Leading the Night

Moving

208 Leading the Night conversation. The longest night of exile is death. Young men and women broke down. Politicians did not hear the noise. Mothers and fathers broke down. Politicians did not hear their cry. Something in society broke down and fell with a very loud bang. The police eyes did not turn. Those who heard this big sound went deaf. Others did not even hear it. Tears continued rolling down many cheeks. Power is made of steel. It has no heart. It has no mercy. It has no intestines. It has no tears. It can swallow graves. The tears that rolled down cheeks were friends and families of the dead. An aged woman in Holo, Kisumu rural wept every day, the pain reached Banana Hill in Kiambu. Some dared speak out and march in their long cloaks of pain. But they knew who speaks for the dead must be ready to wear the dress of death. The black coats hid peoples faces. Fear set in deeply. Those who spoke up for human rights were rubbished. Activists were arrested repeatedly for saying that people are innocent until proven guilty. It was painful to have life taken on suspicion. One lawyer helped young men arrested on suspicion of belonging to gangs. They had bangi or khat planted on them.The lawyer stood alone. After sometime, he began to get big business contracts. He was embarrassed that his high ranking clients should see him representing the riff raff of society. He never again represented bare back castrated young men who had suffered in police custody. Moving Rei thought hard. The car moved faster and his clothes blew with the wind in the open window. “Don’t you think the gang that demands money is different from the gang that demands freedom?” Leading the Night 209 “I can’t answer that. One day we had the same debate in our parking lot. Kama was fast to answer that they were the same because even governments took money to give security, medicine and roads to the people; and keeps freedom in pieces in cupboards. He said these gangs were thieves and that night he slept in the mortuary. He was buried last week. Please stop talking to me about these things now!” “Yes I will. But come on! I am leaving Kenya. I cannot betray you. Do you not see then that some of the mili-gang are supported by powerful people in government?” “Yes, the government is not a thing whose face we see clearly.” “Does government support some politicians so that they keep winning elections?” “Yes. Just the like the gangs!” “Oh!” “Oh, yes. Ask even the most innocent person in the land about these gangs. Where they thrive, no one enters the doors of Parliament without their support!” “The gangs know they have taken the politicians and with that, they also have taken the country.” Said Fundi. Fear grew upon such grounds. Fundi went on. “They say they looked for money everywhere.They would even expect a fee from anyone burying their dead in the rural areas and that if the fee was not received, they would find a way of disturbing those who did not give it. Perhaps they would come for it by taking all the money raised by friends and workmates for an event or for a student in college, or worst of all, opening up graves in the night!” The car had stopped and on the closed window on Fundi’s side brown shaking teeth danced in an open mouth.The face pressed on the window and cupped in his hands seemed to regret having a nose for it seemed to prevent him from coming in through the glass. Fundi smiled seeing the face of his friend with the shaking brown teeth there. He had noticed him as the car passed and had come running to see his dear 210 Leading the Night friend who left sometime back for the city. He greeted Fundi happily. Rei went silent realizing they could no longer talk about the gang. He smiled piously. They drove on. Rei was soaked in the contradictions that sometimes steamed up like mirages on his mind. He was keen to absorb everything. He felt as if he was filling in a jigsaw puzzle. They said the money- hungry part of the gang parted ways with the ones who said they were traditional and...