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I joined Kenyatta University in 1980 to study education.
At the time, the university was a constituent college of the University of Nairobi. I was to graduate in 1983, but had to wait for one more year due to the 1982 coup attempt. Life was not easy at all.
Sometimes strange people pretending to be students would attend our lectures only to arrest politically charged lecturers at the end of the lesson.
Alamin Mazrui, Maina wa Kinyatti and Prof Edward Oyugi were some of the lecturers who suffered during this time. Others like Ngugi wa Thiong’o would flee after spotting people whose faces were not familiar.
In 1982, while in a literature class, we got news that Prof Micere Mugo had been ‘decitizenised’ and later got accepted by President Mugabe who gave him a Zimbabwean passport. Campus life was terrifying. Student leaders like Titus Adungosi were arrested and tortured by police.
Some of my most memorable lecturers included Professors Bethwel Ogot and the late William Ochieng.
Life in campus was interesting especially to us who came from the village. Our funny pronunciation of words would even scare away girls. So we worked hard to outshine those who thought we were backward.
Still, I dated in campus, but would lose all my girls to final year students and sometimes to outsiders who owned cars. But I was able to give them a run for their money, because my razor sharp intellect charmed many girls.
One funny incident is when a student who had been dumped decided to jump from Comtech Building and broke his limbs.
On our free time, we would go drinking and dancing at Garden Square aboard bus number five. We would dance to rhumba music with my friends Beatrice Masibo and Smokin Wanjala.
