This time next week, the greatest show on earth will be launched in London, often hailed as one of the best cities in the world. It’s a city often overcast with grey clouds and endless bleakness. According to popular sage, the reason the Brits colonised other lands was mainly to escape their horrible weather.

But next week will be different. London is in the thick of the season’s summer, and Londoners are streaming out, like animals out of hibernation, to bask in the heat while it lasts.

The Brits enjoyed their place in the sun, as they did in Kenya until they were driven out some 50 years ago.

They named their settlements the White Highlands and, at the height of their occupation, about 1,000 Europeans, most of them of British extraction, held eight million acres of Kenya’s most arable lands.

GREAT KENYANS

It is this kind of history that the British don’t like being reminded as it reaffirms their unchecked greed was probably the genesis of the kleptocracy we see parodied in most of Africa.

Let’s steer clear of that past and focus on the present. The Olympics is at hand, and in the spirit of sportsmanship, let us hail the great Kenyans who are optimistic that our national anthem will be heard, not once, or twice, but many times, as they step up to the podium to receive their gold medals.

On that score, I have no doubt David Rudisha, Vivian Cheruiyot and Ezekiel Kemboi, among others, will make us proud.

But I want to hail other Kenyans who are making us proud, also in London, in a different kind of race.

Paulo Muoka Nzili, Wambugu wa Nyingi and Jane Muthoni Mara are Mau Mau veterans in their 70s and 80s. They are in London to extract an apology and compensation for the cruel treatment meted out on them during the liberation war.

The cruelty

The lawyer for the British Government, Guy Mansfield, QC, told the three elderly men and woman he did “not want to dispute the fact that terrible things happened to you,” the first official acknowledgement from our former colonial master.

Still, Mansfield argued, this happened such a long time ago, so it would be difficult to prosecute the cases. That may well be so, but the scars from those injuries are still evident.

Nzili, 86, says he was held in a detention camp in Embakasi. He remembers how he was stripped and chained before some colonial administrator descended on him with large pliers and castrated him.

That may have happened in 1959, but the wound remains. He has never been with a woman since, and cannot sire children.

Every other veterans have equally compelling testimony of the cruelty suffered at the hands of the British who, for the most part of their history, masquerade as a most civilised society.

Their Government has tried all manner of schemes to delay and derail the process, something that defence lawyers say is aimed at ensuring the claimants die empty-handed. A fourth claimant, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, has died since the case began in 2009.

This week, South African human rights icon Desmond Tutu blasted UK’s delaying tactics as “strongly out of step with many other modern democracies that have been faced with historic allegations of abusive conduct.”

The three Mau Mau veterans may not sprint at the Olympics, but their slow, measured steps in their lifelong race for justice is an affirmation that stoic perseverance for what is just, always, always triumphs.

 

Squeezing water out of empty bottles at Uchumi supermarket

I’m an ardent supporter of Uchumi Supermarket chain, as I was in those days the firm was in the red – and I’m not talking about the colour in their corporate branding.

The supermarket chain is generally a fine place to shop, as I hoped to last weekend, when I visited their branch in Westland’s Sarit Centre. Among the things that I wanted to pick were bottles of water – Grange Park and Maisha. I dutifully presented the empty bottles and received credit notes. As I concluded the shopping, I went about looking for the water. I easily found Grange Park, but not Maisha brand.

I reported this to the cashier when I got to the till, just to ensure there were no misunderstandings. She helpfully suggested I take another Grange Park, since the difference between the two brands is only Sh10.

I said I liked to keep the two different brands because it keeps my options open, more so when I visit different stores that stock different brands.

WASTING TIME

I was referred to the Customer Care, who did not appear to have any information on the bottle I wanted returned, and someone was sent to the cashier for fresh instructions.

That ping-pong game lasted 15 minutes, when I was finally directed to pick my bottle – without a single word of apology for offering to sell what they obviously didn’t have, and wasting my time in the process.

The only apology came from Momanyi, the attendant at the returns desk. That’s quite telling about the firm’s Customer Care, isn’t it?

Landing body blows on Miguna, the Sarah Elderkin stylish way

Journalist Sarah Elderkin has dedicated acres of space to explain, “blow by blow,” claims against Tinga by his former aide Miguna Miguna. But there is a little piece of text circulating around, also attributed to her that I suspect to be a fake. The piece is alleged to have been published by Sarah in The Star on May 19, 2011:

“First, I need to say that I know Miguna and I have worked with him. I have found him intelligent, well-read, well-prepared, honest, stalwart, upright, hardworking and supremely committed to what is good, proper, right and just. I also know he is impatient and highly vocal about anything that contravenes these values, and that he does not suffer fools gladly.

“He is one of the few people I know who actually reads complex legal and constitutional documents, when others are just too idle or too incompetent to put in the hard work required. Miguna patiently winkles out the loopholes otherwise overlooked, and bravely stands his ground against inevitable attacks.

“It is a lonely position, and Miguna might not always be diplomatic. But diplomacy isn’t everything. If things go well for us in this country, Kenyans will owe Miguna more than they know.”

Tell us more, Sarah, tell us!