At the prospect of going for days without enjoying their favourite delicacy — ugali, panic-stricken locals in Mundobelo village and its environs are agonising and mourning after the one and only posho mill in the area malfunctioned last week.
To people who are believed to be genetically-predisposed to fancy ugali as their favourite meal, the breaking down of the sole posho mill must have come as a huge blow. They just can’t stomach the fact that they won’t eat ugali for a while.
Caleb Wesonga — a local who was on the meandering queue, braving a drizzle as he waited for his turn — told this writer that business was going on as usual up until lightning struck.
“We just heard a loud twalalalas sound of lightening, and immediately the posho mill’s rut-tut-tut sound went off, leaving a very loud silence in the air,” said a devastated-looking Wesonga.
The miller tried to tinker with the machine to bring it back to life, but in vain. He called a technician who cycled to the area all the way from the nearby Khwisero Town — kilometers away. Upon fiddling with the machine in futility, the technician broke the devastating news.
“The fundi dropped the bombshell when he said that apparently the machine had conked out after it was struck by lightning. The bad news spread like wildfire, attracting a sizable crowd of curious onlooker who milled the posho mill,” added the seemingly grumpy local.
While wondering why bad things only happen to good people, locals bemoaned the tragedy, expressing their disappointment.
“This is a big blow to us. Getting maize flour around here is going to be a very big problem, seeing as the nearest posho mill is kilometers away,” agonized a sullen-faced Dickson Ndombi, adding: “People in this area live hand to mouth. Very few have maize flour enough to take them for two days”.
Rural outpost
Titus Shitsukane, a villager who claimed he doesn’t subscribe to the view that he can make do with other staple foods fumed: “It’s sad that we may be forced to ‘sleep hungry’ for some days. Here, we eat ugali at least twice in a day. Even if I were to consume a kilo of rice and beans by myself for super, I will consider myself as having slept on a hungry stomach”.
Apparently, besides being expensive, the locals dislike packed maize meal so much that shopkeepers don’t stock it.
“I am just wondering what my family will eat. They hate the sifted maize meal with a passion. In fact, in this area nobody sells that. And even if it was to be stocked, who can afford?” rhetorically wondered a woman only identified as Maria.
For the average urbanites, especially Nairobians, who buy maize flour in supermarkets, a posho mill doesn’t mean much. However, the same cannot be said of villagers in the deeper parts of rural outposts — where a posh mill is such a big deal. In rural areas, a posho mill is an economic and information hub of sorts.
Besides its rut-tut-tut-tut-tut-tut noise bringing life to sleepy locales, a posho mill’s roles in the village economy can never be taken for granted. The regular high human traffic, trooping to this joint for flour is what spurs offshoot of other business — in the process, increasing job opportunities.
Lightening arresters
Other than converging here for flour, it’s where villagers meet, mingle, and gather information and even gossip. It’s here that village boys bring their girlfriends for hot dates and treat them to, say, sugarcane and bananas.
Meanwhile, the lightening did not only ‘kill’ the posho mill. It claimed lives of animals and burnt humans who are now nursing burns. Kakamega County Environment Minister Robert Sumbi who deals with disasters said the county has partnered with Nema and are mapping out lightening-prone areas in the local to install there arresters.
“We regret the losses and injuries lightening has caused to our people the latest being in Khwisero. We will soon erect lightening arresters in public places and institutions to cub this. Nonetheless, residents should stop walking in rain and sheltering under trees. They should also make a habit of shut down powered machines when it rains,” he told Crazy Monday.
