Tricky Third Form And What Happened in 1980

Third form was a very tricky year in those days. You suddenly found that you were no longer a rabble and with plenty of time in your hands that you never used to have and with no major national exam in the horizon. Little wonder that the third form dorm was the place with the loudest laughter in the house.  It was the form where previously ardent and regular CU (Christian Union) members abandoned the faith that kept them going through the rabble years in droves. It is the year when most people would lose it in many ways. Some took to serious drinking, others joined the herbalist society (bhang smokers).

Head of School in 1980 was Andy Mwenesi. One of the most powerful head boys in all my six years at Lenana as is evidenced by what I will say here later. Andy was a surprise choice given that even in those days he was an extremely popular guy who liked to have fun. I believe that this was the first year when the headmaster Ndau Kanyi had a very influential hand in deciding who the head boy would be having fully settled in with his first full year in 1979. Andy was a great rugby player but also knew how to carry authority and so brought much respect to the office of head boy. He opted not to have a head of house and so doubled up as both head of Mumia and head boy uynlike his immediate predecessor Mogere.

Andy wrote the words of the school anthem which was unveiled that year and used for many years after that (to date I believe).

Head of Kirk that year was Aliker considered a cool guy and an accomplished lady’s man. He was the kind of head of house you were proud to have.

I dived head-long into house activities and even made an effort to fill in where we were thin as a house. For instance cross country was an activity that most avoided and so our house cross country team was always made up of mostly first and second formers. I voluntarily joined the house cross country team and encouraged the juniors to push themselves and better our scores against other houses. We didn’t always do well but we kept the Kirk flag flying. It was therefore hardly a surprise when I earned my full Kirk house colours early that year.

But this was also the year when I made a grave error that I regretted for many years after that. One day during prep time we were given pieces of paper and told to list down the activities we participated in both at house and school level. I was bubbling with raw ambition and so after filling the paper with the many activities I was already involved in, I was inspired to add my future ambitions. I assumed that what we were filling out would be confidential and so I had nothing to worry about. I was wrong. Word got out about my many listed ambitions and suddenly I found myself with many enemies and I also became the subject of frequent jokes earning nick names like “head of school.” Still I at least learnt a valuable lesson; In a competitive situation nobody likes overly ambitious people.

1979 And The Injury That Killed My Soccer Dreams

1979 ended in a sensational but also extremely painful way for me. Up to this point I still considered soccer to be my only serious sport, despite all the rapid progress I had already made in rugby. I can still remember that lunch time very early in third term when the 1st XI list went up and my name was on it to start at No 4. That year we played a 4-3-3 formation with overlapping full backs on the flanks (I was the one playing that role on the right). Rugby master Mr Opiyo (who also taught history) was a great tactician and for a school team to be playing such a formation then was quite something. Those who understand soccer will know that it is a formation that requires a lot of discipline and maturity from players, especially from the overlapping full backs.

I was still a rabble then and serving on our table that week but the maroon kit arrived. I came from clearing the table after lunch to find it placed on my bed in the third form dorm where I slept. It was then that I really knew that it was for real.

It was a tough game against Upper Hill at home on Sterlings. I remember a sixth former called Njonjo congratulated me for making the team, just before we went in for lunch. That was really something coming from a house prefect.

Naturally I was very nervous at the start of the game but fortunately it was not too difficult to settle especially playing right next to Nesbitt Wesonga (the only other Kirk person on that team) who was sweeper at Number 5. That team was made up of mostly third formers and credit goes to captain Jack Mtula (head of Thomson that year) who didn’t care for anything but fielding the best talent available at Lenana that year. There was the twin attacking force on that team that was a real joy to watch of Kiragu and Oloo both from Thomson house and between the posts in goal was legendary rugby player George Steak Ondiek also from Thomson. All were third formers.

I played the game of my life causing Upper Hill plenty of problems on that right flank but we were losing 3-1 and the second half had just started when some very rough deliberate play by an Upper hill player no doubt very experienced at causing serious injury brought me down with excruciating pain. Essentially he placed his heavy studs on my ankle at the point of contact just as I was clearing the ball. To this day I believe it was all very deliberate with the clear intention of getting me off the pitch. And it worked. The pain was nothing like I had ever experienced before in my life and I was sure that I had broken something. Itebete (a sixth former) replaced me. In retrospect the replacement could not have come at a better time for tactical reasons. Itebete had been watching the game from the side lines and when he came in he literally abandoned the right back position and mostly played very deep in midfield and attack on the right flank which completely destabilized Upper Hill and helped produce 3 quick sensational goals. Final score 4-3 in favor of Lenana. Steve Alai of James had an unforgettable game scoring twice.

I spent 3 days in the school sanatorium barely able to put any weight on my right ankle. There was no X-ray machine in the san but the matron there (I forget her name) carefully examined my injury and declared that I had not broken anything. I found it hard to believe because even the pain killers she gave hardly seemed to have any effect on the pain. In the end she was proved right because I recovered enough to go back to Kirk.

Tragically that injury killed all my dreams for a serious soccer career. Back in my primary school days I had been told by several people that it was only a matter of time before I donned national colours for Harambee stars, now the injury meant that that was never to be. From then on I was destined to be only a shadow of what I used to be on the soccer pitch. I recovered around the middle of the term and struggled but never regained my position in the first XI that year. Pretty face did not lose the opportunity to jeer with glee. He met me once near the quadrangle where the team list used to be put up. “You thought you would be a permanent member of the 1st XI huh?” He accompanied it with that sarcastic laugh that I can still hear very clearly.

Meanwhile the injury never quite healed and even today kicking a soccer ball hard will bring some pain in my right ankle. I improvised as best as I could and developed a way to kick the ball with my outer foot so that there was less pain from the injury. The results in soccer were mixed but in rugby it produced a kick for touch that people are still talking about 30 years later. So at least there was something good that came out of it.

It was probably the wrong time to get such an injury because I sometimes think that if it was today it would have been treated and I would have recovered fully. But them maybe I would not have had such an eventful rugby career. Which confirms to me once again that everything ( no matter how tragic) happens for a reason.

As usual the year closed with house suppers that year and I got to taste a tiny piece of turkey and two roast potatoes unlike the previous year when all I had seen were a few miserable peas on my plate. Even with the almost ever- present pain in my ankle I was elated as I reflected on 1979. My rabble days were over and in 1980 I would be a third former. I had not only survived but had also managed to chalk up a few achievements along the way despite being a rabble in one of the worst houses to be one. The future looked tremendously bright as 1980 beckoned.

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.