Reading for my father; A short Story

My father was certain that I would get a government job immediately after graduating. And certain he was! You know that certainty that goes beyond reasonable doubt? Yes! That one. The reason why he was so certain is because, and I quote him, ‘You see this HELB form? This is a clear indication that the government has some plans for you. If ‘sirkal’ can be caring enough to give you a loan to help you finish your education, then it must give you a job to enable you pay the loan. I have worked with ‘sirkal’ for over thirty years now and I know how it operates, especially with loans.’’

It is for the same reasons that my father was at the center stage of my loan application. After I brought the HELB application form from Moi University, my father literally took over the application exercise. He was the one who walked with me, from one sub-chief to another. From one guarantor to another. He was there, instructing me what to write where. What font to use. What color of pen to use. He even took me to Kisumu and assisted me in opening a bank account with Equity bank. He did all these because he did not want anything to go wrong. And to ease the communication between us, he bought for me a phone.

It was my mother, according to the original plan, who was supposed to accompany me to Eldoret when I was reporting to campus for the first time but my father thwarted the plans the last minute and said he is the one who will go with me. We left Siaya town at 10 am. By mid-day, we were in Kisumu.We had to go to the bank to pay school fees. We left Kisumu at 2.30pm and arrived in Eldoret at 6pm.We put up for the night  at my aunt’s place in Elgon View estate. It was my very first time to see my aunt Peres and her husband and family. I learnt, that night, that my aunt’s husband was a professor, lecturing in the same campus I was headed to the next day. And so the next day, the exact reporting day, my father and I did not go to town to look for a matatu to take us to school. My aunt’s husband (by the way how do you call your aunt’s husband? Your uncle? I do not know these things well) drove us in his car to campus.

My father was with me in each and every registration process. From one registration desk to another, my father was there, right behind me. Making sure that everything was going smoothly. We reached a desk where they were registering various associations. It was my father who suggested for me to register for MUSSA (Moi University Siaya Students Association).As I was still contemplating whether to register or not, he removed Kshs 800 from his wallet and paid the registration fee.The fee was inclusive of a MUSSA T-shirt which I was given there and then. My father wanted me to wear the T-shirt there but that one I blatantly refused. The last desk was dealing with accommodation things. After presenting my bank-in slips, I was allocated room number 2 in Block A.

It was my father who asked for the location of this block A.We found the door to room number 2 open. Someone must have been there before us. A bag was there but the person was not there. It was my father who selected a bed for me. After he had helped me to check the conditions of reading table, window panes, sockets and bulbs, my father settled me down, closed the door and told me the following:

‘’My son. You know what have brought you here. You know your background. Did you see the car your uncle was driving? He worked hard in school and now he is a professor! Look at the house he is living in. Now look at me. I did not go to school. Do I even have a car? In future, would you like to bring your son to University using matatus the way I did or would you like to drive your son to University, the way your uncle drove us here? I know you and I know you will not disappoint me.’’

The second time my father came to Eldoret he traveled alone. He did not even put up for the night at my aunt’s place. He booked a room in a hotel and spent the night there, with a heavy heart. My father was in Eldoret to attend a Senate meeting to discuss my fate. I was among the four students who were accused of defrauding the University of close to Kshs 700,000.I traveled from Nairobi and reached Eldoret town at 6 am in the morning. I called my father and he informed me that he was already in school. I met my father in school at 7 am. We sat on one of the benches near the main mess and talked for a long time! My father believed what I told him.

Inside the meeting room, when my case was tabled, I stood up. My father, without being invited, came and stood beside me. I did my cross examination well, my head straight up only pausing for a moment to glance at my father. He seemed pleased with my oratory skills! I wished it was an inaugural lecture that I was giving! I wished I had discovered a new drug that makes people HIV resistant and now I was defending my thesis in front of a panel full of bald professors and my father was right there to cheer me on. But then again what do they say about wishes and horses? Or is it donkeys? Camels? At the end of the day, my father and I went separate ways. I went back to Nairobi and he went back to Siaya Kababa.

How do you call your father and explain to him that you have been suspended from University? It was a hard and embarrassing call that I had to make. The good thing is, my father understood and even suggested I go home and relax. I told him I wanted to remain in Nairobi and hustle for some money. I stayed in Nairobi for three months and then received a call from my aunt. I relocated and settled in Eldoret town. My aunt employed me to work for her as a cashier in what she termed as her ‘’woman’s shop.’’ And indeed the term ‘’Woman’s shop’’ befitted the description of the shop located in the second floor, Zion mall. I worked there for close to seven months, selling pantyliner, sanitary pads, fibroid supplements and anything that deals with women’s private parts! It was while I was working at my aunt’s shop that I registered to do a certificate course in Business management at Kenya Institute of Management (KIMS). When I was through with the course, I enrolled for driving lessons. It took me another three months to finish my driving course. When it was time for me to go back to school, I traveled to Siaya to see my family and get blessings from my father.

My father was glad that I was finally going back to school to finish my education. On the material day that I was supposed to report to school, he took me all the way to Bondo town on his motorbike. He repeated almost the same piece of advice he gave three years ago. I almost shed a tear because I thought I had already disappointed him. I cleared school, albeit with a lot of frustrations. I was impatient to graduate! I wanted time to move faster. I wanted to clear very first, get a good job and make my father happy!

One year after graduating, there was no government job coming by. My father waited with bated breath. He would call me and ask me impatient questions. He had all the rights to be impatient anyway!

‘’Kijana, where are you?’’

‘’I am in Nairobi.’’

‘’What are you doing in Nairobi?’’

‘’I am looking for a job.’’

‘’Are you sitting and waiting for a job to come from heaven? Have you been applying?’’

‘’Yes, of course. I have been applying. I have attended a few interviews!’’

‘’Okay. I wish you well.Na ukazane (Try harder), sawa?’’

‘’Sawa.Ero kamano.(Thank you)’’

Two years after graduating, there was no government job coming by. The calls from my father kept coming, kaka saa dhi.

‘’Kijana, where are you?’’

‘’I am in Nairobi.’’

‘’What are you doing in Nairobi?’’

‘’I am looking for a job.’’

‘’How do you feed yourself in Nairobi without a job?’’

‘’I sometimes get some little money from writing and performing poetry.’’

‘’What is poetry?’’

‘’Mmmmmh,, poetry is mmmmmmhhh…’’

‘’Omera.You need to come and try your luck here at home. Nairobi is not everything. You can also get a government job here in Siaya.With this devolution, many jobs are in the counties.’’

‘’But Nairobi is a county.’’

‘’Did I take you to school so that you can argue with me? Do this. Come home. I need your papers. Do you remember Samco? (Samco is my father’s uncle. He is a wealthy business man who runs almost the whole of Siaya town).He is a very good friend of the governor (Governor of Siaya County is called Cornell Rasanga).I talked with him and he told me to take your papers.He will fix you in Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), Siaya branch.’’

When I travelled home,I handed my papers to my father who submitted them to his uncle.We waited for a few weeks but nothing was forthcoming.I told my father that I wanted to travel back to Nairobi. If Samco responds, I will just travel back. My father was okay with the arrangement. That night, before I left for Nairobi, my father and I had a long discussion. I realized my father did not expect so much from me.He just wanted me to get a modest job. Not a job that earns me Kshs 200,000 per month. No! Just a government job that can pay me Kshs 35,000 per month. So long as I had job security and some pension waiting for me when I will retire. He gave examples of a bank teller (I hear bank tellers earn between Kshs 35,000-45,000 p.m) and a secondary school teacher. He was even ready to take me back to school to study education if my Bachelor of Science (Botany major) degree will continue to frustrate me that much!

‘’Now if I become a secondary school teacher, for example, when will I buy for you a car? When I retire?’’ I asked him.

He just laughed and wished me a safe journey. You see. My father wants the best for me. I too want the best for me.My father’s best is not my best.So sometimes it is important to sit with your father and have a real talk and understand each other. Back in Nairobi, it did not take two weeks before I got a job with a non-governmental organization in Sudan. I called my father and gave him the good news. He was happy and proud of me.I could feel it in the tone of his voice. I flew and stayed in Sudan for one year.

What present would you give your father? The first time I worked and got some little money, I bought my father a vest. That was a quit a joke. The job I was doing by then was also quit a joke as well. I was being paid Kshs 800 per week. That translated to Kshs 3,200 per month. I could not even buy myself a pair of shoes! When I came from Sudan I did not know what to give to my father. I just decided to buy for him a huge water tank for a start. He was pleased with it. But that was just a tip of the iceberg. I was planning to give him something bigger. Something more important to him. Something more befitting.Later, that night, I told him that I wanted to get married. This seemed to please him more! And so we spent the whole night chatting and drinking tea.(I really needed a beer that night but my father does not drink.)

‘’So this girl, where does she come from?’’

‘’Nyakach.A place called Kusa.’’

‘’I know Kusa.I know Kusa very well. When we used to live in Ahero,I used to travel to Sondu,Kendu-Bay and those sides of Migori.For how long have you known her?’’

‘’Four years.’’

‘’When is she coming here so that we see her?’’

‘’Next week!’’

(photo credits: www.pinterest.com)