Igando Kinyua

I dated a luo boy, while in college for a few months. He never used to stay in the hostels and on most days, his clothes smelled of a mixture of paraffin and omena. One weekend, as we were eating our lunch, he asked me to move in with him and because I was hopelessly foolish, I agreed.  Every evening, I'd carry one outfit from my room and walk with him to where he stayed. We would buy food and cook together like lovers, feeding each other like fools and promising each other endless nonsense .Then I'd go to school the following morning smelling like a tank of paraffin, for two weeks. Two good weeks. His tin house used to be at the furthest corner, one row had 15 houses facing another row of 15. If one person in the plot cooked omena, the whole plot would know.  Us? We were comrades so omena was a must eat meal but at least we ate meat more frequently compared to his neighbors, of course from my pocket money. I used to look at his neighbors with bombastic side eyes and they'd...

I walked into this meeting tensed; it is the make-or-break day. The stakes were high. Atem had placed everyone between a rock and a hard place. Everyone dreaded this meeting including his mum who had found a daughter in me. She loved his son and wanted to be there for him but also loved this new daughter. This meeting could go South. I could barely maintain eye contact with anyone. I stood in the center of the room with this green dress,  my gaze fixed on the ground as soon as the meeting ended. Tears were flowing uncontrollably. I could not be comforted. Nothing anyone said made the situation better. I just wanted to cry. I made it clear it’s over between us and I set him free. As much as I loved him, I was not willing to be that sacrificial lamb. In love, I did not want to lose myself. I headed to the car without a word. It was over. As I was about to leave, Atem's mum said, "my son, from the time you escaped my womb and stepped into this world, this is the most brilliant ch...

My flight to Sydney was leaving at 5 am so I had to be at the airport earlier. This was the first time I was sharing an international platform with giants. I had my alarm clock and made it in time to the airport. We checked in and fell asleep tired from the overnight party plus speaking engagements back to back. When I finally got to the hotel and settled I had 60 missed calls! Some from strange numbers. The host from the housewarming party had tried to reach me. She left several voice messages “please call Atem.” She had broken our code which was not to give any stranger my phone number-Atem had the number. I decided I needed a peaceful sleep and avoiding this whole thing was not going to help. So I saved Atem’s number with the hope of calling him once I had something to drink. OH well as soon as I saved the number he was on the line calling. You would think he was smelling my presence on the phone.  To be honest it was great hearing him. He spoke calmly and was still the friendly...

Atem- My Atem On this episode, I tell a story of how my friend met the love of her life while on a mission to help refugees. (As written and narrated by Paris Jacoby) I once joined a team that had a mission for the Turkana people. We religiously went three times a year that is April, August, and December. It had people from different cultures, professions, and all works of life. I would say it was very balanced. We had a medical team and would always set up a temporary medical camp and offer health services which were always packed right from the opening to the last day. usually 7-14 days depending on the resources.  The Gospel was preached, door-to-door, counseling, kids’ ministry name it. Every trip we tried to go to a different location and if we were close to our previous location then we would try and get a small team to do a follow-up. Well, one time a door opened to Kakuma refugee camp. Kakuma refugee camp is home to over 160,000 refugees from South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, th...

Had I known that satan was after me yesterday, I would not have worn my loyal black bra. I would not have worn my new black and yellow tights which introduced the world to my buttocks after two seconds. I would not have bothered to paint my eyebrows or waste foundation that I had to save for three months to get. I would have stayed in bed, watching TikTok videos while releasing silent killer bombs inside the bedsheets. I woke up bloated yesterday morning after a night of drinking several glasses of snake tears, rice and beans. My stomach was so big I had to check my calendar to confirm whether I had entertained the one eyed guest of honor and it's liquid children. But there was no need to check because the last time I hosted such a fellow, the year was 1950 just before colonizer declared a state of emergency. So now I'm in the kitchen with my big stomach full of gas. Satan, whispers to me " drink ACV with mother you will feel better". Without a second thought, I mixed...

  There is a whole side of cheating rather than the physical I found you in bed engulfed in another woman’s arms. Cheating can be physical, yes, but it can also be emotional as well as psychological. While physical cheating is what makes most relationships end on account of getting caught; emotional cheating is what results toa disconnect between partners. It results to lack of trust, insecurity and constant feeling of guilt. Let me define emotional cheating…  To me, it is when you give someone else the attention that is supposed to be your partner’s. You tell this person everything your partner is supposed to know, you trust them with all elements of your life and in short, you use this particular person to fill the void that your partner should ultimately be in. You give this person the power to make you happy and sad as they deem fit and your partner ends up being the other partner in the picture. Here comes in the psychological cheating, where you think of someone else (no...