In case you are wondering how I ended up in this quandary, here’s the story. It was a cloudy Saturday afternoon around twelve. I was going for a lunch date with this fly chic from my salsa class that I had been trying to get to go out with me for like forever. Actually it was six months but come on! You chicks sometimes make life too hard for us decent jamaaz.
How do you take a decent guy like me with a steady job, good intentions and completely born again in circles like that? Anyway six months and I had a small window of opportunity to start something with Nicole.

As I stood there waiting for a mat, mother nature as if trying to dissuade me from my mission, let the rivers of heaven loose. They talk of sudden rain but this was sudden rain reloaded. Like any ordinary Kenyan, I scampered for shelter and squeezed myself between other shelter seekers outside some phone shop. I was beginning to feel unlucky so I said a silent prayer and waited. A few minutes later, a pimped mathree pulled up thumping music so loudly I was almost convinced it was a mobile heng’ (if there’s anything like that).

I had only one thing on my mind-Nicole, Nicole, Nicole, so before even the tout announced the fare I was seated front seat and looking at the driver as if to hint I gotta be someplace fast! One thing led to another and I was forced to sit in the back and give my seat to some old mzee. I didn’t mind though, since as I had mentioned, all I could think of was Nicole, Nicole, and Nicole. We were soon on our way still under floods of rain, insanely loud music and about to part with three times the normal fare but hey, small price to pay for a lunch date with the hottest chic in dance class, right?

As the driver crazily cruised towards town evading potholes and other motorists, I quickly discovered I wasn’t the only one in a hurry to get to where I was going and in a flash, the mat was full. I thought all I had to do now was sit back, enjoy this hair-raising ride and pray this maniac doesn’t kill us all. Little did I know I had bigger problems coming. You see, it seems this tout was on a mission to be the next Mother Teresa for selflessness in helping fellow human beings is distress but at a fee of course-a hiked fee!!!.

The dude kept packing and packing more passengers into an already full vehicle. The tout kept yelling “panga orbit” until there was hardly room to breath. It was at that point, that I started to remember the good old Michuki days. Neat touts, no loud music, seatbelts and no overloading -those were the days.

With my neighbor’s elbow painfully embedded between my ribs and my face snugly tucked into some dude’s armpit (I won’t even go there), I started to think about what Paul wrote to the Galatians … (Gal 3:1-3) O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? According to me, this was a classic example of how Kenyans (me included) are so like the Galatians.

We began the Michuki days with such zealous purpose to take the matatu industry to another level but as time went by and regimes changed, we fell from our high pedestal and went back to our old habits faster than you can say “Bwana waziri”. Well, the Galatians were bewitched or so Paul thought but Kenyans…definitely bewitched. Take me, for instance - I was in such a hurry to get to my date that I couldn’t care less if I got there on a dead camel.

As a Christian, I find myself here quite often. I begin something trusting God to pull me through but as time goes by, I give up and look for my own means. We all know how that ends. Even in relationships, we start out alright with the God kind of love and affection but carelessly or sometimes unknowingly allow the flesh to find a way and we just start crossing boundaries we shouldn’t.

As concerns the end of that day, the mat eventually got a flat in the middle of nowhere (too much load on the wheels). Long story short, I missed my date and heard from Nicole’s friend that she (Nicole) called me some names that people going to heaven should never be caught dead using, but I don’t blame her. I, on the other hand, am stuck home with a bad case of the flu and my twenty thousand shillings cell phone is just a piece of water-soaked plastic with neat shiny buttons. I think I should just have waited a little longer for another matatu. What do you think? 

About The Author: Mumo Mutisya describe himself thus: "I am a 3D football fan! I play it on the pitch, I play it on PS and I don’t miss a game on TV..." He also finds time to play the drums and bass guitar, loves cooking, hiking and of course, writing!

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