THE BLAMED SERIKALI

Tick Tock Tick
I was there papa,
I was there mamma,
I was there jirani mamma Cynthia,
I was there.
There where I called sweet home,
There where i found serenity and tranquility,


 There where the wind blew my mind to oceans of peace,
Where birds chirped merrily as they ushered newborn days,
Where cows mooed sweetly making me nod my head in resonance to their mootic rhythm,
Where each day found me joyous and happy to have a sweet home.
 It is there that I learned to sing, sew and stitch.
Tick Tock Tick


I need no living in the past,
 Nostalgia will only kill me,
Murder me in cold bloods.
Reality is that I am now here,
Here where peace is a vocabulary.
Instead of birds chirping, children crying wake me up.
Grown men whimper, mothers wail, children whine
This is my new home.
Where insanity reigns supreme,
The geek doctor is the only one sane.
Bespectacled he comes
With a sardonic smile he murmurs,
A thing that makes us clamour,
"With ten, you will be out of this den"
Ten? Ten injections on my sitting allowance?

Tick Tock Tick
But I have to take the pain,
for I to gain,
If anything I have had enough
Memories of the attack are enough

Oh my God!

I hate to remember
The boys -beefy looking yet illy dressed
They came. Huh!
With menacing looks and bulging crotches,
They came. Huh!
Wielding machetes and potato knives
They came! Huh! huh !huh!




On the ground they laid me.
My clothes they tore. Huh!
My face they bruised.
My dignity they wronged
My pumpkin... Huh!
My pumpkin...Huh!
My pumpkin they gobbled!
Huh! Huh! Huh !Huh!...
Here I lay papa,
Here I lay mamma,
Here I lay jirani mamma Cynthia,
At Kenyatta National Hospital
Raped, bruised and abused....



In your stupidity papa,
In your foolishness mamma,
In your ignorance jirani mamma Cynthia!
I know you will
Tell the government to intervene
" Serikali, serikali
serikali kuja uingilie kati"
Kati gani papa?
Kati gani mama?
Kati gani jirani mama Cynthia!
Did we not know them ?
Did we not know the boys?
Those ruffians who have been waylaying everybody in the dark alleys!
Is one of ruffians not my distant cousin?
Where does serikal then come in?
Are we not to blame for the murk,
dirt and stench in our village?
Are we not responsible for the rapes, muggings and arson cases?

Tick! Tock! Tick!

I rest and my case.

By James Njenga