MAYA ANGELOU TRIBUTE INSPIRES YOUTH IN MAKADARA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 29 May 2019 for 31 May)

When Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange founded the Book Bunk in 2017, it wasn’t just to rehabilitate all three Kenyan national libraries: the main one being McMillan and the two branches in Kaloleni and Makadara. It was also to advance what’s been described as a ‘reading revolution’ in Kenya.

The job of renovating all three dilapidated structures is a major task which Wachuka and Wanjiru have relished. It’s by no means done, but interesting young people in reading and utilizing the libraries could be an even more challenging feat.

That’s why it was refreshing to see so many young people at the “Tribute to Maya Angelou” performance at the Makadara Library Branch last Saturday.

Many were seated around the large reading room that had been converted into performance space by the mother-daughter team of artists, actress Mumbi Kaigwa and musician Mo Pearson.

Others relaxed on the floor right in front of the two women who had brought with them a whole lot of indigenous African instruments that the youth would get their chance to play.

Mo also brought her acoustic guitar and Mumbi brought her talent as a lover of poetry, particular Maya Angelou’s.

The award-winning African American poet, singer, memoirist and civil rights activist died almost exactly five years ago, on May 28^th, 2014 at the age of 86. But because she left so much powerful poetry behind (which she often performed), her memory will never die. Not if performers like Mumbi and Mo have anything to do with it!

Mumbi performed several of Maya’s best-known poems, including ‘As I rise’, ‘Hold fast to dreams’ and ‘Phenomenal Woman’ among others. And Mo sang her own original songs which were partially inspired by Maya.

How their performances fit into the Book Bunk agenda was by bringing alive words that would otherwise be left of the written page. What’s more, children in the audience were invited up to perform with the musical instruments as Mumbi dramatized Maya’s moving words. That interactive element made their performance even more meaningful to the young teens who were the main age-group in the hall.

Mo’s singing was too brief, but it was beautiful and definitely sent electric changes through the audience who easily identified with Mo who’d just graduated from university a relatively short time ago.

Mumbi ended their performance by dramatizing one of Maya’s best loved poems, ‘Hold fast to dreams.’ After that she opened the floor, inviting anyone to ask questions or say something in response to their show. This was when things opened up.

Initially, in typical Kenyan style, the room fell silent and nobody said a word until Valentine Omwaka Nyanje, age 13, finally raised her hand, then stood and sounded like she could become Kenya’s next Maya Angelou equivalent.

The standard eight student from St John’s Primary School in Kaloleni didn’t share a poem. Instead, she shared sentiments similar to Maya’s main message which is to believe in yourself. She spoke about the ‘kihere here’ or the passion inside her that was pushing her to do special things with her life. She said everyone had that ‘kihere here’ and ought to listen to it and act upon it.

After she sat down, a number of kids raised their hands and took turns sharing their hopes, dreams and ambitions. Their enthusiastic remarks could have gone on all afternoon if Wanjiru Koinange hadn’t gotten up, thanked everyone for coming and then invited them to have a delicious lunch, courtesy of the Book Bunk.  

The one aspect of the event that might have been slightly better suited to an older audience was an audio-tape of Maya Angelou speaking along with a number of African American poets like Langston Hughes, the champion boxer Mohammed Ali and other civil rights activists, including James Baldwin and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Personally I enjoyed Mumbi’s tape because it was an excellent means of establishing the political and social context within which to place Maya’s life work.

One person who was delighted with both the Book Bunk’s and the Mumbi-Mo initiative was Douglas Kierieni, the retired banker and columnist at Business Daily.

“This is like a dream come true for me,” he said beaming as the children got in line to eat well-cooked green grams, rice and cabbage. “I’ve been appealing in my BD column for someone to revive the libraries, and now it’s happening.”

HOW FARCE CAN FRUSTRATE

(posted 29 May for 31 May 2019)

Not to be too critical (especially as I admire Talenta Yetu), but it must be said that farce is not the equivalent to overacting. And I saw a lot of the latter in their latest production, ‘Our Prophet says he is dead’.

One only needs to study masterful writers of farce like Moliere or Shakespeare to appreciate that a farce is one of the most difficult genres of theatre to write. The farcical elements emerge out of a credible story that becomes incredible out of logical circumstances.

Scripted and directed by Joseph Murunga, the play had a credible plot line, especially for Kenya where we have too many ‘prophets’ who are first class conmen like Prophet Pius Power (Fanuel Mulwa) who wants to ‘die’ and rise again like Jesus Christ with the aid of the doctor who’s agreed to provide the drug that will make him look dead. An antidote will induce the ‘resurrection’ but it must be taken in good time to ensure the nearly fatal drug’s effect is not permanent.

We meet Pius in a hotel room, but wonder why he’d choose that location to ‘die’. Wouldn’t it arouse suspicions? Why was he there? With whom? And when would his body be found?

Then there’s the ‘Doctor’ Kiti (Sybil Mukandutite). She’s got on a white hospital coat. But chewing gum and wearing a short jump suit aren’t exactly a professional’s style. Yet Pius doesn’t detect anything strange. Nor does he recognize Kiti as a girl he’d impregnated 18 years before. It’s his life on the line but he’s apparently so full of himself, he doesn’t realize he could be conned just as easily as he cons others.

But Pius eventually learns that not only Dr. Kiti is cheating him. Even his wife Patricia (Mary Kimani) and most ‘devoted’ parishioner Imanass (Clement Ochieng) are doing so.

None of their tricks are exposed until after Kiti tells Pius ‘a story’. This is where the confusion comes. She says the drug can be risky as she had one case of a conman who accidentally died. Then she goes into the story. But is it a flashback in which Pius dramatizes her ‘conman’? Or is she actually referring to Pius the conman, or is it a farcical dream scenario, a sort of ‘what if’ she drugged Pius but then let him die? But how could a dream include Patricia’s and Imanass reveal their real-life ten-year affair? If a dream, how could Kiti disclose she’s the innocent whom he seduced and who subsequently gave birth to his child?

It’s total confusion which I guess the playwright felt was appropriate for farce. But however absurd a farce can be, there needs to be an underlying logic.

As the play ended, I wasn’t sure if Pius really died since he never gets the antidote in the ‘dream’, or he merely collapsed in shock at discovering Kiti has got him to sign away millions to her, Imanass and Patricia? Maybe I’m just thick, but it was hard to tell.

HOW FARCE CAN FRUSTRATE (first draft, written soon after I saw the show)

Not to be too critical (especially as I admire Talenta Yetu), but it must be said that farce is not the equivalent to overacting. And I saw a lot of the latter in their latest production, ‘Our Prophet says he is dead’.

One only needs to study masterful writers of farce like Moliere or Shakespeare to appreciate that a farce is one of the most difficult genres of theatre to write. The farcical elements emerge out of a credible story that becomes incredible out of logical circumstances.

Scripted and directed by Joseph Murunga, the play had a credible plot line, especially for Kenya where we have too many ‘prophets’ who are first class conmen like Prophet Pius Power (Fanuel Mulwa) who wants to ‘die’ and rise again like Jesus Christ with the aid of the doctor who’s agreed to provide the drug that will make him look dead. An antidote will induce the ‘resurrection’ but it must be taken in good time to ensure the nearly fatal drug’s effect is not permanent.

We meet Pius in a hotel room, but wonder why he’d choose that location to ‘die’. Wouldn’t it arouse suspicions? Why was he there? With whom? And when would his body be found?

Then there’s the ‘Doctor’ Kiti (Sybil Mukandutite). She’s got on a white hospital coat. But chewing gum and wearing a short jump suit aren’t exactly a professional’s style. Yet Pius doesn’t detect anything strange. Nor does he recognize Kiti as a girl he’d impregnated 18 years before. It’s his life on the line but he’s apparently so full of himself, he doesn’t realize he could be conned just as easily as he cons others.

But Pius eventually learns that not only Dr. Kiti is cheating him. Even his wife Patricia (Mary Kimani) and most ‘devoted’ parishioner Imanass (Clement Ochieng) are doing so.

None of their tricks are exposed until after Kiti tells Pius ‘a story’. This is where the confusion comes. She says the drug can be risky as she had one case of a conman who accidentally died. Then she goes into the story. But is it a flashback in which Pius dramatizes her ‘conman’? Or is she actually referring to Pius the conman, or is it a farcical dream scenario, a sort of ‘what if’ she drugged Pius but then let him die? But how could a dream include Patricia’s and Imanass reveal their real-life ten-year affair? If a dream, how could Kiti disclose she’s the innocent whom he seduced and who subsequently gave birth to his child?

It’s total confusion which I guess the playwright felt was appropriate for farce. But however absurd a farce can be, there needs to be an underlying logic.

As the play ended, I wasn’t sure if Pius really died since he never gets the antidote in the ‘dream’, or he merely collapsed in shock at discovering Kiti has got him to sign away millions to her, Imanass and Patricia? Maybe I’m just thick, but it was hard to tell.

MARIE COLVIN: JOURNALISM AT THE WAR FRONT

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 28 May 2019)

Anyone who wants to know what it means to be a real journalist needs to watch ‘A Private War’. The US-UK co-production that came out in February directed by Matthew Heineman isn’t an easy film to see. But most Kenyan film-viewers are no long squeamish seeing blood, guts and body parts flying, especially if they’ve watched even a few minutes of ‘Game of Thrones’.  

‘A Private War’ is based on the real-life story of the American war correspondent, Marie Colvin who became a living legend for her daring eye-witness coverage of the fiercest wars, revolutions and uprising of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries.

She covered war zones everywhere from Tripoli, Gaza, Eritrea and Chechnya to Basra, Cairo and Homs, Syria where she lost her life in 2012. But that was not before she was able to tell the world, both in print and by live video, what she had seen firsthand—starving women and children being bombed by the Republican Army of Bashir Al-Assad, even as he’d tried to claim only rebels were being hit in Homs.

Colvin’s portrayal by Rosemund Pike captures the charisma and reckless courage of the woman that fellow journalist have often written about. One can even see it in the documentary film that was released in 2017 which features her during her last days and wearing her trademark eye-patch.

The eye-patch was earned in 2001 in Sri Lanka where she was blasted while running across a front line trying to get back into government-controlled territory so she could continue giving authentic accounts of what was really going in at the front, particularly as it affected innocent civilians.

Hit by shrapnel during a bomb blast, she lost her sight in her left eye, a scene powerfully conveyed in the film which doesn’t shy away from revealing the pain and personal suffering she felt in spite of her doing when she felt compelled to do.

Colvin was renowned for her courage, which she would joke might have been more about ‘bravado’ than bravery. But whatever the reasons for her choosing to go straight to the riskiest war zones in the world and remain longer than the rest of her media peers, she narrated news that made her a media celebrity, whether she wanted it or not.

She interviewed guerrilla leaders like the late Yasser Arafat and controversial heads of state like Col. Muammar Gaddafi. But just as easily did she listen to and speak for the widows and orphans whose plight would have been unknown if she hadn’t told their stories in print.

One of the best lessons aspiring journalists can take away from a film like ‘A Private War’ is seeing how Colvin embodied the type of journalism that bears witness to realities on the ground, however violent or life-threatening. She paid the price at 54 years old. But outside the film, the media recently reported that a US District Court Judge just found the Syrian government liable for her death to the tune of USD302 million.

  

STURDY SUCCULENTS SURVIVE DROUGHTS AND DOWNPOURS

                                         Lettuce-like echeveria hybrid grown by Celia Hardy and Barry Cameron

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted May 28, 2019)

Succulents are the savior of many a gardener in Kenya who didn’t want to be devastated during the recent drought by the withering of all their other plants.

For succulents are specifically designed to retain water in arid climates, including the drought we just had, and which in some parts of Kenya, people are still suffering from.

“Succulents can go for as long as three weeks without watering,” says Celia Hardy, an award winner at the recent plant and flower show for her lovely display of potted succulent plants.

“So if you forget to water your plants for a week, your succulents will survive,” she adds. “They are also tolerant of heat.”

Succulents come from all over the world, especially from arid environs. They are indigenous to countries like South Africa and Mexico, and there are also home-grown succulents from Kenya.

There were many succulents on display at the plant and flower show. The winning ones were grown by Celia and Barry Cameron, Balinda Ahluwalia, Vishy Talwar and by the Succulenta Society. But even more gardeners entered succulents this year since their other plants hadn’t survived the dry, hot weather.

“Lots of people are buying succulents to have in their homes since they are so easy to look after,” says Celia who admits that even succulents can occasionally whither when the heat is sustained, as it was for the many months when the rains did not come.

“But even when they wither and curl up, once they are watered, they will return to their normal vitality and shape,” she adds.

And she should know since she won a first prize and silver trophy for her amazing table display of succulents. She had everything from a ‘crassula rupestris marnierana’, also known as the ‘Jade necklace’ for its bead-like strings and a ‘crassula ovata’ or ‘Hummel’s sunset’ for its brilliant yellow and lime green leaves to the head-lettuce-like ‘echeveria hybrid’ and the spiky ‘ferro’ cactus.

The ferro cactus was similar to the super-spiky ‘echinocactus grusonii’ which is also known as the ‘mother-in-law’s cushion’. It’s the one that also won Balinder Ahluwalia a prize for its exquisite form and beauty.

“My ‘mother-in-law’s cushion’ is 20 years old, but the Peter Greensmith’s nursery has 40- and 50-year-old ones that grow as tall as half a meter high,” Balinder says.

Noting that succulents like hers require lots of sun, she adds that when there’s a heavy downpour, she’s so protective of her potted plant that she quickly keeps it in the family garage until the rain stops. That’s one of the reasons her succulents thrive, whether there’s drought or downpour.

Celia says succulents run from Sh150 up to Sh15,000. “The ‘pachypodium’ is our most expensive succulent,” she says, adding that she only displayed one-tenth of the succulent varieties that she grows at ‘Plants Galore’ in Roslyn.

There was just one ‘pachypodium’ in the plant show. Vishy Talwar, this year’s show chairman proudly took BD over to see his award-winning tree-like succulent. “It was the only plant I entered in the show this year, so I am delighted that it also won a first prize,” he says.

                                                                                   Celia's Sedum wintonii

A Tour of African Heritage House

PASTORAL AND INTERPLANETARY PAINTINGS AT ONE OFF

BY Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 27 May 2019)

At RaMoMa Gallery, Carol Lees used to put on no less than seven exhibitions at a go when it was located in Parklands, in a veritable mansion. That’s why one might think it was a breeze for her to put up just two exhibitions which opened simultaneously last weekend, one in the Stable by Fitsum Berhe Woldelibanos, the other in the Loft by James Mbuthia.

Yet whether it’s two or ten, the effort to beautifully curate an art exhibition is hard work, but it’s work consistently achieved at One Off.

One doubts that Carol meant to pair the shows of Fitsum and James, despite their having a few things in common. For instance, both focus on portraiture, although Fitsum’s attention is on handsome black men while James’s is on wistful African women.

Both are also colorists who utilize rich, radiant color palettes, yet Fitsum’s colors veritably explode on his canvas while James’s are carefully contained in delineated shapes that give them a cooler, more soothing effect.

Indeed, James says this show is an extension of the one he had last year at One Off entitled ‘Conversations in Silence’. His two shows are very similar except that the artist is finely tuned to the environment in which he paints. That includes the weather, terrain, sights and sounds of the outdoor spaces that he picks in which to paint. And those have changed over the course of the past year. Those subtle changes are also manifested in his art.

Fitsum is also finely tuned to the environment in which he paints. But his terrain is more metaphysical than physical, more transcendent than terrestrial. And where James’s pastoral paintings have a soothing effect, Fitsum’s feel more psychedelic, as if his works are like time capsules taking his characters into other dimensions of space and time.

A painting like ‘Arise’, for instance, has that feeling of breaking out of one dimension and exploding head-first into another. The energy required to make that extraterrestrial leap into this curious new realm is easily inferred from Fitsum’s use of bold-stroked acrylic lines of hot pink, yelping yellow, glowing green and fiery red and orange stripes.

Another one of his works, “Contact with the elements’ also suggests that the ‘contact’ is with otherworldly ‘elements’. It’s the coolest, most soulful piece in the show, given his blue-faced man is halo-headed with a torso tending towards the transparent. The man seems to have already arrived at another level of consciousness and settled into a psychic realm of peace and tranquility.

Yet not all of Fitsum’s paintings take us out of this world. One like ‘The Sacred in Us’ seems to reflect on the present possibility of our being as beautiful as is this multicolored man with his purple, pink and turquoise blue profile.

But to attain that beauty, one might need to be as “Lost in Thought” as his man who’s got tiny squares of multiple colors swirling around his brain even as the remainder of background is filled with straight horizontal strokes to anchor him in the present.

Other paintings of Fitsum that feel like present-tense are works such as ‘I am my story’, ‘Veils of Illusion’ and his two untitled works.

One of his most appealing portraits for me in Fitsum’s show is “Idealized self-projection II”. This is the one painting of a younger fellow whose penetrating gaze feels most transparent, direct. Interestingly enough, his face is the only one that looks like his golden brown and red skin tones are the true reflection of the lad’s own.

But the one painting in the show that drew most attention at the opening was Fitsum’s ‘Old Gods New Gods’. Here he creates an iconographic work with three symbols of worship. On the left is the Christian Madonna and Child, on the right an indigenous West African sculpture and in the centre, a shirtless celebrity-chic rock star-rapper, the idol he says is often worshipped by the youth nowadays.

The burgundy curtains draped across three side edges of the painting suggest Fitsum’s work is part of a human drama that we are all watching. Yet his implication could also be that whichever god you choose, that way of seeking transcendence is part and parcel of the human experience.

MUMBI AND MO TEAM TOUCH CHILDREN'S HEARTS

TRIBUTE TO MAYA ANGELOU INSPIRES YOUTH IN MAKADARA

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 25 May 2019)

When Angela Wachuka and Wanjiru Koinange first founded the Book Bunk in 2017, it wasn’t only to rehabilitate all three Kenyan national libraries: the main one being at McMillan and the two branches at Kaloleni and Makadara. It was also to advance what’s been described as a ‘reading revolution’ in Kenya.

The job of renovating dilapidated structures like all three libraries is a major task which Wachuka and Wanjiru have relished. It’s by no means done, but interesting young people in reading and utilizing the libraries could be an even more challenging feat.

That’s why it was refreshing to see so many youth at the “Tribute to Maya Angelou” performance/event at the Makadara Branch of the Nairobi library system last Saturday.

Many were seated all around the large reading room that had been converted into performance space by the mother-daughter team of artists, actress Mumbi Kaigwa and musician Mo Pearson.

Others relaxed on the floor right in front of the two women who had brought with them a whole lot of indigenous African instruments that the youth would get their chance to play when the time came.

Mo also brought her acoustic guitar and Mumbi brought her talent as lover of poetry and literature, particular Maya Angelou’s.

The award-winning African American poet, singer, memoirist and civil rights activist died almost exactly five years ago, on May 28^th, 2014 at the age of 86. But because she left so much powerful poetry, which she often performed, her memory will never die. Not if performers like Mumbi and Mo have anything to do with it!

Mumbi performed a number of Maya’s best-known poems, including ‘As I rise’, ‘Hold fast to dreams’ and ‘Phenomenal Woman’ among others. And Mo sang original songs she had written which were inspired by Maya.

How their performances fit into the Book Bunk agenda was by bringing alive words that would otherwise be left of the written page. What’s more, children in the audience were invited up to perform with the musical instruments as Mumbi dramatized Maya’s moving words. That interactive element made their performance even more meaningful to the young teenagers who were the main age-group in the hall.

Mo’s singing was too brief but it was beautiful and definitely sent electric changes among the youthful population which identified easily with Mumbi’s daughter who only graduated from university a relatively short time ago.

Mumbi ended their performance by dramatizing one of Maya’s best loved poems, ‘Hold fast to dreams.’ After that she opened the floor, inviting anyone to ask questions or say something in response to their show. This was when things got exciting. Initially, as is the Kenyan style, the room fell silent and nobody said a word until Valentine Omwaka Nyanje, age 13, finally raised her hand, then stood up and sounded like she could be Kenya’s next Maya Angelou equivalent.

The standard eight student from St John’s Primary School in Kaloleni didn’t share a poem. Instead, she shared sentiments similar to Maya’s main message which is to believe in yourself. She spoke about the ‘kihere here’ or passion inside herself that was pushing her to do something special with her life. She said everyone had that ‘kihere here’ and ought to listen to it and act upon it.

After she sat down, a number of kids raised their hands and took turns sharing their hopes, dreams and ambitions. Their enthusiastic remarks could have gone on all afternoon if Wanjiru Koinange hadn’t gotten up, thanked everyone for coming and then invited them to have a delicious lunch, courtesy of the Book Bunk.   

The one aspect of the event that might have been slightly better suited to an older audience was an audio-tape of Maya Angelou speaking along with a number of African American poets like Langston Hughes, the champion boxer Mohammed Ali and other civil rights activists, including James Baldwin and Martin Luther King, Jr. Personally I enjoyed Mumbi’s selection because it was an excellent means of establishing the political and social context within which to place Maya’s life work.

Nonetheless, one person who was clearly delighted by both the Book Bunk’s and the Mumbi-Mo initiative was Douglas Kierieni, the retired banker and columnist at Business Daily.

“This is like a dream come true for me,” he said beaming as the children got in line to eat well-cooked green grams, rice and cabbage. “I’ve been appealing in my BD column for someone to revive the libraries, and now it’s happening.”

‘ROLL THE DICE’ MAKES NEWCOMERS INTO STARS

By margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 22 May for 24 May 2019)


Actors Nice Githinji and Bilal Mwaura have done a beautiful thing, the fruition of which was staged the last three nights at the Kenya Cultural Centre Gallery.

‘Roll the Dice’ was born out of a three-month workshop that Nice organized after auditioning a slew of newcomers to Nairobi theatre. Most them were university students who not only were mentored by Nice and several other local luminaries best known (as she and Mwaura are) for their performances on stage, film and TV.

The students were also encouraged to tell their stories, including the challenges they face, be they academic, social, psychological or financial. It was from their stories that Mwaura fashioned the script that was staged Tuesday through last night.

Tuesday’s premiere performance of ‘Roll the Dice’ was reserved for Kenya’s professional theatre fraternity that came out to watch the show, lend moral support and gently critique the performance. As such, the official opening on Wednesday had a sheen, polish and cohesion that hadn’t been quite so visible the night before.

It’s still a story centered around students tempted by everything from sex, drugs, booze and the juggling for power. But by Wednesday, people’s motives were clearer, particularly those of Suleiman (Vitalis Waweru), the student leader concerned about his social status once he learns his professor father (Keith Chuaga) has impregnated one of his students.

Anabel (Violet Bijura) already has a boyfriend, Kyalo (Neville Ignacius). But once he hears she’s not only three months’ pregnant; she’s also been with the professor for two years, he nearly strangles her death. She’s only saved by her friend Kami (Lucy Wahitu).

But Kami can’t save her from Suli who hears about a potentially lethal drug that he gets from his classmate Alex ‘the alchemist (Cliff Njeru). Anabel is already torn between aborting her twins or keeping them, especially since the prof (who’d previously broken multiple promises) now wants to marry her.

She’s confused but not suicidal. But she did drink herself silly during the ‘bash’ organized by Denise (Valentine Njeru), the university student ‘escort’ who socializes and serves local politicians but just got trashed by one who stole all her cash. She and Suleiman cook up a scheme to save his father’s and his reputations, although Denise hadn’t bargained for Suli’s deadly trick.

‘Roll the Dice’ ends tragically, but there’s a moral to the story: actions have consequences.

FCA PLAY EXPOSES CORRUPT POLITICAL STATUS QUO

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 23 May 2019)

Never has this girl seen a more despicably sexist play in Kenya than what she saw last Saturday night at Nairobi Cinema when Festival of Creative Arts (FCA) staged ‘Trouble at Home.’

It is hard to believe she sat all the way through it. But having hoped the cast might redeem itself in the end, she held on. FCA and its founder-producer Eliud Abuto had been out of action for more than two years, and fans of the group had eagerly awaiting its return. It was assumed the company would return presenting new and improved productions.

Instead, what we saw was that FCA has sunken to its lowest level yet. Not that the acting was bad. The actors were true to their low-life characters, mostly playing sleazy, corrupt politicians and prostitutes. But FCA apparently still has the habit of taking second or third-rate foreign scripts and supposedly adapting them to a local context.

In that respect, the script was relevant since it was about three corrupt Senators, two of whom (Johnson ‘Fish’ Chege and Ben Tekee) are seasoned politicians, one of whom, the Deputy Party Leader (Tekee) is running for president and the younger one, Senator Olum (Kasuku Synyor), his nephew, is Chief Whip and his uncle’s sycophantic yes-man.

Olum barely blinks an eye when he discovers his uncle’s flagrant duplicity. For the DPL claims in public to stand for family values and high moral standards. In fact, he is just another philander who uses wedlock as a cover for his coterie of concubines, two of whom show up at his home immediately after his wife (Angela Waruinge) takes off for the Coast.

One is a sex worker (Ivy Chiko) from the Agency that he calls as soon as his wife leaves. She has come to do her job and, upon finding the drunken Olum in the DPL’s sitting room, assumes he’s the one who called. It’s quite a scene when she struggles to drag the drunkard into the DPL’s bed. (That’s when several viewers walked out.)

It got even more licentious after the DPL shows up and the Agency girl complains her job is not done with Olum. “Only five times,” she laments since she says she can’t get paid until her job is done.

By now the second girlfriend, Veronica (Majuma Belle) has arrived and the DPL tries his best to not let her see the girl from the Agency.

To add to the chaos, the Senate Majority Leader (Fish) shows up apparently just to drink the DPL’s booze.  He also provides a classic ‘old school’ sexist perspective on women. Being part of the DPL’s entourage, Fish plays the perfect Party man who, (like Kenya’s own politicians who refuse to pass the ‘gender justice’ bill) can’t imagine seeing women on equal footing with men in politics or in any other public sphere.

The play opens with the DPL announcing his candidacy for president, but during a brief Q&A session, one pesky journalist (Joey Kinyua) asks hard-hitting questions the candidate avoids, closing the session fast. The journalist is man-handled by Security (Isaboke Nyakundi), but she won’t be muzzled for long.

She sneaks into the DPL’s bedroom, hides under the bed and takes snaps of Olum with Agency girl, assuming he’s the DPL. She manages to not get caught again by Security until after the wife’s unanticipated returns home. Then she tries to share her compromising photographs with her but the DPL manages to get her ousted from the house.

The wife’s plane was overbooked (sound familiar!) so she decided to come home. One might assume her arrival signals the end of the DPL’s game of ‘musical’ women. But no. He manages to get them all bundled out of his house with the assistance of Olum and Security.

In the end, the wife is no wiser and the message comes clear. It is that ‘crime does pay’, corrupt crooks and sexist Big Men can get away with whatever their lusty heart’s desires.

If the play is meant to provide a mirror-image of Kenyan politicians today, it could be said that ‘Trouble at Home’ is an accurate reflection of how effectively corrupt politicians get away with scams, scandals and worse, without fearing the consequences.

But if one would like to believe the theatre has a role to play in educating and inspiring the public, then FCA’s show failed emphatically. It was demoralizing to see how low a theatre company could go to reinforce a corrupt status quo.

AWARD-WINNING PLANTS DEFIES DROUGHT AND RAIN

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (23 May for 24 May 2019)


Drought didn’t only affect the farmers whose crops dried out and were not able to revive when the rains finally came.

Even gardeners experienced severe damage from the lack of rain. But for some of them, the rains that followed sporadically often compounded their problems, especially if they grew flowers that required more sunshine than downpours.

Hansa Patel was fortunate in this regard. “My Heliconia blossomed right after the drought,” she says shortly after winning a number of awards for her plants at the recent Plant and Flower Show held at the SSDS Temple Hall. “Once they flower, they are sturdy enough to last at least three weeks,” she adds acknowledging that the Flower show arrived just in time for her heliconia—all six varieties of which she displayed—to win a first prize.

It was one of the three firsts that her flowers earned this year. “I won three firsts, three seconds and one third,” says the proud gardener who admits she adores horticulture.

“I’m a member of the Kenya Horticulture Society (sponsor of the Plant and Flower Show), the Orchid Society and I also belong to the Kenya Floral Arrangement Club,” says Hansa.

Normally she says she exhibits with the Floral Arrangement Club, but when they are showing with the Horticulturalists (as they did this year and last) she sticks with the latter.

“I also exhibit at the annual Orchid Show,” she adds noting that one of her second prizes was for her display of a single indigenous orchid.

Hansa has lived in Kitisuru for the past 30 years. She and her husband bought two and a half acres at a time when most of her neighbors lived on five-acre plots. Since her husband passed on three years ago, her sons strongly suggest that their mother move to smaller, more convenient quarters.

“But I tell them I simply cannot leave my garden,” this devoted plant-lover says. “Not a day goes by without my working in the garden and tending my plants. It’s what keeps me feeling young,” adds the diminutive 74-year-old. 



Hansa says she is not the oldest member of the Horticultural Society. “But I am the oldest active member.”

Last year she recalls she had a major challenge. She had a fall and broke some bones. “I did my gardening while seated in a wheelchair.” Fortunately, she has an excellent assistant whom she instructed on everything from planting, pruning and trimming trees to watering and making the compost. “I only use organic fertilizer which I make with various plant materials from my kitchen,” she says.

The wheelchair didn’t keep her from attending last year’s Plant and Flower Show where she also won a number of trophies. Fortunately, this year she was spry as a spring chicken, displaying her agility as she leaped up to collect her many awards and trophies.

“I don’t garden to make money, but I do get a lot of satisfaction from displaying my plants.” There can be little doubt that her plants also feel the love that Hansa has for her garden and thrive in light of all the attention, water and nutrients that she shares with them.

She is especially fond of her trees. “I have more than fifty eucalyptus trees in the garden, some of which are 100 years old.” She recalls that the first European farmer to live on her land was a Mr Davidson who had a hundred acres of coffee trees. But Davidson isn’t the person from whom her family bought the land. Nor was it the German who built the house she currently lives in.

“We bought from someone else. Before we moved there, we lived in Westlands off Waiyaki Way. I was also gardening back then. And I also was a member of the Horticulture Society.”

Hansa admits her house is too big for one person. “But I wouldn’t be happy living anywhere else. This is my home and I love my garden. I love my neighborhood as well,” she adds.

AN AFRICAN QUEEN COMES TO TOWN

                                       The Nnaabagereka, Her Royal Highness Queen Sylvia Nagginda Luswata

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 20th May 2019)

Where does one find an authentic African Queen? Whoever knew that one existed apart from the award-winning Hollywood film that starred Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn entitled ‘The African Queen’?

If you live in Uganda, it must be common knowledge that they do exist. But we had to wait until last Sunday evening at Laico Regency Hotel to meet Her Royal Highness Queen Sylvia Nagginda Luswata, The Nnaagagereka of the Kingdom of Baganda.

Queen Sylvia had come to Kenya specifically to serve as Guest of Honor at the installation of her fellow country - woman Jessica Kazina as the next president of the Rotary Club of Nairobi, the oldest Rotary Club in Kenya and the third oldest in Africa.

                           The Nnaabagereka with incoming Rotary President of Nairobi Central Club, Jessica Kazina

The Nnaabagereka didn’t come to Kenya solely because she was invited by her Ugandan ‘sister’. She also came in support of women in leadership, one of the many causes she has supported even before she co-founded the African Queens and Women Cultural Leaders Network in 2013 with HRH Queen Mother of the Tooro Kingdom, Best Kemigisa Olima.

In her keynote address in Nairobi, Queen Sylvia expressed her admiration for Rotary and its “noble values” of philanthropy and service above self. She said she felt Rotary shared with her Foundation the spirit of ‘ubuntu’ or selfless, ethical and moral service to the community.

In 2000, Queen Sylvia founded her Nnaabagereka Development Foundation to promote the fusion of modern and traditional values and practices. Through the Foundation, she has been involved in numerous causes, many of which are related to education and mentoring of the most vulnerable sectors of society. The Foundation has also been involved in everything from cultivating an ‘HIV-free generation’ to supporting other health and family-planning initiatives to the empowerment of women and girls. Queen Sylvia also serves as Patron for the Special Olympics Uganda and has established branches of her foundation in the UK, North America and the Diaspora generally.

A graduate of New York University with a Master’s degree in journalism and public relations with a minor in economics and development, the Queen told BD she had no idea in her student years that she was destined to marry the Kabaka of Baganda, Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II in 1999. But if he had been looking for a strong beautiful woman who would be a perfect partner in service of his kingdom, he couldn’t have asked for more than Sylvia.

The installation of a new Rotary club president is an annual event so the evening included appreciation for the outgoing President of the Nairobi Central Club, Salim Fazal who recounted a wide range of the club’s service achievements from his year in office.

Among the most outstanding were the Eye Camps that the Club had conduct in Kisumu with Dr Mukesh Gohil who removed cataracts and restored the vision of hundreds of low-income Kenyans.

The outgoing president also noted that the club has been actively involved in various environmental issues including the sharing of energy-saving jikos and providing clean water to Kenyan communities.

                                Queen Sylvia with Rotary District Governor Jeffrey Bamford at Laico Regency Hotel

Rotary’s Outgoing District Governor Jeffrey Bamford (who is just completing his term of office) gave a brief history of Rotary International which was started back in 1905 in Chicago, USA, by Paul Harris and several other business men.

“Rotary’s initial appeal was friendship but its service orientation has also been there from the beginning,” said Mr Bamford. He explained how rapidly the organization grew. Initially, two more clubs, one in New York, another in California were established in 1910. Subsequently, it expanded to embrace Canadians, Europeans and in 1921, the first Rotary Club was started in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It was only in 1987 that the first women were admitted to Rotary Clubs with Evelyn Mungai being the first Kenyan woman to become President of the Nairobi Central Club. “Since then, women’s participation in Rotary has grown tremendously,” said Mr Bamford. 

                                  Evelyn Mungai Eldon, the first woman President of a Kenyan Rotary Club in 1987

He said the total membership of the global organization is 1,260,000 as of this year with women constituting 23 percent of members in East Africa. He added that currently Tanzania and Uganda are the fastest growing clubs in the region, but in Kenyan women constitute 48 percent of the country’s membership.  

The proudest achievement that most Rotarians observe is the founding of the Polio Plus campaign in 1985. “That year 350,000 children were struck with polio, but by 2019, the latest figures are that 22 cases have been recorded, with 16 in Pakistan and seven in Afghanistan.

                                               Incoming President of Nairobi Central Rotary Club Jessica Kazina

When the new President had her moment to speak, she expressed the hope that her year in office would be as exemplary as the previous one. She has many new projects she plans to initiate as well as providing ongoing support for the ones that have made the club among the leading philanthropic organizations in Kenya and East Africa.

Impervious: Another Biko-Mbeki success

CELEBRATING CONTEMPORARY KENYAN ART AT ONE OFF ANNEX

                                                                                            Peter Ngugi

By Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 16 may for 17 May 2019)

Carol Lees has a lot to show for her 25 years exhibiting Kenyan contemporary art as she illustrated effectively last Wednesday night at the opening of her 25^th anniversary exhibition at Rosslyn Riviera Mall.

She’s had long-standing friendships with all sixteen artists whose latest works fill the spacious walls of One Off ‘annex’. She has known some longer than others. For instance, Richard Kimathi is one whose artworks she showed when she was still at Serendipity, the first gallery she opened after leaving McNaughton – West Interiors and heeding advice from her friend, Mary Collis.

                                                                                             Richard Kimathi

It was Mary who encouraged her to meet the need many artists felt in the early 1990s for an art gallery where the best contemporary art could be shown.

“I had just turned 30 and felt I needed to do something for myself,” she told BDLife shortly after the exhibition opened. The idea of opening a gallery made sense to her since she knew many artists through her interior design work. It was work that required her to fill the walls of leading banks, hotels and commercial offices with excellent artworks preferably by locals.

                                                                                             Peterson Kamwathi

“I started off with works by Mary [Collis], Nadia Kisseleva, Tums Yeshim and one Sudanese artist who’d recently come to Kenya,” she recalls, having opened the first edition of One Off at Viking House in 1994.

“But then I made my way to Kuona Trust and found Richard [Kimathi] and others,” she adds.

Between 1994 and 2000, Carol was a bit of a nomad, moving from Viking House to Libra House and then to Shamneel Court in Westlands.

                                                                                                      Fitsum

But by then, she and Mary Collis were already talking about joining hands to establish what would become RaMoMa, or the Rahimtulla Museum of Modern Art. The two women shared a beautiful vision of what their new space would become. And for ten good years, RaMoMa was the leading commercial art gallery in Kenya.

“But as RaMoMa was actually run as a Trust, I knew I would one day hand it over to someone else,” Carol says. “That is why I disassociated myself from One Off, but I didn’t fully shut it down.” She seemed to intuitively know that eventually, she would come back to it,” which of course, she did in 2010.

                                                                                        Michael Musyoka

Initially, Carol ran RaMoMa out of Rahimtulla House where the Rahimtulla family, out of their lifetime friendship with Mary, covered most of the overhead expenses. And with additional support from Ford Foundation, RaMoMa was able to mount regular exhibitions, publish its own art magazine and exhibit painters and sculptors who today are considered some of the leading contemporary artists in Kenya.

                                                                                           Beatrice Wanjiku

Then in 2007, the affairs of RaMoMa took a radical turn. Carol and Mary made the decision to move from Rahimtulla House to 2^nd Avenue Parklands where RaMoMa became a cultural phenomenon. Mary had always dreamed of its being much more than just a gallery. She envisioned it becoming the equivalent of a MOMA in New York, which it practically did.

                                                                                                Elias Mung'ora

Carol recalls that once they got to Parklands, they ran five gallery exhibitions at once plus a print studio, library, gift shop, artist apartment, children’s wing, and a well-tended garden. “We also had to have a lot of security staff,” she adds. There were also theatre and dance performances happening at RaMoMa.

But frankly, once they moved to Parklands, RaMoMa was no longer the exclusive responsibility of Carol and Mary. Members of the Trust began to take a more active role in decision-making which was a challenge to Carol who resigned in late 2009.

It was a difficult decision to make but thankfully, Carol went straight back to her home in Rosslyn and reopened One Off from there in 2010. She hasn’t looked backwards since.

                                                                                       James Mbuthia

Carol had given much thought to her departure and she invited some of her favorite artists to come along and start exhibiting exclusively with One Off. Many of those are the ones exhibiting currently at Rosslyn Riviera at the One Off ‘Annex’.

                                                                                           Paul Onditi

In an exquisite exhibition that allows for the full scope of One Off artists to be seen, Carol with assistance from Kui Ogonga, has hung the most current works of artists like Beatrice Wanjiku, Peterson Kamwathi, Richard Kimathi, Timothy Brooke, Fitsum Behre, James Mbuthia, Peter Ngugi, 

                                                                                            Florence Wangui

Florence Wangui  Ehoodi Kichapi, Paul Onditi, Elias Mung’ora, Wambui Collymore, Thom Ogonga, Michael Musyoka, Olivia Pendergast and Lisa Milroy. Entitled ‘Celebrating our Collectors’, it’s really a show that celebrates the wisdom, vision and professionalism of Carol Lees.

                                  Florence Wangui with her muse, her sister Dorothy at One Off Annex@Roslyn Riviera

                                            Anthony Okello, Wa Gacheru and Michael Musyoka at One Off Annex