Month: December 2021

Check out the previous part – Presage of Downfall Chapter 1 – 1

A heavy, black metal door was closed and sentenced to a night of carrying heavy padlocks. The reason behind it was to make sure that those who reap where they haven’t sowed could not gain access to the building.

If they tried, then it would be a lot of intimidating work for them. Sometimes it was just a delay tactic rather than a full protection measure.

Then the young man of about twenty-five, dangling a bunch of keys in his right hand, crossed the worn-out road. He looked back and saw the usual signboard he was used to for the past three years – LEVI THEO****^, s HARDWARE.

Below it in small letters read, – ironmonger; available: pans, nails, locks, pipes and many more building materials, farm and household inputs. Many people called it the four-star hardware. It was their favourite.

Proud Owner of the Hardware

Levi Theodore was no other than the proud owner of the hardware. He had made a profitable investment immediately after clearing his secondary education.

Levi did not manage to secure a place in any of the local universities. Not that he had performed poorly but the entrance grades had been raised so much.

He missed the cut point by a mere two points. He wanted to join any of the private universities in the country but the fee was exorbitant. It is only the filthy rich who could afford to take their children to those universities.

The irony of it is that most of those taken there were dunderheads but since they were able to pay their fee then no one would complain.

Levi decided to join one of the small local colleges for a course in Business Management. After two and a half years, he graduated and he decided to start his own business.

He wanted to be his boss. After gathering all he had saved, Levi went to his father for a soft loan. His father agreed to the idea on the condition that Levi would repay him in small instalments once the business picked up.

A Well-Moneyed Young Man

The hardware business had helped him to invest in other businesses and they were all doing well. His investments had catapulted him from a low-income earner to a well-moneyed young man.

It was a feat that most of the young men of his age had not yet achieved since most were still dependent on their parents and did not want to dirty their hands. So it was either drugs or crime for them.

Levi was just transitioning from a teenager to a respectable young man, thus he was very handsome. He was of average height. His dark hair was well kept and he was clean-shaven.

He wore blue jeans trousers and a light grey jacket. The young man looked immaculate. He wore the Stetson hat he had been holding in his other hand and walked on mingling with the nightwalkers who were hurrying to their homes before they were stopped by the night ladies or even the police.

The New Dola pub

Theodore was headed to the New Dola pub. This was his favourite pub; in fact, he was a patron. It was a bit quiet due to its location in a cool part of the busy town, but to say the inside was devoid of noise would be a lie.

He went in and walked over to his favourite corner. He sat at a table for two not that he was expecting company but he didn’t want to join the rowdy youths who even lacked respect for themselves.

Even before he had accustomed his eyes to the place and its occupants, a waiter was breathlessly standing in front of him. “Your pleasure sir?”

If there was something done perfectly in the New Dola Pub, it was the lightning speed of serving the thirsty customers.

The waiters and waitresses were not the drowsy types who you find in nearly every other drinking place. These were alert, fully alert.

They Sat at the Bar Nursing Their Drinks

He looked up at him. The waiter was a young man with very wide eyes almost the size of a cow’s. His spotless white coat made him look more like a doctor than a waiter was it not for the pub’s logo on the breast pocket.

Levi could not fail to notice his well-manicured fingers with a fresh coating of nail polish and his African hair which had been subjected to a torturous process to make it curl like spring only that it could have been better to leave it like that of a bushman.

“Hello Don,” Levi called without using the full name, – Donovan, indicated on the badge. “You don’t have to think of business every time nor do you have to keep on calling me sir every time I come to this watering hole.”

Donovan smiled evenly showing a set of brownish teeth, a sharp contrast to his white overalls and shirt. He adjusted his bow tie sheepishly and rolled his eyes like a lost chameleon looking for its way home.

“You see I have been used to it.”

“Okay man,” Theodore said. “My usual and have one on my account. But be careful not to be caught by your boss.”

He walked Away Smilling

Don walked away smiling, like someone who had invented a new kind of dish.

Now customers were beginning to flow in. They came in singles others as couples. Some were smiling others laughing out loud while others wore serious and surly faces. Most tables were by now full and covered with all kinds of drinks and drinking glasses.

As Levi nursed his cold drink, savouring its taste, a man came and sat opposite him. Levi looked up and they shook hands.

“Otieno, how are you?” Levi Theodore called to his friend.

Otieno was a tall and stony looking man. His physical appearance and the way he carried himself were an outright sell-out of what kind of job he did. He was clean-shaven and he wore a heavy jacket.

His Brown Eyes Were Sharp and Piercing

His brown eyes were sharp and piercing. As he entered the pub he had scanned the place like a forward-looking infrared radar camera. Only a few people could not recognize that he was a policeman.

“I am very fine,” he said releasing Levi’s hand. “How are you pushing on with your business?”

“It is going on well,” Levi said and called for Don who emerged from behind the counter. He hurriedly walked towards them licking his lips ready to take orders.

When he was halfway to their table, Otieno shouted, “my usual one.”

Donovan halted and made a beautiful u-turn.

Levi couldn’t help smiling.

“How is police work?”

The waiter walked away heading to another table with his beer laden tray after delivering their order.

Crime Rate had Gone Up

“Well Levi,” Otieno began, “Here in Mukuri town, we are sandwiched between two forces. The public is demanding action from us, and the thugs are giving us nightmares. Nowadays there is a lot of shooting. People are dying. The crime rate has gone up.

Each day these thugs are getting bolder and they are getting a lot from their raids. Imagine a man enters a bank poor, and when coming out, he is worth millions. Mark my word no one ever catches him.”

“What do you mean by this? Are you supporting them?”

“No! And I say no a thousand times.” He said raising his voice slightly over the background noise of the patrons and soft African music that was playing. Then in a low tone, the policeman said, “Something must be wrong in the … or I may say in our police force.”

“Good,” Theodore said. “I see your point. Internal wrangles, that is what they are called.” He put his glass down. “Then the problem must be high up above your reach.”

Otieno gave a short dry laugh. “You got it.”

He took his glass and downed his beer in one big gulp. “It is worse than that. Some officers are abetting crime by giving out guns and shielding criminals instead of helping in curbing crime.”

His friend shook his head in disgust. “That’s terrible. Where is the world heading?”

They talked for quite some time while watching the activities in the New Dola pub. They concurred that crime, (child and drug trafficking, kidnappings, and other flagitious crimes) had shot up in the last few months in the country.

A Failed State

Well-formed gangs and cartels were terrorizing the harmless wananchi committing all sorts of atrocities against them. Cold blood murders, maiming, indiscriminate rape and of late, something previously unheard of sodomy!

Everyone was crying of insecurity; the moneybags and the hoi polloi alike. Insecurity was a vice that inhibited Africa from becoming an economically stable continent.

Foreign investors could not risk bringing their hard-earned money to an unstable Africa. Also, most of the wealthy Africans themselves could not invest in their own countries.

It was extremely difficult for the ordinary citizens to start investments with the draconian rules set in place by the government itself or, sorry to say, most of them had been set by the colonial governments.

Another hindrance to prosperity was the lack of initial capital for the youth to start reliable businesses. But the sad thing was that politicians were not willing to change the outdated oppressive laws.

Gun-Totting Thugs Roaming All Over

This is because they largely benefited from them and also because they did not care about the poor. Then there were the cartels demanding money for protection. There were also the gun-totting thugs roaming all over the country terrorizing the populace. What was the sense of stealing from a man and then killing him? What was society coming to?

Small light arms had infiltrated the country so much that they were readily available and at a throw-away price. To make the matters worse some were readily available for hire. You could hire a gun like people hire vehicles and then take the gun back once you were through with your business.

Drug cartels were on the rise, trafficking all kinds of drugs mostly to the cream of the Nation – the youth. On one hand, the drug peddlers could be blamed for the rise in crime since once the young people were high on drugs, they could commit any sort of crime without thinking twice.

On the other hand, the addicts could involve themselves in antisocial activities to get money for one next high. It was a rather confounding situation; a catch-22 situation. Even Otieno didn’t know what was to be done now to change these people who had refused to conform to the norms of the society.

The Politicians Had Failed the People

All in all, he knew deep within himself that the leaders of the country had a role to play.

Otieno glanced at his wristwatch. It was getting late. “My wife must be very lonely,” he said rising. He needed to rest and wait for the new day ready to face challenges.

Levi stood up, stretched and yawned. “We must be on our way.” After paying the bill, which was Otieno’s turn, they left the pub. Theodore bid his friend goodnight, crossed the dimly lit street which was a haven for muggers and headed straight to his house.

Those Present Were Rushing Home

At this time of night, the streets had fewer people and those present were rushing home as if a ghost was chasing them, most of them muttering prayers that were hard to comprehend. Levi opened the door and entered his three-roomed house.

The sight of these large rooms brought his mind back to what he had been thinking of earlier. He sat on the bed after switching on the lights. He had not eaten but he did not feel hungry. How he detested cooking!

Levi’s mind was set heavily on thinking; he was trying to visualize whether he needed a woman, a caring and loving one. Someone who would ease the loneliness he had.

He dreamt of a beautiful, young and self-worth girl, a vivacious girl with a sweet temper and one who sheds happiness around her. Someone he could trust and give his heart to.

Yes. Not like this girl he had loved so deeply only to end up with a broken heart slow of healing. Where had trust gone in modern society?

You give your heart to someone who swears never to betray your trust, but in the end, that special someone ends up being careless with your heart and as a result ends up breaking it, shattering it into small pieces. That is what had happened to Levi.

Julia Muthoni, when Levi came to know her, was a black African queen. A tall slender girl of fair complexion. Her well-aligned teeth were sparkling white. Her lips were round and beautiful. She had an infectious smile.

She Became Obsessed with Worldly Things

But what was more captivating were her charcoal black eyes, cool but penetrating on whoever they were directed to. Most of the time she let her long, black hair fall loose on her shoulders. In simple terms, nature had granted her beauty, a beauty that made every man turn and others ogled whenever she passed by.

Levi, who considered himself lucky thought he would live a blissful life with this beautiful lady who worked at a beauty salon.

At first, their relationship was steadfast and smooth, but with time the glamorous girl began to change slowly. She became obsessed with worldly things and her love for Levi started fading.

Julia had proclaimed to Levi in a silky voice. “I have no other man apart from you. I love you so much, Levi. You are the pillar of my heart,” she kept on saying. This however was pure hypocrisy.

Then at the end of their relationship, the girl changed drastically like a chameleon. She began hanging out in bars with other men irrespective of the dreaded modern-day sexually transmitted diseases. She changed men like clothes.

Levi Theodore tried to make her change her habits but in vain. The irony of it all was that she refused to admit that she had affairs with other men. She continued reiterating how she loved Levi.

What kind of love was this that could lead them to their early demise?

“Julia Muthoni, you were a beautiful lass,” he said to himself. He shuddered and grimaced like a man in great pain. He sighed with a big relief and let his eyelids meet.

***** It was an Afternoon Off at the Mines

In the quarries, there was no work in the afternoon after the ghastly accident. Ting Shark had given the miners the afternoon off and in that way, he had managed to fool them so that they would not think of protesting like they had done last time.

Some of those who could reach their homes had rushed to see their families. The others had found time to stretch their tired limbs; they did this by lying flat on the bare ground like the red-headed rock agama lizard.

Mugo and Karume were working on their small shamba. Since the sun wasn’t so hot they had decided to water their plot of Sukuma wiki. It was hard work fetching the water from the unused quarries but they had no option but to persevere.

“Mugo, Karume, hey you people, you don’t even rest for a while?” A voice echoed all around in the defunct quarry they were fetching water from.

The two men looked up startled.

It was Kariuki, a co-worker, who was coming toward them.

“We came here on our own feet but it seems as if we will leave on stretchers and if unlucky, inside coffins.” He was referring to the morning incident.

“Do not even mention it,” Karume said. “Something has to be done so that we save ourselves from such a calamity. You cannot cut down the only tree that is bearing fruits.”

“It is true,” Mugo concurred with Karume. “But do you think Ting Shark will toe the line?”

“Not unless we the miners came together and faced him. That is the only time our lives can be a bit protected,” Kariuki spoke his thoughts.

Karume said, “But with the disunity among the workers I wonder how far we can go.”

“Anyway,” Kariuki said, “I have come to buy onions and Sukuma wiki; let us leave politics to our wise political leaders.”

He Wanted to Change the Topic

“It is good of you to be supporting us,” Karume said also eager to change the topic.

“I feel I must support your work. You know what? You are the ones who keep the quarrymen alive. We cannot depend on the rations issued by our boss,” Kariuki spoke as he took his purchases.

“We have to help each other if we want to succeed in life,” Karume said pocketing the money Kariuki had paid.

“Thank you, men,” Kariuki said moving away. “And don’t forget the proverb that says; ‘he who tills the land is not the one who consumes.’”

When the realization of what Kariuki had said hit Karume, Kariuki was long gone. Karume could have called him back and explained to him how thugs had altered the proverb so that they could steal everything that the farmer produced.

Or maybe Kariuki knew it.

Check out the next episode here – Presage of Downfall Chapter 1 – 3

He stopped working suddenly and looked up. After placing his right hand on his lower back just slightly above the hip, he made himself straight with a great effort and there was that sound of tired bones creaking.

Muscles and tendons snapped trying to re-arrange themselves back to their normal positions. He was a tall middle-aged man who had great strength though it was in his bones. It was not a matter of having a lot of flesh but energy stored in the bones.

But it was evident that if he continued with the kind of work he was doing at the moment, it would drain him of all the energy he had within a few years and leave him an empty shell of a man. A skeleton only fit for a High School Laboratory.

The tall dark man wore a pair of patched trousers and a tattered grey shirt. The sparsely bearded man dropped the three-kilogram sledgehammer he was using to crush the quarry stones onto the rocky ground.

He wanted to blow his nose but before doing so, he wiped the dripping salty sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. Then he took out a soiled white handkerchief and proceeded to blow his nose noisily adding more obdurate stains to the already grubby handkerchief.

He looked at the contents that had come out of his nose in disbelief. It was a mixture of darkish mucous and dust.

The Fine Dust Would Eat into His Lungs

He knew that if he stayed here for long, the fine dust would eat into his lungs making him produce bloody sputum and that would be a one-way ticket to hell or heaven. Then he crumpled his kerchief and put it back into his trouser pocket.

“Why are you not working, you lazy man, you have started building castles in the air?” A harsh voice chided him from behind. “I will sack somebody today!”

Though Karume turned slowly and saw his boss watching him with contempt in his blue snake-like eyes, he had already recognized that shrill and inhuman voice.

Mr Ting Shark, the owner of the quarry Karume was working in was a man of average height. His face was thin and he had a strong beardless jaw.

He had deep-set eyes and a rather long nose that was so flexible that it danced as he talked. A wild moustache grew on his upper lip and it seemed to be attempting to block his nostrils.

He wore a black suit and he had glasses with a thick frame all around making him have a rather funny look.

In the Quarry, Work Varied Like Seasons

Karume picked up his sledgehammer and continued crushing the stones. He did not realize that Ting Shark was watching him, admiring his great strength and energy.

He would roll a great stone to his own desired side, and then bring down the heavy sledgehammer again and again as if punishing the stone. The stone would crumble into small pieces.

Those small pieces were money to Ting Shark. The best thing was he was getting all that money without sweating; he had hands to do the sweating for him.

Ting Shark grinned evilly.

This quarry situated in a remote area had a rough murram road connecting it with Mukuri town. It produced building materials such as stones, gravel, and construction aggregate. The quarry had over thirty men.

Work varied like seasons; sometimes they were digging up stones, shaping them, loading them into the waiting lorries while at other times they were crushing them to small bits.

It was dangerous work since Mr Ting Shark did not provide them with protective clothing, but still, they had to work to endure the economic hardships the country had fallen into. This is after a few greedy leaders plundered it.

All around a group of about ten men was a dull rhythmic metallic clink as their heavy hammers kept on hammering the stones hard to disintegrate them. There was the distant sound of heavy machinery drilling and blasting the rocks to be turned into building materials.

Karume Was Uneasy

Without stopping, Karume looked to his left. His comrade was hard at work.

“Mugo,” he called softly.

“Yes”, his friend answered quickly without looking up. Sweat was dripping freely from every pore of his body.

Karume kept quiet for a while. Then he licked his dry cracked lips.

“What is it?” Mugo enquired before Karume had opened his mouth to speak. “What’s bothering you?”

“I am sensing that all is not well at home.” He said bringing the sledgehammer down rhythmically on the hard stones.

Perplexed, Mugo asked; “What do you mean?”

“I have a nagging feeling that all is not well at home.”

“What hunches do you have in your mind? Are you thinking of your wife entertaining other men? Or is it that you are thinking your children are hungry? Maybe you are imagining how they are moaning by the fireside, sprinkling ashes on their faces.”

It was not abnormal to have such a rude joke where people were almost of the same age and bound together by the harshness of life and its challenges. Again coupled with the realization that they would die poor at a tender age. But the mention of the word ‘children’ touched Karume’s soft spot.

He looked up at his pal.

“You seem to have forgotten that I only have one child: a girl who has finished schooling.” He continued pounding on the stone he was working on.

“I am sorry,” Mugo said feeling that he had offended his friend. “But why on earth do such risky family planning?” He asked as a matter of fact.

The men who were eavesdropping on their conversation broke out into a burst of short forced laughter.

The Monotonous Bang! Bang! Continued

After a moment of awkward silence broken only by the monotonous Bang! Bang! of the sledgehammers, Mugo asked: “Why not ask for a leave of absence and then go home? Then you can check if everything is okay.” He cleared his throat and waited for an answer.

“I think that’s what I will do.”

“The boss was here just a moment ago and you didn’t approach him,” Mugo replied.

“I am still here,” they heard from their behind and the man cleared his throat. “I will not allow you to go home until maybe your day off.”

Both men were startled. So the man was still around all that time listening to whatever they said? They returned to their hammering and worked in silence.

A man coughed amid the choking dust. He coughed again more loudly. Then again several successive times violently like he was going to have a seizure. He managed to contain himself and there was that sound of sputum being forcibly drawn from deep within clogged lungs.

He turned backwards looking for a safe place to expectorate. He hurled the phlegm about three meters in an unoccupied area and turned back to work.

Ting Shark, took out a white handkerchief and blew his long, flexible nose. He did it so carefully as if he was afraid of breaking it. Then he moved on, walking leisurely around his quarry, harassing his overburdened workers.

You could have thought he was the richest man in the world by the way he carried himself. He started moving towards his office but stopped to watch the quarrymen as they worked.

Most of the workers were burly men with immense chests, muscle-bound arms and drowning will of living in their eyes. The hot sun blazed down on their frequently bending backs covered with tattered clothes baking their skins mercilessly.

Others had decided to work without their tattered shirts. The odour of their hot sweat emanated from their sun-baked bodies and mixed freely with the dust from the quarry. The mixture then wafted slowly into their noses down to the lungs.

A Man Would Sneeze and Cough

Now and then a man would sneeze, cough or blow his nose violently. The sky was lovely blue, with not a single track of cloud. There was only a clear sky with the blazing sun being the predominant feature.

There was no wind blowing to this mine thus making the place hot like an oven. And whenever there was wind, it blew small particles of sand into their eyes irritating them.

Sometimes Karume used to think that they were working in hell for each day was a punishment where their bodies and souls were tortured beyond endurance.

Mr Ting Shark stood for a moment at a heap of well-shaped building stones. They were ready for market and out of them he would fetch millions of shillings. He stepped on a nine-by-three stone with his left leg and removed his spectacles.

The curt man wiped his specs carefully, cleaning them first on the inside and then the outside. He rubbed his eyes with the tips of his fingers before putting on his eyeglasses and moving on to stop again near a big heap of 10mm graded aggregate.

Next to it was a 20mm graded aggregate. He took a handful of the crushed rock and gave it a greedy look. The way he looked at the crushed rock, you could have thought he was an expert in petrology.

However, the truth of the matter was he could not tell apart igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic rocks that formed the earth’s crust. All he cared for was the amount of money he got each day as profit from his investment.

Then he dropped the crushed rock back on the heap and clapped his hands to remove the dust and walked on. This time he stopped by the side of a big heap of crushed limestone.

The Two Men Came From the Same Village

He just stared at it calculating how much it was worth with his greedy eyes. From that site, he walked briskly towards his office located near the entrance.

“Will you try to ask him?” Mugo inquired pointing at the disappearing figure.

“No.” Karume shook his head violently.

“You know his attitude towards us. We are only good to him when we are making money for him. The man cannot help you even when you are in dire need, or worse still, when in trouble. He doesn’t even want to part with all our salaries; something that we have worked and sweated for.”

Mugo cleared his throat. “Never mind, my friend. One day we will get out of this mess, if I may call it so – poverty mess.” He spoke in an almost consoling tone. “By the way Karume, how many days are remaining before you go on your leave?”

“About three, I think. Will I be able to wait?”

“You will make it. You see, what you have to do is stop worrying. Everything is okay at home.”

Karume and Mugo came from the same village. Debo village – that was its name. Mugo, whose hut was just a few steps from Karume’s, had ten breathing children. Not only Mugo but also other villagers had such big families.

The village could hold the World Cup soccer since nearly every family could present a team. And in that way, each family could represent a specific country from a given continent. It seemed as if all the villagers cared for was making babies!

Each time either went home; the other sent him to take a letter or something else. The two men shared a rented single room in the quarries. Not that they found it good but because Ting Shark could not give anyone a room by himself.

In a desperate bid for privacy, they had tried to modify the room but the attempt was no good. To add to the list of the things they shared, the men had a small piece of shamba that they cultivated during their free hours to supplement the food they received from their boss.

This part of the country being hot and dry, they had to water whatever plants they had in their small shamba. They drew water from ponds in the defunct quarries using old metal buckets.

These old quarries had turned out to be reservoirs of rainwater and a menace since it was a major breeding ground for mosquitoes. It was hard work but at the end of the day, they were even able to get a little cash through the sale of their farm produce.

In this way of working together, the two became firm friends. Mugo had helped Karume to secure a job in the quarries.

There was a Sudden Guttural Cry of Terror

As they worked in silence, there was a sudden guttural cry of terror from the bowels of the open quarry. At first, all the workers listened trying to determine the exact location of the distress call.

Then pandemonium broke as they rushed down to what could have been called the basin of the quarry. There was noise, shouting, screaming and confusion in the quarry.

As Karume and the other workers descended, loose rocks prevented them from hurrying but in no time they were at the base of the quarry. What they saw was horrifying.

A part of the hanging rocks had caved in on the men who were working there. Two men had been crushed severely by the fallen rocks. Their co-workers began the rescue operation immediately by hauling away the heavy rocks to free the trapped men.

It was an awful accident. One man had his hipbone crushed while the other had his leg trapped under the tumbled rocks.

After the heavy work of lifting the rocks, the two men were rescued but they were in a bad shape. They were both wriggling with intense pain. There was blood on their clothes. The scene was ghastly.

The Two Men Were Given First Aid

The quarrymen were horrified and as they made a make-shift stretcher they were all silent perhaps each wondering what if it had been them. Ting Shark rarely visited these deep parts of the quarry.

Mostly he sent his foreman as he had done now. The two men were given first aid before they were raised onto the stretchers. The stretcher-bearers now struggled with the groaning men taking them up from the base of the quarry.

This accident could not have happened had Ting Shark been a careful man, but he was a man of shortcuts and he never followed the norm of doing things.

There was no safety procedure or precautions as long as the money was flowing in, and with no proper follow up by the government, things had turned from bad to worse. At last, they moved to Ting Shark’s office and summoned him.

The injured men were put in one of the lorries used to carry sand and rushed to the nearby hospital. The quarrymen were left standing with sullen faces. They knew of the sad fate that had befallen the two men.

If they were lucky to pull through, then they would never stand on their two feet. What was even worse was the fact that Ting Shark would not compensate them for their bodily harm. In short, it would be as if their lives had come to an end.

Check out Presage of Downfall Chapter 1 – 2 here