Episode 15 | Dear Mama, with Kinyanjui Kombani
It's the 1960s, Kenya is newly independent, the exhilaration is palpable, the country is teeming with possibilities. Amid all this excitement, there is a problem that needs to be solved. If you ask the departing colonialists, this problem needs to be shot. So you say to them, don't shoot at the problem, let me buy it from you. They see an opportunity to make money so they sell problem to you. It's cleaner. You take this "problem" to Limuru and you sell it to farmers and other traders needing beasts of burden. That's right, the "problem" was the donkeys the colonialists brought but couldn't take with them. You take the money you made and buy land. You raise a family on that land, including your daughter who was born with nerves of steel, and who never backs down from obstacles. She grows up and starts a family of her own, including a son, Kinyanjui Kombani, who inherits your grit and resilience, and whose autobiography, Dear Mama by Kinyanjui Kombani is a KICD-approved autobiographical set text for Grade 10 students in Kenya. Kinyanjui is the Banker who writes, a multi-award winning author, a member of the VETs (Old Man Rugby) and in case you are an old man who plays rugby and you think you are like him, I am sorry to inform you that you are not. He is an international Rugby Player. Listen to our conversation here and wherever you listen to Podcasts.