October 1979. We were only two weeks old as First Year students at the University of Nairobi. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say at the university, rather than the University of Nairobi, as we said those days. For, it was the only university in the country. You were either here or nowhere.
With the exception of the usual odd casualty, virtually my entire class from Cardinal Otunga High, Mosocho, had migrated to the university. This is to say nothing of the ‘A’ Level class ahead of ours. Going to university was a homecoming in disguise. We took to the place with the familiarity and agility of the duck to water.