Hilarious Ganesse claims rabbles wanted to kill him

One of the first things we were taught on arrival was how to answer to a rabble call. Rabble calls were only made by house prefects and if we heard any of them shout “rabble” we were supposed to ran as fast as possible to where they were. Sometimes they would just scream “one rabble” and the first person who got there would be sent on whatever errand the sixth former house prefect wanted accomplished. This could be polishing his shoes, making him tea or running to another house several kilometres away (like Lugard or Speke) to get him some music cassette.

I soon realized to my great shock that rabble was an English word and even had a meaning.

rab•ble
Pronunciation: \ra-bəl\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English rabel pack of animals
Date: 14th century
1 : a disorganized or confused collection of things
2 a : a disorganized or disorderly crowd of people : mob b : the lowest class of people.
So we were rabble just because we were first formers. And the second formers too. Our only crime was being too low in the school hierarchy.
Sometimes a prefect would notice that you were not running fast enough and deliberately hanging back so that somebody else would get there first. In this case you would get punished seriously, usually some serious beating (I will come to that later). In the first few weeks many second formers got punished for reacting too slowly to a rabble call, probably expecting first formers to get there first.

And so when somebody shouted rabble nobody wanted to get there last and suffer some serious repercussions.

Now there was this house prefect called Ganesse (I can’t quite remember how to spell his name) who was a real clown. I think he was Italian and the only white man in Kirk house. One day he made a rabble call and then started running away. You can imagine 30 rabbles running after him at full speed and Ganesse looking terrified like he was running for his life. He headed straight to the house prefects common room where other prefects were seated. Out of breath he announced to them that rabbles had gone on strike and had run after him to beat him up. Some of us found the whole incident very funny until we started receiving some very hard ngotos from E.O. (Eric Ayodo) as punishment for “trying to kill a sixth former just because he was a mzungu.”

Ganesse was a devastating wing forward for Mean Maroon who tackled hard and was a member of the legendary 1977 Lenana School side that won the Eric Shirley shield (the only school side to ever lift the trophy). The Eric Shirley shield is for club second 15s which was entered by Lenana. Eric Ayodo too was a key member of that Lenana rugby team that made history. Ayodo played second centre like nobody else I have ever seen. His side steps were very emphatic (like he would literally jump high in the air to change direction). But oh my, were they effective? But even more effective were his tackles. He always crash tackled. Always. That meant hitting the opponent head on from the front and low on the thighs. Ouch!! The effect was that few second centres enjoyed playing against him. Then his kick for touch was that of a full back rather than a second centre. High spinning torpedoes that gained enormous ground from deep in the 22. In 1978 Lenana School was defending its’ Eric Shirley Shield title and although they didn’t retain it, they still defeated quite a number of strong club sides but I shall talk more about that team in later posts.

Post 1: What this blog is all about
Post 2: I was laughed at on my first day in Lenana
Post 3: Eric Ayodo's side step
Post 4: Lenana Mean Maroon 1st XV 1978