Day parent to reformed hooligan rewarded me with free lunch token

I have taken advantage of the December holiday to sort out some long standing issues at Mwalimu National Sacco. It was on one such visit that I met Baba Stevo, a former parent at Meta meta.

“Mwalimu!” I heard someone shout as I made to cross Moi Avenue towards the National archives. Many heads turned. As I looked about to see who was calling, a firm hand grabbed me from behind. I turned to see Baba Stevo, quite excited to see me.

The former parent had come to Meta Meta so many times, on account of his son’s misdeeds, that the running joke was to give him uniform and a desk to sit beside his son in class.

“How have you been Baba stevo,” I asked as we shook hands. “Very well Mwalimu, God has been good.” At the mention of God being good, I wondered what he was thanking God for. On a number of occasions when he was mad at his son, he had wondered why Stevo couldn’t just drop dead and spare him the embarrassment of having to come to Meta Meta every other day.

“I must buy you a cup of tea Mwalimu or lunch,” he said while refusing to let go of my hand. I had little choice but to oblige. “God will bless you and your colleagues at Meta Meta for helping Stevo. He is now a responsible citizen with a family,” he said as we entered a restaurant along Aga Khan Walk.

As soon as we placed our orders, my mind flashed back to the various encounters Meta Meta had with Stevo. The boy would always find a way of sneaking out of the school even after the parents had volunteered to buy a roll of barbed wire to fortify the fence.

A prime suspect, whenever students’ lockers were broken into and text books stolen, he once led us to a hawker in Nairobi’s Eastleigh where we found books enough to fill an entire library shelf bearing Meta meta’s ‘not for sale’ rubber stamp!

The most memorable incident was however when Stevo with others led the students in a fight against another school after losing a soccer match. The fight saw the school bus Okonkwo had ‘borrowed’ from a neighbouring Girls’ School limp back to Meta meta without a single headlight.

The windscreen had also been shattered. Okonkwo had received a call from the principal of the other school informing him that his students had exported their riotous behaviour to his school and had caused extensive damage. With a vivid description of the ring leaders, Stevo with his Balotelli hairstyle stood out.

Okonkwo rushed to school and summoned the teachers who reside on the compound. Schola who goes to bed early had come out wearing a brown stocking on her head. It had some holes. Vasco Da Gama being on duty was summoned from JJ’s at the local shopping centre.

He had just begun attacking the Goat’s engine (read head) he had booked earlier in the day. Having gotten names of the ring leaders from the form ones, we herded them to Okonkwo’s office. The principal was hopping mad.

“You, he said pointing at stevo and his group, did your parents bring you here to engage in football hooliganism or to learn?” Am calling them now to come and pick you so that you can go and break glasses at your homes, he thundered and dug into his coat pocket for his cell phone.

As he began dialing, a puzzled look crossed his face. It was then that he realised that in the rush to get to Meta Meta, he had carried his TV’s remote control thinking that it was his cell phone! Vasco Da Gama saved the situation by calling the boys’ parents using his.

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