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So many deaths

 


Likinifika kubwa, nisilolitaraji
Nijaze nguvu, nilistahimili
Nipe nguvu upya, ili nilikubali
Gumu kwangu, nyepesi kwako, barafu maji.

(When great tragedy visits
Give me strength to overcome
Give me the serenity to accept
As ice is to water, hard to me is easy to you.)

It is not easy to bury a child. This wide-eyed, wondering angel that gives the mother and the father reason to be. Reason to wake up early, in hustle and bustle, turning a house into a home. And so, Ken was interred. Then, my little mind couldn’t comprehend as to where my dear playmate had gone to. The details were sketchy – someone had cut off his legs and he had died as a result. How mean, I thought, a great terror visiting me. Diabetes. I attribute this to my attachment avoidance, such a loss too great to relive.

Elsewhere, a woman goes for a routine medical check-up. She is on her second pregnancy, first trimester. She was wedded a virgin, did a big church wedding to boot. Big, brown, beautiful. She has been feeling sickly daily, unlike her first pregnancy. PMTCT, the clinical officer explains to her what it is all about, then the waiting, a few minutes of it. She is directed to a counsellor in another room. A while later, a great cry is heard coming from the room…

He gave himself to her. When her mother was rushed to hospital in the dead of the night, he was there and footed the hospital bill. When her sister was on the verge of dropping out of college, he paid all her fees arrears and she matriculated with a diploma in HR. He then rung a few highly placed contacts and had her placed on attachment in the country’s leading telco. Later, the said sister was permanently and pensionable-ly employed. She is leaving him, a prominent lawyer, for a taxi driver.

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