When I first came to Nairobi, I remember seeing storied houses and asking whether we had arrived. From my story books, I knew Nairobi was filled with tall buildings, more cars than one could count and just as many people. Thinking about it now, we must have been around Githurai and not the city as I had imagined. I had come to visit a family friend who lived in the city, during the school holidays. Nairobi lived to my expectations, of the tall buildings cars and people. However, it had more in store for this little girl, fresh from the rural areas of Kenya where there was only one car in the small town.
One memory, that has stuck with me throughout the years is the first time I had to take a bath. I remember asking whether there was warm water in the kitchen for bathing and the host, our family friend just smiled and ushered me to the bathroom, opened two taps and warm water came out. Look, I was familiar with a shower but the options of hot and cold water, that just blew my mind. That aside, the soap I remember had this black and gold label, that no matter how much I applied on my face towel, still stuck to the soap. I remembered that It also smelled so heavenly, I must have spent half the time just inhaling that unforgettable scent that lingered on my skin long after the shower. I read the label “Imperial Leather” and made a mental note to ask my Mum to buy it once I went back home. That was the beginning of my love affair with Imperial Leather, one that I have carried on to date and one that I hope to pass down to my children.