Creative Writing – Page 2 – Creative writing by Esther Katheu Mbithi

Welcome to the KU Post Modern Library

WOW! SPACE! AND MORE SPACE! WELCOME to the KU Post Modern Library, the latest addition to KU’s infrastructural developments. If you’re an early riser, look to the East for sky blue glass through which the morning sun looks like a star from another galaxy. For the late night birds, it’s the only building this side of KICC that glitters with one-thousand-and-one lights – it may well be visible from space to the naked eye. But please, come closer. Don’t be intimidated by the shining tiles, or the fact...

WOW! SPACE! AND MORE SPACE! ...

March 18, 2016

Others

DID YOU SAY ENERGY CRISIS?

One of these days I’m going to get myself a solar powered cooker. This is a promise I have made to myself every year for more than ten years now, usually during the month of August. The month of August holds a special place in the hearts of the Akamba people. The Akamba are long-distance traders who live in south eastern Kenya between Nairobi and Mombasa, more or less along the railway line that was built at the end of the nineteenth century and which is still...

One of these days I’m going ...

March 15, 2016

Others

A TRIBUTE TO WANGARI MAATHAI

For as long as the majority of Kenyans alive today have been on planet earth, the name Wangari Maathai has been synonymous with the environment, trees to be precise. And yet it was not until 2004, when Prof. Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, that we finally began to appreciate this humble woman. As fate would have it, electricity was being rationed, and the little that did come through was billed at what we considered exorbitant rates. We were lacking, and paying handsomely for...

For as long as the majority of...

March 9, 2016

Others

WHY STUDY FRENCH?

I can’t think of a better way to explain this than to give you the benefit of my personal experience. When I first went to Geneva, I was thinking the same thing that you’re probably thinking right now: that the whole world speaks English; and that Geneva, being home to so many international organisations, would be cosmopolitan to a fault. When you get to the ‘palais des expositions’, everyone does speak English. But the process of going from the airport to the ‘PALEXPO’ happens in French....

I can’t think of a better wa...

March 8, 2016

Others

FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION

In my 10-plus years in the tourism industry, I travelled through Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. Surprisingly enough, my most expensive stay was right here in Kenya, at the Mpata Safari Club in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve (costing approximately 1,000 USD per night). The Mpata Safari Club, like many other units in the Maasai Mara, provides accommodation to tourists who visit the ninth wonder of the world. In addition to the annual wildebeest migration, the Mara is also home to each of the “Big Five”...

In my 10-plus years in the tou...

March 8, 2016

English

EDUCATION AND CAREERS IN KENYA

For the majority of Kenyans the term “career” is just another word in the dictionary – it has little to do with life as we live it. When it does come up, however, it is usually in retrospect, referring to what someone has already achieved. While making our way through the formal education system, the concept of career is rarely the object of carefully sustained focus. In fact, the formal education system is to blame for this state of affairs. It is an efficient and ruthless process...

For the majority of Kenyans th...

March 7, 2016

English

MEMORIES OF CARLETON UNIVERSITY

The theme of the current issue takes me down memory lane, to those far-off days in the early nineties when I was an international student at Carleton, and to other distant memories, now generously coated with the gold and magic of nostalgia. The sound, and sight, of aircraft flying overhead is part of my earliest memories, and I had always known that one day I would get into one of them and jet off to the unknown. This may be why, during my school career, I paid...

The theme of the current issue...

March 7, 2016

French

Lisons la litterature!

Lisons la littérature ! En ce qui concerne l’éducation, ma mémoire la plus ancienne consiste d’une paire de chaussures. Flambant neuves, vertes comme des plantes, achetées exprès pour l’école, toutes les deux sont disparus dans la rivière qu’il fallait traversée. J’avais sept ans, et c’était le premier jour de l’école : une aventure magnifique pour moi qui n’a jamais cessé depuis ce jour-là. A cette époque-là, même la route à l’école c’était déjà un voyage épique. Il fallait tout d’abord réussir à l’examen d’entrée – touchée l’oreille gauche...

Lisons la littérature ! En...

March 7, 2016

English

A TRIBUTE TO TEACHERS

This article is a tribute to all the men and women who, having scaled the heights in their chosen careers and excelled at what they do, have the bigness of heart to get back into the classroom and share what they know with the younger generation: TEACHERS, university professors in particular. In the Swahili-speaking world, the word “mwalimu” carries two meanings. Some people are teachers by occupation. Some other people, having been teachers at some point in their lives, so inspire their charges that “mwalimu” becomes an...

This article is a tribute to a...

April 5, 2015

Others

BILLBOARDS

No doubt there will come a time when posterity will look back at our age and wonder what purpose billboards used to serve. For the time being, however, they are on the cutting edge of advertising. Those who frequent Nairobi can be forgiven for thinking that adopt-a-light is part of the natural landscape. There are sections of Uhuru Highway, Lang’ata Road, and Waiyaki Way for example, on which a billboard flashes by every second; and they are so ingeniously mounted as to tell a story, a roadside...

No doubt there will come a tim...

February 3, 2015