Jane agreed to stay at home for a few days and then she would go back to Nairobi, look for
work and raise her children from home. Her father, Mzee[1] Ndorongo, told her of the house
he had in the Nairobi Mukuru Kwa Reuben slum where she could go and maybe use the
house as a place to stay as she worked or found a place to work. The man she had met
during a commotion with a Makanga at the matatu terminal, Marobo, was so much in her
head that she could not buy into her dad's idea. So she tried her best to accept whatever
Ndorongo was saying while at home to avoid any bad blood between them but she knew she
would be the one to make the decision on where she'd go.
Her brother Mwaura didn't like the fact that Jane would bring up her children from home
while away,he was not happy that his sister will be working in town while his mother and
sisters would accommodate her children. that pissed him off. He thought Jane would feel
comfortable when her children were safe and that if she became careless with her life and if
she died her children would be a big burden to everyone especially their mother. So he
strongly opposed the idea of Jane leaving the children at home with parents. She started
having the bad feeling of rejection again even after giving her siblings everything she had in
her pocket. Her home was poverty stricken; good food was only during a ceremony or when
someone came from the outside or city. That would be Jane herself, their already married
sister or their father. Jane's children being at their home meant other stomachs and food
quantity for the already existing hungry siblings would not change, so there was tension
between them as no one was asking her directly about the stay.
Come what may, she had to leave her children at home and whoever among the siblings that
felt Kiwaru[2] had to prepare to swallow it as her dad had her hand this time and would
support her. "Father had fought for his family back in the day" Jane said, "when his father
Guka[3] was alive, they were three, two brothers and a younger sister after whom I am
named, and she died." She continued "dad's brother, who was a white-settler's cook, could
share whatever would have been their inheritance and they both raised some money to get
the title-deed of what was theirs. They both contributed Ksh.60 to make Ksh.120 which was
very large amount of money that time. The piece of land was a couple of acres and they all
had families when his brother passed away in the early 80's. Dad hadn't followed up the
papers and this was the time ignorance cost him his ancestral inheritance". She always kept
the story and could share it with her siblings as her father narrated it to her. This was the
injustice that had left her family in poverty and meant they did not have enough land to till.
Jane was convinced that her father had tried to make life work for his children and that it was
the evil of the world and mate mbaya ya watu [4] caused them so much trouble. She was
ready and prepared to go to Nairobi so that she could find life. A life so she could lead her
children to a better future, and also for the family at large. Her son had already started going
to school while the other was always left to stay with granny who could go to the Shamba[5].
Whenever she bent over to the ground on her digging and planting, Njoki would not wake up
from shamba which would take several hours. The little child's naughty mistakes of playing
with water and throwing stones at birds would interrupt her at least to rest and overlook him.
On her way back to Nairobery[6], Jane went straight to Marobo's place. There were only two
ways of finding anyone in town or anywhere in the country: firstly people used the telephone
1