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Lord Kitchener
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Set in newly-independent Kenya, Lord Kitchener is the story of ‘two worlds’, epitomized by Ombam and Engineer Okwach, and buttressed by an eclectic mix of social and political growing pains of a young nation. Ombam is focused on education, childhood games, sickness and the like. Engineer Okwach’s are high-class socio-political and economic problems that bedevil the young African nation.
Concerned with political expediency, despite his education, Okwach is unashamed of political sycophancy and material aggrandizement under an autocratic regime that tramples upon citizens’ rights and freedoms. It is an environment that is a graveyard of independence-era aspirations where detentions without trial and opponent assassinations are the norm.
Unfavourable circumstances (greed and social stratification) mean that Ombam discontinues his schooling early, and endures many challenges that life throws at him. His education is left waiting till much later in life.
Will either of the two succeed? You, the reader, be the judge.
What others say
“The author has successfully created an imaginative and factual work of art under postcolonial and post-modernist thought, a contestation between marginal and dominant groups owing to cultural and political differences. African independence has not led to egalitarian societies but entrenched classes, political chaos and corruption.” – Dr. Andrew Nyongesa, writer & literary scholar.
“Written in a unique, appealing flowery language, this book is rich in history dating back to Kenya’s independence. It captures the politics of the time – ideological divergence, political greed, corruption, ethnic discrimination and political assassinations, among others. Like Chimamanda Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, it highlights the dangers (personal and community) of opposition politics in young African nations.” – Joel Onyango, teacher, literary critic and founder of iTend-Kenya.
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Voices
n the small town of Soghor in Nyanza, Kenya, there exists a myth dating back to colonial times. It relates to people, termed kachinja, who were rumoured to prowl the area, arresting passers-by and tapping their blood. Supposedly, Songhor survived this way throughout the colonial period and into Kenya’s independence.
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I loved the imagery here:
‘The ring of bellyful laughter,
‘The beaming of a full moon on my face’
Is this a poem or a story I can't even tell!!! Why not both? It feels like the subject matter happened once upon a time.”
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And O the lofty blowing of the horns
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When the horn-bearers suddenly –
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Sounded their object to the plains
Announced their cause to the sunset
Declared their purpose to the sunrise –
Bv…..u!
Bv…..u!
Bv…..u!
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Signifying that in the sundry homesteads
Of the candidates returning from afar,
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