My same year housemates

When you live with somebody in the same house in a school for 6 years or 4 years you are bound to get to know them pretty well. The truth is that whether you like it or not they shape you into who you end up becoming. I have to be grateful to the guys responsible for who I am because despite everything I am proud of the person I have become.

Aliker: In the early days he would often break into song to express his feelings. Coming in from a rather tough final exam paper in fourth form he sang “I did my best but I guess my best wasn’t good enough…” Most will remember the famous song where those lyrics came from but Aliker’s best was of course more than good enough because he easily returned to fifth form. Kirk lost big when he had to leave for the UK late in fifth form before we got to sixth. Shared our love for rugby in common and he was a key member of the legendary ’82 side but didn’t appear in the photo because he had already left.

Gatumbi (RIP): Chris was a great guy. Very sensitive and so you had to understand him to get along with him. He gave me a lift in his motorbike all the way to Lenana when we sneaked back to school to check our O-level results. It was good news for both of us.

Busolo: I never told anybody this but he always reminded me of my late mother because he was so typical lunje. Had his own very memorable sense of cynical humour.

Gichira: The cross country king. I was determined to be an all rounder and was a member of the house cross country team for a number of years. And so I tried several times to beat him. I never managed. The philosopher is how I remember him best and one hilarious article he penned meant for the school magazine describing the futility of what boys endeavored to do while at Lenana is still on my mind. What I liked best about his cynism was that it always brought things back into clear perspective

Mbugua: Part of the 82 rugby squad and appears on the photo. A lady’s man when we went out for debates at chox, boma etc. He always seemed to lazily and effortlessly make it to the top 5 of any class he was in right from first form.

Wangai (RIP): We were best of friends most of the time. He loved Kirk and was a work horse around the house and that is why when I stepped down as head of house in ’83 and the headmaster asked me to name a suitable replacement, his was the first name that came to mind. Never mind the drama that followed when house master “Pee” Odhiambo decided to come up with his own candidate to “show me who was boss.” Although my candidate prevailed, at the end of it all it only served to seriously damage my already precarious relationship with Pee’s candidate who to this day must feel that I hated him and that my decision was personal.

Githere: Loved to crack jokes and had the most interesting stories after school holidays. Those tales mostly held us all spellbound and were really something. They made some of us envy him and his ability to get into the kind of situations that every red-blooded school boy can only dream about.

Muriuki: Bruce Lee and Bob Marley were his heroes. Jude introduced me to Marley’s kind of reggae which I still can’t do without to this day; Bad Card, Redemption Song, One Love, Three Little Birds etc are some of the great songs I still enjoy to this day that remind me of him. I of course forgave him for laughing at me on the very first day when I put a knife into my mouth whilst struggling with that spaghetti stuff.

Ngovi: This is the man who gave me all my nicknames. Started out very early in first form by writing at the back of my rack sack (without my knowledge or consent) the words; “Man of Baha” when I wasn’t sure that it referred to a person’s sexual inclination. Caused a lot of laughter one day when a fourth former asked me if I knew what it meant and I told them that it was somebody who was behind the times. Jaha given to me in conjunction with Aliker, stuck. Slade as we called him was a stickler for the strict Lenana hierarchy system. One incident in 6th when I was about to lose the election for soccer captain to a junior comes to mind. I had already been captain the previous year when I was in 5th and some sixth formers in the team were out to ensure that I was not re-elected. Slade simply stared them down and told them in no uncertain terms to come back to their senses.

Ngoloma
This guy was brave and confronted sixth form prefects on the first day of school refusing to wear the shoes they had so kindly borrowed for him instead of the sports shoes he wanted to go up-school with which would have landed him in serious trouble with school prefects. Never really fitted into the Lenana system until he left in 4th never to return or be seen again. I wonder what became of him, maybe Bwana Facebook will help solve that mystery one of these fine days.

Ochieng
Some bookworm. I remember him by his unique ears. Hated all sports with a passion but was always very much at home in a Chem or physics lab where people like me were usually more than a little lost.

Okero
Another legendary Kirk bookworm, the difference being that George was much more “human” and social with the rest of us. His big passion was French. We would sit in the class as he and the French teacher would have a discussion back and forth as the rest of us would be left marveling having no idea what they were talking about.

Gikandi
Stone had a very difficult time fitting into Lenana in the early days but in the end has proved that he is Lenana “damu” if his current activity in reviving the school is anything to go by. I love this guy because he has never been a pretender unlike so many Changerians and he has never changed all these years. The kind of man I would trust to give my hand to when on the edge of cliff and be sure that he would never push me instead.