Nine Faces Of Kenya by Elspeth Huxley

Author:Elspeth Huxley [Huxley, Elspeth]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781446484043
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2011-06-30T04:00:00+00:00

Meja Mwangi Incident in the Park. From An Anthology of East African Short Stories, ed. Valerie Kibera.

1987

Foreigners who know Kenya tend to like it. Compared to most of its neighbours, they say, Kenya is paradise. It is pragmatic, generally efficient, and a pleasant place to visit. I arrived at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi after leaving the Organization of African Unity summit in Addis Ababa. A policeman tried to hustle a handout, but he was polite and his uniform was clean. He scurried away when I suggested that importuning the public was bad form.

At the summit, Kenya had joined the chorus in demanding total isolation of South Africa. But I was back to reality. A lilting voice on the public-address system announced, “Olympic Airways for Johannesburg is boarding at gate number four.”

In the comfortable hotels, lavish restaurants, and immaculate game parks, life can approach the idyllic. I visited a friend in the Ngong Hills, and hiked around the neighbourhood. Gardens were lush and the unmistakable African air was soft and peaceful. Night fell, and I flicked on what I thought was the light. A bloodcurdling howl arose, sending every neighbour within earshot leaping for his elephant gun. I had turned on the burglar-bandit-Mau Mau alarm.

Kenya grapples with its identity with a blend of pain and panache that only Africa can manage. It is a modern state, with the trappings of high technology. But in 1987 the cold chamber at Nairobi’s morgue held a man locked in an ancient tribal conflict. Silvano Melea Otieno, a highly respected Kenyan lawyer, died of a heart attack in Nairobi. He was a Luo. His wife is an aristocratic descendant of Kikuyu chiefs. When she ordered the body buried in family ground in the Ngong Hills, Otieno’s family objected bitterly. The body had to be buried in Luo territory, where survivors could make sacrifices. Luos did not leave their dead to wander alone in the bush.

The case went to the high court. Each day, Luos in traditional dress sobbed and danced outside the courtroom. Each evening, an anchorman in coat and tie reported the news on national television.

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