Leading the Night

Fleas and jiggers

144 Leading the Night many Kenyans were not yet celebrating freedom in independence. Rika last saw them being sent away during the celebrations of independence since they had not received a special guest invitation and the park was full. On Mama Ngina Street many held their chins that day. Nairobi city centre life was so different from the life in Nanyuki and so distinct from life in Mathare and Kibera. The two snakes still danced away. This was indeed the land of parallel degrees. Fleas and jiggers None of the people who kept Wairi busy at night ever rang her during the day or even sent her an sms. The cold bit into her body now as she lay on a straw rag in her room. She bit her lips. She felt fleas biting her flesh in her legs and arms. Her mind was being broken by searing thoughts. The floor she lay on was hard and painful. There were these bugs that bit harder each time, jumping here from there. When their bite just caused an itch here, they were already there biting here, there and everywhere. Her fingers jumped from one part of the body to another, trying to arrest the itch and always failing. She almost lost her mind, but not like once long ago when she was delirious with malaria. No matter how one felt they needed it, no one could scratch everywhere at the same time unless they had eight hands like the legs of a spider, and even then, that was not guaranteed to work. Many people did not know the difference between fleas which were biting Wairi now and jiggers. It is said that these are relatives and they have a large base of family members. The most important thing was that they bugs are both parasites and they enjoy eating humans. Sticktight fleas could stay on one as long as jiggers do while other fleas bite and hop off.There were many people who never saw their clean feet without remembering days of torment by the pests in the past. Many had never Leading the Night 145 been bitten by them and they did not know that fleas bite and hop off and that jigger bugs are baby fleas that dig into the flesh and cosy- up in there eating human flesh. Wairi had both jiggers and fleas disturbing her. In the day time, Wairi had removed one jigger with a pin from her index finger. She thought of drinking a little alcohol to beat the chill. But if she had to do this, she would need to go and buy it, that could not be. She could get it with the money she had from the previous night, but surely a neighbor would tell on her to her ‘husband’. The sense of being captured in this shack was overwhelming.These sad thoughts pushed each other in her mind like jiggers. No, it was worse, they tormented her psychologically too. Wairi was usually alone during the day. She was seemingly in company during the night but her mind never rested. She wondered if she would finally contract and eventually have to live with HIV/Aids, perhaps dying of it? Some of her customers already betrayed her refusing to wear condoms and sensing the female condom she wore, they would be furious. Would one of her customers betray her to the gang one day? Would they throw her out of a moving vehicle too on Ngong Hills and leave her there unconscious or dead? It had happened to her friends many times. Or would she be dumped in Nairobi River? Would they ever know what she was really looking for. But why was she worried about the clients? Her ‘husband’ suddenly pushed the door open at 11 am that morning. He stood before here like an apparition, his eyes red and glaring. People in the area whispered he was a former Kenya policeman whose motto was ‘ service to all!” He had a way of stealing all the darkness and light in a room. The light filled the room and her little eyes opened like fluttering butterflies against the darkness of the shelter. “What are you doing sleeping at this time of the day?” he shouted. “I, I .aiiii...” She stammered. He grabbed something from the top of the little wooden trunk in which he kept his things. He swiftly moved for her and held her so tight she could not move and could...