Category: Non-fiction
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The Makings of a Man-Child
Assume you’re a man. A broke, hustling man. Hustling because you’re unemployed and your mother told you that you had to do something with your life, not just steal your father’s cigarettes and sit around. You’re a Jack of all Trades, but nothing ever seems to stick. You’ve been fired twice, once because of being…
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Here We Go Again…
The more ‘new years’ I experience, the more familiar they all feel. Of course every year brings its own share of novelty and new experiences, but as the years pile up, I can’t help but feel as if I’ve been here before, presented with the same opportunities of chasing new versions of myself. And to…
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When the Mirror Lies
Part of the human condition is failing to live up to the beliefs and standards we hold close to our hearts. We spend years building avatars and castles of what we should be like, or what our lives should be like such that our failure to embody a certain mode of being or lifestyle causes…
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Till Debts Do Us Part…
I’m at the age where any conversation I have with my older relatives has to somehow find its way to my marital status. They don’t like the fact that according to the Kenyan Government, I’m single. My grandmother one day took me by my hand to her chicken coop, pointed at one of the voluptuous…
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To More Stories!
It’s a little absurd for me, even to this day, that when someone asks me what I do for a living, my answer isn’t that I’m an Economist. Seems it doesn’t really matter that I spent 5 years drawing graphs and studying why Ksh.1000 could pay your rent and dowry 30 years ago but it…
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Who Do They Say you Are?
One of the most regurgitated pieces of advice is,’ it doesn’t matter what other people think of you, the only thing that matters is what you think of yourself.’ This statement alone has sold out books and arenas as people seek out deeper truths beyond what they already know. Many yearn for the day they’ll…
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Paradise Lost
A good life is the goal, ultimately. That you’ll get to a certain point in your life, a checkpoint of some sort, look back and hopefully be proud of how everything turned out. But what kind of life would we consider as good? What parameters do we use to measure this elusive sense of pride…
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Born to Tell
I’ve always thought I know who I am, and I do to some extent. But I’ve also put myself in situations I’d rather not be in, and in such moments, doubt sips in and I almost cannot recognize my reflection in the mirror. My mum says she named me after a Pastor she used to…
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Where Do You Stand?
Politicians are being friendly again. They are as we are; walking amongst us, eating at local vibandas and high fiving every mama mboga they can lay their hands on. It’s like we’re at the club and we, the voters, are the girl every man at the club wants. Only that we tend to make the…
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It’s a ‘You’ Affair
Do you ever set your alarm, vow to wake up early and start that project you’ve been stalling for 6 months just to snooze it for the millionth time in a row? And for the millionth time, you almost convince yourself that you’re not really cut for this, that you were not meant to pursue…
Bar-a-zani 