Leading the Night

Stalking danger

Leading the Night 23 The jewelry on dresses and jackets shone even more. Rika felt disgusted. Would she ever leave painful thoughts aside or would she be saddled forever with all pain become hers? Many people casually told Rika not to take things too personally but did she have a choice? “This is how humans get on with life, it is the old law of the jungle. Survival for the fittest! It is life!” Kisheke told her. Kisheke did not confess that he nursed a secret desire to take her out and using her body. He thought this would teach her to be ‘free’. He never said this to anyone for her knew that would land him into trouble. He thought if only Rika had a man in her life, she would not be engaged so passionately in many social issues. He thought she was fascinated by nightlife because she had no night life herself! Given a chance Kisheke would even ask if women knew what they were doing in life. He said they needed ‘fixing’ all the time but would not go into details to explain this. He hid selfish motives in a pretended concerned for her. “Be normal! People simply put aside what they could not handle. Get rich before you retire!” he said to her. It was obvious that he thought she had no clue about anything. Rika’s eyes stung with pain. Quite dejectedly she remembered that in the rural areas where life was said to be natural, people kept yearning to get to the glitter of the city and touch it. Who could break these chains of misery? Stalking danger Cold air and wind entered every part of her dress as she stepped out of Berg-a –Gold Hotel. It pushed in from the bottom and got in to every fold. She felt cleansed. On the cold streets, this same night, Rika knew she hopped between two dangerous Kenyas.The Kenya of the glittering wealthy class and the other Kenya. There was a rift, not just a gap between those who have and those who do not. This rift grew bigger every day. Its manifestation became like many heads on one dragon. 24 Leading the Night Tonight Koinange Street was teeming with desperate girls. She saw some University students she knew among them. She saw the many girls who went quietly into the Grande Corruption Conspiracy Room. From different routes they are all headed there. They come through University Way, Slip Road, Kenyatta Avenue, Kigali Road, Uhuru Highway which all connected easily to Koinange Street. The girls come from all over the city and they lined up in their style as far as Argwings Kodhek road outside of the city centre too. Her Worship the Gold. For Rika, the question was what was the use of such riches if all they did was hide the gags of young girls whom Her Worship the Gold sold in business to the snaky men? Did this rich woman not have feelings for these girls as she would have for her own daughter? Rika saw again in a flash the skeletons of many women who had been raped when they had flesh go past her mind. The rich woman’s daughter was in big business too. She subtly dealt with the same men her mother worked with and with their sons. She licked her mother’s diamonds studs in the tongue every night without fail. She dressed to mesmerize. She had all the jewelry she could ever wish for. Big businessmen were twisted around her fingers till they smelt her varnished and perfumed hands. They stared at her eyes. They remained hypnotized forever as they ogled into her golden pond of connections. It was not unusual that Rika was alone in the nights. ‘The cold days are almost over,’ She remembered the weather forecaster saying and then adding, ‘But it is still very cold in the nights and will be so for the next two weeks.’ She was not going to be out for too long. The previous night Rika had spent many hours on the city pavements, gathering information for her series on Nairobi sex commercial workers. She had come to know the big links with powerful people and this is what she was investigating. She saw the girls. They had learnt how to live in the cold in mini clothes. These days it was not the length of cloth that determined the heat on the body but...