Photographs Mean Maroon 1979

 Photograph courtesy Max Muniafu
Caption for top photograph;  Lenana 7s Team. 1979. RFUEA WINNERS. SITTING: Jack Mtula; Jimi James Muchiri; Dickson Mogere; Dave Madara; Kamau. STANDING: Dan Kimoro; Max Muniafu; Douglas Wekhomba; Maddox Maurice Itebete.

Caption to second photograph; Lenana 15s Team. 1979. SITTING (?); Dan Kimoro; James Muchiri; Dickson Mogere; Dave Madara; Jack Mtula; Kamau. STANDING: Nahashon Otieno; Abel Okaka; John Ogola; Dave Muraya; Andy Mwenesi; Max Muniafu; Douglas Wekhomba; Maurice Itebete; Yobera; David Bukusi; Stake Ondiek

Mean Maroon rugby 1979

"Steak" Ondiek (in a white shirt and holding a glass) in a recent photo taken during the Las Vegas sevens in 2011. On the extreme right is another Lenana legend who joined the school after "Steak" had left, Martin Ndenda.

In 79 the bulk of the ’78 and highly successful ’77 rugby team had departed. Still new stars emerged to take their places. I am just amazed at the endless belt of rugby talent that Lenana has been able to sustain whatever the circumstances. Some of the new faces who were very visible that year included Jimmy James Muchiri of Mumia (a fly half and amazing goal kicker from any angle) and Max Muniafu (a ferocious forward) who was borrowed by CF from Mumia when he returned in 5th Form.

Unfortunately in Kirk we were not as well represented as we had been the previous year. In fact the only guy I seem to recall playing on that team was a guy called Otieno. I remember an interesting tale involving him. In those days we were still playing in the Eric Shirley Shield and so Mean Maroon would sometimes play as many as two or even three games in one week. Otieno (who was a winger) got injured but was still determined to play in the next game two days later. And so on match day I saw him hobbling up and down the Kirk corridor. Looking at him I thought he was crazy to even think of playing in that condition. But he just kept at it determined to warm up his leg injury. Later I saw him in the Maroon kit headed to Ridge 1, still limping a little. With lots of apprehension I headed there to watch the game. I don’t remember who we were playing but amazingly he did okay. Dick Mogere who was head of school was also the captain of that side. The guy’s passion for rugby was unmistakable.

That year Mean Maroon had a serious problem in the full back position. Jimmy Owino (a member of the legendary Eric Shirley winning side of 77 and HOH Speke) had departed the previous year. Actually the crisis developed when Ramoya of Mitchell was injured after only a game or two. That year I played my rugby for senior Colts and “Stake” Ondiek ( a third former) would sometimes appear at our training sessions jokingly asking us to ensure that we kept a place in the team for him. He was a full back just like me but used to train with the 1st XV. Small but heavily built he ended up being Ramoya’s replacement. At first I must admit I was skeptical but after watching him play in just one game, I was amazed. His positioning and ability to read the oppositions’ next move was just out of this world. For instance the opposing fly half would kick for touch deep into our half and amazingly Ondiek would be there catching the ball before it even bounced. His tackling was a joy to watch—very low, very clinical. And of course he would kick for touch too.

However Lenana being Lenana the captain Mogere seemed to be under a lot of pressure not to play a guy who had been a rabble just the other day. Luckily he was a guy who believed in merit above the school’s strict seniority system unlike other Mean Maroon skippers in later years. He would even toss fifth and fourth formers out of the school bus in favour of rabbles who played rugby for a school team when we were going out to watch an international game at Quins. Ondiek deserved the big break and in danger of sounding boring and repetitious I shall say once again what I have said in numerous other threads here on Facebook. Stake Ondiek is one of the greatest Full backs Lenana has ever produced and it is a great pity that he did not stay in Kenya long enough to play club and international rugby because more people would have been able to see what all the fuss I have been making here is all about.

On a personal level I was rapidly developing my own game for Kirk and the school senior Colts team where we demolished most of the opposition we came across.

Foxy Kimani

Earlier in first form we had had a first former called Jeneby who couldn’t survive the bullying and left after only a few weeks. In second form he was replaced by a guy called Kimani. We nicknamed him foxy. A tall slim guy who wore specs.

Epileptic fits are quite something to behold especially if you have never come across them before. Foxy started having them quite regularly shortly after he arrived only that they appeared to be something more than just the ordinary. This may have been proved after Judas Memba Muriuki (who was still a Catholic then before he became a practicing Rastafarian in later years) suggested that we place a Bible under his pillow. It actually worked. He would never get the fits when the Bible was there and when he had one they would subside instantly the moment the Bible was produced. It is very hard to explain, I am simply stating the facts here. I remember that one day Foxy himself told us that the problem started after he fell off the back of a moving pick up and hit his head against something.

What made the situation even more explosive was the fact that a number of people thought that the poor guy was simply faking it, including the bullies. One episode involving the Mitchell house master Mr Ralfs comes to mind. He angrily stormed into the dorm one morning after Foxy had missed breakfast and demanded to know what he thought he was up to. I don’t quite remember how it all ended but I doubt whether he really believed that the guy had a problem that was serious enough to warrant his skipping breakfast.

When he was okay Foxy was a jovial guy who was a lot of fun to be around. One of those guys who was everybody’s friend, even the bullies. I wonder where he is now and what happened to him over the years.

1979 and second form was also the year that two people who became my closest friends arrived. Alfred Odindo came in fifth form and Maina Kinguru joined first form. Although he was several years ahead of me, we shared many things in common with Odindo. I also marveled at the way his sharp witty mind dissected and analyzed situations. I recently came across him right here in Facebook after all these decades and from the exchanges we have had he has not changed one bit and it is so hard to imagine as that grey haired university professor he was quick to describe himself as. Golly where did the years go?

Although many people saw Maina Kinguru only as a rabble his intellect was extra-ordinary. I have never met anybody who was so much into Greek Mythology. The 3 of us were of course crazy about theatre. Odindo wrote a splendid house play and I was one of the first people to read the script and even suggested a title that he liked and ended up using. “Daddy won’t be coming home for dinner” was the title. It was the moving tale of a child who is outraged when nobody appears to take action against the known killer of his dad and opts to do something drastic to avenge the death. It did not sweep any awards in the annual house plays like Angawa’s play had done the previous year for Kirk but in the schools festival the following year we missed the finals by a whisker. Kingori of Lugard was exceptional playing the kid. And so was Mirikau of Speke as the murderer. Mirikau was a very gifted actor because he somehow managed to inject a little humour into the character and amazingly made a very evil man more than a little lovable.

I surprised even myself because although I was only a second former I was already beginning to enjoy myself at Lenana even as I got to learn so much from others in activities like drama—more so because I already knew that I wanted to become a writer after school.

Gerald Walker adds; Foxy died in a road accident heading to Mombasa (not Limuru), in 1984, I know because we were supposed to go together but I travelled to the UK for a short holiday; I found out the day I got back that he had been involved in a car accident – someone from his home had left a message for me - he was at Aga Khan, went immediately to the hospital, and straight to the ward since I had the details, but didn’t see him. The duty nurse asked me who I was looking, when I gave her the name, she said to me ‘he has left’ and she looked away, I was puzzled for a moment because the message given to me was very clear - unless then injuries sustained were not that serious then, so perhaps he’d been discharged….she hesitated for a few moments then clarified that he had just died about an hour before I arrived. Simon Kimani was buried at his father’s home in Kiambu.

Girls and bowel movements

Letters would usually be distributed around lunch time collected from Blue man up school. It was a time to catch up with news from the outside world and from home for some of us. Some lucky second formers were already receiving love letters but I certainly wasn’t among them.

Actually I frequently received snail mail from just one person—the woman who was taking care of my kid bro, birthed by my late mother on her death bed. I looked forward to the letters because I was anxious to learn how he was getting on. But I also dreaded them because there was always the chance that somebody would take a closer look at the handwriting and realize that it was penned by somebody who had hardly completed primary school. Naturally they wouldn’t know the story and I could only imagine all kinds of cruel jokes being crafted. Her letters were always brief and she would write in Swahili but I was always grateful for them and delighted to know the progress being made by the toddler and my other siblings whom I felt extremely responsible for being a first born and also because of our circumstances of being without a mother. Many times I would smile while reading the letters, or get extremely sentimental. Just the kind of things that would give the wrong impression to anybody carefully observing me because they were precisely the kind of reactions one would have reading a love letter from some girl. I am grateful that my fears were never realized.

I was one of the few second formers who slept in the third form dorm and most of them regularly received those valued letters from some lass. However some prominent characters whom I shall not expose did not and so they created this refrain that they would always repeat to pour cold water on the romantic exploits of others. “Yes, the girl was very cute and very sexy but even as you read their letters the fact was that she was human and subject to regular bowel movements. The whole idea was to focus on that which was only natural. It was hilarious the way they said it but I fear some characters took it to heart and avoided the girls even more.

1979 and those who wanted to bully

The year would start with the very first assembly in the school hall where the big event was the announcement of the Head of school. This was a big event in many ways including the fact that it destroyed lives, caused others to go into hibernation etc. depending on this one single announcement. Mogere of CF was announced Head of School. A big guy with a small voice.

Our head of house this year was George Osure. A tall big guy who couldn’t be beaten in either the 100 metres or 200 metres.

As second formers we were happy to see some characters had departed from Lenana for good. Our lives would only get better.

There was of course the endless wait for first formers to arrive and take over most of the load we were still carrying as the only rabbles around.

When they finally arrived towards the end of January, the true colours of many of us came out. I detested bullying with all my heart and had no intention of meting out any of the treatment I had received on the first formers. Some of my housemates in second form did not agree and just couldn’t wait to get a little revenge for the hell they had gone through in first form. I found this odd because we had spent hours with some of them discussing how we would never involve ourselves in the crude, barbaric acts of bullying. Now some of them were really excited about the prospect of pushing around and hitting first formers.

When they arrived we were able to see for the first time just how confused we must have looked on our fist day in school the previous year.