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Creative Writing – Creative writing by Esther Katheu Mbithi
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We take so much for granted!

The discovery of Penicillin one Friday morning, the 28th of September 1928, has traditionally been described as a serendipitous accident. The scientist in question being a famously poor communicator, it was a good fourteen years before people began using Penicillin to treat infections. It has since been referred to as the ‘wonder drug’ of the twentieth century. The best and strongest shot is delivered via injection. I have a phobia for injections. I am one of those people who will engage doctors very creatively before any therapy...

The discovery of Penicillin on...

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July 25, 2019
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Kudos Kenya Airways!

My first ever flying experience was on Kenya Airways. I was all of twenty-three years old, and was travelling with my three-year-old daughter! We made a stop in Athens. I had expected a non-stop flight to London Heathrow, and was not really prepared. It may have been to pick up additional passengers. I had not paid attention to the number of passengers on board. Afterwards, I thought they should at least have re-stocked the essentials such as water. All the way from Athens to London there...

My first ever flying experienc...

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July 25, 2019
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The Sound of Music

I suffered from an ear infection when I was young, too young to remember. What I do have a memory of is the puss running out of the ear, and some of the methods used to try and stop it. One of those methods was to put a few drops of the ‘top layer’ of chicken stew into the ear. I know for sure that did not work because eventually, when my father’s younger brother, the laboratory technician, took up his first assignment at the Machakos...

I suffered from an ear infecti...

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July 24, 2019
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Open letter to parliament and the people of Kenya

(From a “Wanjiku” who is very anxious to cast her vote.) Greetings and Happy Jamhuri Day! That was indeed a life-changing experience, as will be our next general election. Dear Members of Parliament, let us stop procrastinating and get on with the task at hand: prepare and prepare well, knowing that the next and future general elections will be held in August. This decision was made by Kenyans more than a year ago. Please stop wasting our time and money discussing it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. In...

(From a “Wanjiku” who is v...

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March 17, 2017
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Unsettling dust, fifty years on

Unsettling dust, fifty years on… Book review of Dust, a 2013 novel by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor   Postcolonial theories have been elaborated, for the most part, by critics born in colonial situations. They have also been used (for the most part) to criticise the work of writers born in colonial situations but writing after independence. The novel Dust is a fictional work written by a writer born after independence. Here is a book that breathes new life into East African literature. Owuor’s Dust takes East African (and indeed postcolonial) literature,...

Unsettling dust, fifty years o...

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December 13, 2016
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Names do not translate into African values

So the debate over European names versus African names has reared up its head again. And, it would seem, some have missed lessons from the last time, and the time before that. I have noted that the proponents of African names are making their arguments in English, instead of “drumming” them from ridge to ridge in mother-tongue. By what logical process do we arrive at the conclusion that the person who bears strictly African names will espouse African values and faithfully transmit African culture? More importantly, what...

So the debate over European na...

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September 1, 2016
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MY MAGIC MOMENT

I am convinced that what Chinua Achebe once said of Nigerian drivers is equally true of Kenyan drivers – they rank among the most creative in the world. What they lack in road courtesy they more than make up for in creativity: they accelerate on approaching a zebra crossing; they signal “right” when turning “left”; they overtake on either side of the road; they drive at a speed of one hundred and forty kilometres an hour in a heavy downpour with zero visibility; matatus pick up...

I am convinced that what Chinu...

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June 9, 2016
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TO LOVE or not

(This article was first published in the Carleton University Magazine of Spring 2008. It was then updated and submitted in view of the 2013 elections.) At the mention of the word “love”, the collective human psyche of the 21st century conjures up images of young men and women in the bloom of health, romantic picnics on top of the world, sinfully delicious melt-in-your-mouth chocolates, red roses, candle-lit dinners and sunsets in paradise – all of this, of course, culminating in a fairy tale wedding. In contrast, the reality...

(This article was first publis...

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April 20, 2016
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MY STREET

My street … has no name. It’s a dirt track in a remote, rural corner of Machakos district in eastern Kenya. Were it to have a name, it would be “kamulu”, the Kamba word describing the ash-like colour of the fine dust that clings to your feet as you walk. And walk we must. It is the only form of transportation here. The first and most important investment those of us who live here make is to buy a pair of good walking shoes. The second is...

My street … has no name. It...

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April 20, 2016
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Father of African Literature

TRIBUTE TO CHINUA ACHEBE, FATHER OF AFRICAN LITERATURE In 1958, when a 28-year old Chinua Achebe penned the words “Okonkwo was known throughout the nine villages of Umuofia and even beyond,” little did he know that the book Things Fall Apart, would make him, Achebe, well known throughout the seven continents and even beyond. Soon afterwards, he became infamous during the acrimonious language debates of the 1960s and 1970s for going against the lofty ideals and intricate academic theories of those agitating for a change in the...

TRIBUTE TO CHINUA ACHEBE, FATH...

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March 18, 2016
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