Men only: In memory of all our brothers lost

Easter, followed by the rainy season, seems to have finally caught up with us at the tail-end of April. When we were young, and living in the shadow of Nyayo Stadium, this season was replete and not complete without the Marlboro East African Safari Rally. The make and model names of those rally cars – Audi Quatro, Nissan 240 RX, Toyota Celica and Lancia Martini – still linger on our tongues like a good martini on the counter of a great hotel.

And every man of a certain age will remember these names with a boyish thrill – Bjorn Waldergard, Juha Kankunnen, Vic Preston, Fred Gallagher, Juha Pironen, Carlos Sainz, Joghinder Singh, Tony Makinen, Collin McRae, Lee Rose, Carl Tundo, Baldev Chager, Rauno Altonen, Hannu Mikola, Shakhar Mehta, and the legendary rally lady Michelle Morton (whom we kiddishly had nicknamed ‘Mchele Moto’ or Hot Rice).

One great local African name in the rallying world was that of Patrick Njiru (whose relative, 21-year-old Robin, was tragically and ironically killed last weekend in a drag road race at Ol Donyo Sambu, on their way to Arusha).

Another famous name in the rallying world was that of Jonathan Moi. He too passed on over Easter, of cancer, in a Nakuru Hospital – and I wish to pass my sincere sympathies to his sibling (the one who on our way, as a company host, to Tsavo last December said on the train that she religiously reads ‘MO’), and indeed to the rest of that illustrious Kenyan family.

My own (and only) lost brother would have been turning 39 tomorrow. And I know exactly how we would have spent his birthday weekend, had he been alive. If Benji were here on this Saturday of April 27, 2019, he would have joined me for the AMKA Creative writing workshop this morning at the Goethe Institute, until it ended at 2pm.

Maybe he would have given an encouraging word to some upcoming poet, to pour balm after my own cutting critiques (because I am an Old Skool believer in forging talent by way of fire). For sure we would have had a beer or two with our late lunch, then gone on to Prestige Plaza for that late afternoon-till-10 pm movie series binge that our friend Muki Garang has organised.

Sunday would find us hangovered, maybe, but we’d watch a World War II documentary together. Then he’d have his birthday lunch at Maasai Lodge with his niece, and the nephew he never saw; and as the kids played at the pool and baby pool respectively, we would be at the Sports Pub – heckling Arsenal as they played Leicester, jeering Man City against Burley.

Come 6pm, we’d go someplace else with Benji for the CLIMAX of his birthday weekend – Man United vs Chelsea – with him fervently for the Red Devils, and I fanatically for the Blues. Then, at 9 pm, we would finally part for our ‘digs.’

When loved ones die of long illness, like Jonathan did last weekend, it is always hard on family. My brother passed away over the course of a dozen days in a private room at Nairobi West Hospital, almost six years ago. The doctors there tried to save his life best they could!

I still recall a Dr Jackson Atina telling me ‘Benjamin needs 18 grams of branular.’ I remember Prednisolone, and the 10 MG injections of metoclopramide that he needed half a dozen times daily those last 12 days (August, 2013). Then there was the kindly Dr Beryl Bansal, feeding him calcium polystyrene sulfonate on his bed – and supervising application of candid powder to guard against bedsores.

When Benji passed away, an old friend Jayesh, was at hand to waive a quarter of the hospital fees. And Tina to offer comfort to us, his immediate family, in those hallowed halls of the hospital.

So that even as we condole with those who have lost their brothers today – including the splendid in-law of late Jonathan who personally called with her consolations on learning of Benji’s death (that still hurts) – we must not forget doctors on the frontlines of the struggle between Life and Death.

Talking of life, congratulations to aforementioned Tina, on the wonderful new life. For more on this topic, do check out Good Charlotte’s ‘Chronicles of Life and Death’ on YouTube.

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