newly acquired Bedsitter at Caanan Estate. The house was big to accommodate like a dozen booze gamblers. I got my two friends Kamau and Kipyegon. When it came to “kuchana” and booze, there was no crossing on tribal lines. It was something that was soo cordial. We were brothers in this thing. Since class was over, we hurriedly rushed through past the gates and got on the Highrise – kibera route. We actually didn’t want the ladies to start booking us for the weekend. We walked for the short distance. We arrived at Caanan Estate in about some minutes. I hurriedly walked ahead of my two ninjas as I directed them to my room. It was in the 1st floor of the 5-storey rentals. I opened the door and allowed them to get inside. I locked the door with my keys and left the key inside the lock. I had two sofa sets on which they plastered themselves knowing Bull had something great to offer. 

The room was dark with red lighting. I didn’t want to open the windows. I opened my bag and placed it on the small glass table at the centre of the two guys. I took a blue plastic chair and sat as a third party. My bag was at the centre. I removed the  countable rolls of bhang, three “mzingas” and a lot of  “muguka” which was covered in seven khaki bags. Today was our day. My friends shouted in overwhelmed joy as we debated on what to start with. 

“This is more sweeter than Joyline ” Kipyegon said as he referred to a certain classmate whilst channeling the muguka deep inside his jaws.

We all bursts into laughter as we joined in the picking of the preferred fun. 

“Bull, kwani wapi Glasses?”  

“Pia. Weka ngoma  msee…”

I slowly got up and removed three wine glasses and placed them On the glass table. I crawled on my knees towards the sound system and plugged it on. I put my favorite Genre of music which was reggae and roots mixes. As the first song hit the air, I could feel the cold drink going through my warm intestines. I slowly increased the bass +3 and reduced the treble – 3. I gradually put on the volume to a staggering VOL 19. Only our heads could move as we sat on the chairs grounded as if our butts had being super-glued to our seats. 

Kamau would take some bit of the dried leaves and use a paper from his accounts book to make a cigarette-like bar of which he would smoke in real gusto. The spacious  Bedsitter was now a smoking zone. The air around was reeking of freshly smoked “ndom”. This is what we enjoyed most. The feeling of being “high” had already taken over in 45 minutes. I could feel myself as if I was floating in the air. The feeling of greatness and grandiosity had started to express itself. I began shouting at the top of my voice  as I jumped holding the full length bottle of “mzinga”. The beat was soo strong and the type of music that I loved was full in my ears. I could feel it in my nerves as it made me breakdance better than my fellow classmates. Kipyegon knew the best dances of their tribe. The dances in which you kinda dance with one leg as you rotate the other. It was crazy. “Muratina”  dance by Kamau was the most astonishing type of dance. It lacks a description in the English Oxford dictionary.

new highrise estate [CAANAN ESTATE]

The time was rushing. It was now 9pm at night. Kipyegon and Kamau were “stoned” to the occiput by the “makali” substances. They just lay there as I continued chewing the muguka nonstop. I mean, it had become a hobby. My teeth were all green. Kipyegon’s too. I could feel bits of leaves stuck in my teeth and using my rough tongue, I would remove and  swallow them with some “mzinga” 

After about an hour. We decided to get out and take a stroll in the noisy KIBERA area. It was just a day to the party nomination exercise. So the campaigns were still ongoing. We walked out of the house and I locked the door from the outside. We wanted to visit the club and at least fish some stray ladies as we walked. We slowly got out of the gate as we walked in high spirits. By any chance that one would come across our way, we would beat them Up mercilessly.  That’s the extent to which we had been stoned at the moment. We walked as we scared away pedestrians who walked home at that time. I was the one leading the way as they followed me in unison. Kamau was still holding a cigarette in his fingers. We arrived at a certain club inside the slum. It wasn’t that well up like normal pubs. In this place, we were assured of getting cheap drinks and some club women. We sat at a certain round table Together as we ordered extra drinks on our table. We hadn’t got enough of what we had at my room. The beat inside the house was rhyming well with the dances inside the club. To people who used bhang like me, such music was my kind of thing. We all got up and started taking it to the floor as we danced ourselves to the beat. 

Just then, there was a loud bang. Due to the effect, Of the sound, I was a bit “unstonned” . I shook. People inside the club had started running away from the club. It was something to do with the party nominations. I could hear the names of some aspirants. Kipyegon stepped on top of the tables and jumped outside. I couldn’t wait too. I followed suit. Kamau followed me as we traced Kipyegon. I guess due to his tribal background, we couldn’t even see his feet, he had already disappeared in the dark. Kamau was soo drunk to the occiput such  that he couldn’t even be able to run. He fell and landed inside a ditch. I stopped back and tried to pull him out but couldn’t. He was too heavy. I left him and ran for safety. The police were on my back. They had visualized me. I guess they had confused me with the guy who was causing the chaos in the area. They planned their game and soon caught up with me. I was beaten and several injured by their clubs. Within minutes, I was mauled inside their trucks. Surprisingly, we were many inside the carriage. Some of the people Inside were fellow classmates while others were residents of Highrise area. However, there was no sight of Kipyegon nor Kamau. I was the only one who had been tracked. 

In no time, we landed inside a police station.  We were ejected roughly under strict supervision towards the inner cells inside the police station. I specifically was locked up inside a cell with older men. My clothes attracted their nostrils as they asked me where I have been getting bhang. They had already recognized it in my clothes. I couldn’t answer any of them. I couldn’t even sit on the floor, the place was dirty and watery. At the corner was a bucket. It was full of urine and definitely faeces at the bottom. Suddenly, one of the quiet guys in the corner called the cell officer and informed them that the bucket to urinate was full. In a rude shock, he was told to defecate on the bucket or on the floor. Since he was pressed, he urinated on the  full bucket as urine flooded inside the cell. Some bits of faeces too (coats of beans and maize) were being carried away by the moving urine towards the entire corners of the cell. I stood on one shoe since one of my shoes had got lost during the chase. 

I was confused. The alcohol level had subsidized in my occiput. I was reasoning again. Why was I caught? 

Why me? 

I didn’t understand why I was inside a police cell. I realized it was on Saturday already because the 5am birds had already started humming. The alcohol had already been metabolized and I was standing on a full bladder. I too had to urinate on the walls of the cell. I couldn’t  hesitate. I turned to my side of the  wall and opened my urethral sphincters. We were about 15 people in a 2 by 2 cell. You can imagine the stench. 

The sun was already stretching out its rays. Around 7.30am, a certain soldier came to the cell I was in and opened the door. He removed me forcefully and told me to get to the desk. There, I found my friends Kipyegon and Kamau, they had come to bail me out. 

Truly, I had met a new home. That was the government cell. I promised myself to behave again and be a better person. I knew that I was deteriorating in memory slowly. I knew this drugs weren’t good but I kept taking  them. I vowed to stop drugs and to move forward. I also want to make new friends and open a new chapter of Life.

 

TEACHER JOYCE: BOY SCHOOL CHRONICLES 3

| PART ONE | PART TWO |

LANG’ATA, NAIROBI
My head had not lost consciousness to the extent of not visualizing completely. I could see a blurred vision of a human figure at the door. I did not even want to think who it was. All I knew is that I was in safe hands. He stood there looking at me with those sharp chatoyant eyes. He got closer still fixed on my embodiment. I wanted him for sure. I wanted to feel his passion, his touch, his taste and his everything that he had to offer me. There was this spirit in me that was soo wanting at the moment. Despite having the drink to my occiput, I was able to move myself like a slithering snake towards his direction. The dim lights made just the right atmosphere. I do not know if it is my eyes that had the blur or was it the lighting. I just felt cool with the view.

He sat at the end of the couch that I was in. gradually; I crawled on fours towards where he was and hugged him from behind. I held his shoulders tightly as I feared I would trip over. The zeal in me was killing my system. My short dress had already coasted upwards towards the head of my femur bone but who cared? It was Josh and I. I mean, I wanted him. I bent his neck on the side and gave a moist peck on his neck. He twitched. I could feel the warmth in his skin. The engorged neck veins were sending a message. He was also getting into the mood despite not revealing it physically. I could see his toes curled up on the wooly-carpeted floor.

PHANTOM 5

Previous Episodes

Parts | ONE | TWO | THREE| FOUR |

This is part 5 of this story

Bella and Baron

I screamed soo loudly as I bow down my head in a bid to curb the pain inflicted on my fingers. The pain was too much to bear. I could feel the cartilage and collateral ligaments of my knee dancing to the excruciating pain forcing me to stay on the grimy floor as I writhed as a dying snake. My eyes were fixed on my broken finger as I visualized a white colored bone on it. It was broken. I mean, my finger was broken and it had exposed even the phalanges. I kept on wailing at the top of my voice until there was no sound coming from my mouth again. All my mouth and my facial muscles did were look like I was wailing but unfortunately, no sound could manage to come out.

‘My God!’ I screamed. What had he turned to? I mean, I thought Boyka was the one who had inscribed this utmost Satanism in him. At this moment, I had no doubt he was the real ‘proprietor’. I gazed at him. I was still crying at the top of my voice as I slowly writhed away from him. I could not even walk; I walked on my knees just like a toddler as I calculated to what extent I was to the door. All I wanted for now was to escape the whole mess that I had got myself into.

He slowly came forward and sat on his desk. He sat right on the place he had cut my finger on. To be much more vivid, his buttock had sat on my blood. I pushed myself quickly towards the corner near the door. I now feared him for sure. He was not going to help me at any cost. My heart was trembling so hard such that I could feel it beating. I gazed at him. I felt so bad for having assisted him get out of the club. This is what it cost me. To start with, I was naked, I hadn’t eaten a thing, I was smelling my own feaces , I had been roughed up, I had almost been raped and lastly, I had lost a finger. All this because of helping someone who I thought was my to-be boyfriend get home safely.