One fled to Canada, another to jail, I to wardrobe

By Okech Kendo

Something notorious happened the night the High Priest deployed a sting squad to arrest Jesus Christ so that he could be charged with treason. It was claimed Jesus of Nazareth was calling himself ‘King of the Jews’.

Malchus, a relative of the High Priest, was in the sting. Now Peter Simon, a confidante, saw Malchus walking towards Jesus.

John writes: “Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear.”

Peter shed blood to protect his spiritual superior. The incident echoes an anecdote in Miguna Miguna’s Peeling Back the Mask, which is freely flying in the Internet.

Miguna loved Raila and he could cut anyone’s ear for him like Peter did for Jesus. But Miguna’s love was utilitarian: The PM was his ticket to relocation, after 20 year in Toronto.

Tear gas terror

Miguna saw this minuteman walking too close to Raila hours after the author saw PNU ministers “stealing” the vote at KICC.

The ‘small man’ was Chepalungu MP-elect, Isaac Ruto. Miguna had mistaken a friend for a foe.

So Miguna rolled around the small man and was ready to hit when South Mugirango MP-elect Omingo Magara told him the man he was ‘taking out’ was ODM MP for Chepalungu.

Ruto was cowed, believing it was the size of the dog rather than the fight in the canine that counted. Ruto did not sue for assault, probably fearing the tall man could “teach” him some law.

By public demand this is a sequel to last week’s column published under the headline, ‘Come, Baby Come, Turns to Run, Baby Run’.

A reader suggests the headline should have been ‘Run, Baby Run, Catch Me, If You Can’. But Miguna detests the ‘run’ insinuation because he returned to Canada to promote a book, which is on a free-run on the Internet. He had lit a fire, and the smoke was overwhelming.

The police went to the stable long after the horse had bolted. The Police Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions were clueless ‘Baby’ had gone.

The Higher Education Loans Board is also “clueless”. They wanted Miguna to repay a loan he did not enjoy to the full. Miguna arrived at the University of Nairobi in September of 1986, and fled 12 months later.

A reader said there were other issues left out in the column that show pervading “cluelessness” of those who stayed in Kenya, while Miguna was in exile.

The author also disputes he fled to Canada in 1987.

He also claims he did not have my number to call me on the night the late Saitoti, and Moses ole Sakuda were tussling for Kajiado North. Which is understandable because memory sometimes fails, and you cannot blame one for refusing to recall facts.

But let me also make a disclosure about the 1987 student strike at the University of Nairobi because I lived it. Miguna fled to Canada at the first burst of tear gas canisters.

He stayed away long after the smoke had cleared. Wafula Buke whose name I mentioned here is a reformer, and a human rights activist, with a high sense of purpose than Miguna would match, even with his bravado and hubris.

Get out now!

Tired of tear gas, I returned to the halls of residence. From the window of Hall 11, I could see GSU officers stampeding across Chiromo Forest.

Later my roommate John Okayana, who joined the university from Uasin Gishu High School, dived under his bed, panting.

The GSU officers were banging and breaking down doors. From the second floor, we could hear the commotion that got closer every minute. They were coming upstairs.

I had no choice

I got into the wardrobe before the big boots arrived. There was a bang on door of room 224.

They harassed Okayana who gave out his wristwatch and a shirt – the prize items from the young semester’s boom. Done with him, they wanted to know whether there was anybody else in the room. Silence!

Then one hit the wall. “Yes, there is someone in the wardrobe,” Okayana, yapped.

“If there is anyone inside there, get out!” one officer ordered, as the other loaded a teargas canister.

“Get out! Get out or I’ll tear gas the wardrobe,” he ordered.

I crawled out. There was no choice. The GSU officers left with a shirt, and Sh100 from my side of room. A small price to pay for a ceasefire.

Robert Greene’s Sixth Law of Power tells of a curious wasp from Indian Fable, whose sting echoes Miguna’s fling with the “clueless”:

Catch the wasp

“A wasp named Pin Tail was long in quest of some deed that could make him forever famous. So one day he entered the king’s place and stung the little prince, who was in bed. The prince awoke with loud cries.”

“The king and his courtiers rushed in to see what had happened. The prince was yelling as the wasp stung him again and again. The courtiers tried to catch the wasp, and each in turn was stung.”

“The whole royal household rushed in, the news soon spread, and people flocked to the palace. The city was in uproar, all business suspended. Said the wasp to itself, before it expired from its efforts, ‘A name without fame is like the fire without flame’.”

Now ‘Baby’ is gone, catch him if you can.

The writer is The Standard’s Managing Editor Quality and Production.

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