TOWARDS ONE Text layout May

i TOWARDS ONE A story of Hope, Faith, Determination, Courage and Resilience ISBN: 978-9914 700770 Copyright: © DR. Peter Philip Wambua 2020 All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be used without written permission from the author. ii CONTENTS Chapter 1 THE DAWN........................................................1 Chapter 2 HOP-STEP-JUMP............................................7 Chapter 3 THE VILLAGE ICON......................................16 Chapter 4 THE NIGHTMARE..........................................19 Chapter 5 THE ESCAPE..................................................29 Chapter 6 A JOURNEY TO THE CITY.........................32 Chapter 7 CITY OUTSIDE THE CITY............................40 Chapter 8 TRACING MY STAR.....................................43 Chapter 9 FROM CITY TO SLUM BOY......................45 Chapter 10 FROM HOPE TO HOPE...............................49 Chapter 11 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL..54 Chapter 12 THE RISING STAR........................................57 Chapter 13 LIFE IS A GAMBLE; TAKE THE RISK......60 Chapter 14 MIRACLES AND WONDERS ARE REAL.63 Chapter 15 THE FIRST LANDING..................................68 iii DEDICATION Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. -John Mason To my mother Rose Mueni Peter and to the memory of my father and brother Peter Kitheka Nzoka and Kyalo Peter respectively for their inspiration. To my wife, daughters and sons Nancy Kamola Muvengei, Switzer Nthoki Wambua, Tamar Ngii Wambua, Gasper Muvengei Wambua and Beltasar Kitheka Wambua for their tender loving care. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life. -James Bilkey owe an immense debt of gratitude to many persons who made great contributions to my life through financial, material, and moral support over the years. I It is with humility and grace that I appreciate the blessings from the Almighty Living God for keeping my family and I in good health. It is through Him that I have been able to become what I am today. I have learnt to trust and have confidence in Him for everything in my life. He is my refuge and my guardian. I am greatly indebted to my grandmother, Serah Ngii Nzoka, and her late husband, Job Nzoka Kasivi for supporting my parents meet my educational and training costs from secondary school to university. Their support encouraged me to pursue my dreams seeing how they had a strong belief in me and education. I could not afford to disappoint them. I also wish to mention my late uncles, Victor Ngao Nzoka, Rogers Munyao Nzoka, and late aunty, Beatrice Mbithe Nzoka, for their contributions towards my education through financial and material support. The support they extended to me was both timely and valuable, for without it, I would not have made it to this far. v Let me appreciate the environment of camaraderie extended to me by my childhood friends and relatives; John Musau Matheka and Lenny Mutie Kilonzo, with whom we shared the few basic needs in the form of scarce clothing. The clothes were not always available, and once in a while, I had to borrow from them as occasions dictated. The former head teacher of Tala Boys High School and the founder of Mackenzie education centre, Mr John Peter Mackenzie, helped me in settling down after transferring to Tala in form two. He influenced and molded my childhood behaviors. Without his input, I would not have been shaped to whom I am today. The same would be said of the late Prof Stephen Nzuve whom we met at the University of Nairobi. My Kenyatta University students with whom once too often I shared this story challenged and motivated me to put it down and tell the whole world. They are the reason this book is in print and needs appreciations. These students include; Samson, Dan, Koech, Chomba, Alex and Catherine among others. I would like to appreciate Samson Mung’athia in a special way for his immaculate role in ensuring that this book is put in print. My appreciation further goes to my Doctor of Philosophy supervisors, the late Dr Mary Gorrety Ofafa and Dr Samuel Otto as well as the editor of my PhD thesis, Prof Cush Ngonzo Luwesi. vi The content in this book has been made possible by the jobs in which I worked at the university of Nairobi as well as Kenyatta University. I wish to appreciate Prof Francis Gichaga, Prof Crispus Kiamba, Prof George Magoha, and Prof Philip Mbithi; all former Vice-Chancellors of Nairobi University as well as Prof Olive Mugenda; the former Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University. All the above vice chancellors recommended and approved logistical as well as financial support as I worked in the two universities and pursued my studies. vii FOREWORD I f I had not known Dr. Wambua for a number of years now, I could find it hard to believe some parts of his story. But I have been close to him and seen him make some of his remarkable achievements, such as graduating with his Doctoral degree. In 2011, when I landed in Kitui, at Kwa Vonza, for my undergraduate degree, I was a very disgruntled young man. The weather conditions were unforgiving, with the environment and remoteness of the place worsening the situation. But today, I look back to those days with lots of gratitude, for being admitted at Kenyatta University; Kitui Campus was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It connected me with such a great mentor with a very humble soul who has shaped many of my ideologies about life. The mentor who introduced me to motivational speaking and influenced my career path in a significant way. This mentor is non-other than Dr. Wambua Philip Peter. One of the most striking things about the author, as you will find in between these pages, is his humility, humbleness, and kindheartedness. He influenced the lives of many of us at the campus by his simplicity. From his little single room aboard in a plot shared with students to walking to the campus grounds, a distance of about a kilometer, to sharing meals with his students, Dr. Wambua was a symbol of humility. So highly placed in the society, yet so low to find time to share a viii meal with his students and even walk with them along the dusty street that connected campus to the tarmac. He did not only share the meals but also supported most of us by buying us a meal once in a while when life got tough. If you found him along the streets, you could easily mistake him for an undergraduate student or a casual worker at the institution, to say the least. I am yet to meet another man of his kind. His life story, now shared in this book, inspired most of us who were from very humble backgrounds and were struggling to survive through the campus life. Many are the times I almost considered quitting college when things got tough. But whenever such moments came, I drew my strength from the lessons laid bare before me by the exploits of Dr. Wambua. Inside this book, you will read the story of a man who rose from rags to riches, from zero to hero. A tale of a man who faced challenges as seemingly impossible as the Everest challenge, yet he conquered. At times you will be tempted to think that it’s a myth or a fictional tale, but this is a true story. A story I have been privileged to be a part of, in both living and telling it. This book will give you strength when you are drained. It will rekindle the fire within and ignite your dying spirits. It is a book that will help you recharge and face life courageously even when there more reasons to drop than to continue the journey of life. It will inspire you to face your future with certainty, hope, and confidence. It will take you through ix the lows and highs of the life of a person who has lived to conquer life’s challenges and emerged victoriously. Enjoy the journey, enjoy the read. Samson Mung’athia Motivational Speaker and a Corporate Trainer, Author of Explode that Lid and Excellence in Leadership. x PREFACE The greatest magnifying glasses are man’s own eyes when the look upon his own self. D uring my Doctoral graduation day, I happened to look back and reflect upon my life. I had come too far, further than I could have imagined in my days in the village. Although I instinctively knew that something great was awaiting me ahead, it had never dawned on me that it was something of such great magnitude. I started reflecting on my life, right from my humble beginnings in the village, to my first days in the city, all the way to that great day. These reflections rekindled in me the desire to narrate my life story to inspire many who might be facing such unprecedented challenges as I had. I had shared my story with my many of students and seen the impact it had on their lives, particularly for some who were on the verge of giving up. The hunger to put my story down was awakened. It is a journey I had started and abandoned along the way, but now it had to be completed. In these pages, I have tried to tell the story of my struggles from childhood all the way to achieving the highest level of academic accreditation, a task almost seemingly as elusive as the Everest challenge. I have shared my encounters with failure, challenges, and despair, and how I overcame them. I have taken a walk back into history and reflected on my life with great contentment and satisfaction. xi I hope you will find it appropriate to forgive me for using the first person narration and, in that case, the first person pronoun “I.” If there is anything in this book that tends towards or borders bragging, it is highly regretted as it was never meant to be so. Whatever boasting I have done is deserved and solely meant to inspire you, the reader, to pursue your dreams with undeterred determination. I have tried to put together a book that will inspire the brokenhearted and them that are on the verge of giving up, to reconsider their lives, rekindle the dying flame, and pursue their future tenaciously. My intention is to create emotional intelligence and stability in you. It is my hope you will share the experience with your inner soul as well as others. The biggest step, the biggest challenge, the biggest threat, the biggest obstacle in any journey, is in lifting your leg to take the first step. Moving towards one is the toughest move that you will ever encounter in life. Making a single positive move is the hardest thing for many. However, once you have taken the first step, the tension eases, the opposition loosens, the resistance withers away, and the second and third steps come naturally. The main motive behind sharing my life journey with you is to get you to overcome the inertia and make your move towards step one. It is to challenge you to break through the shells of life and make your first move. Let us get moving TOWARDS ONE. xii INTRODUCTION L ife is like a massive body of water, you may never know what lies ahead, but you can always talk with certainty about what lies behind you. The beauty of life is in its adventurous nature. Knowing not what awaits you on the other end of the tunnel makes life a worthy venture to go into. We are often bombarded with events and situations that almost kill the very seed of hope embedded within us. At times life can be hard without any reason. Some events happen that are beyond our experience. We are not presented an opportunity to choose where we are born. We do not have the power to determine who our parents are. We have no control over who our relatives are. We have no control over many events that happen in our lives. At times we have no choice as what we go through in life. Particularly in our formative years, we are absolutely victims of life and its circumstances. In these years, we have to live by the decisions of our caregivers and accept whatever is given to us. But as we grow, we now start getting a chance to exercises our will and choices. We can make decisions that affect and influence the course of our lives. We gain control of our lives. However, we still do not have full control over whatever happens to us, but we have control over how we respond to it. Our response to life’s happenings determines the course of our life in the future. Success in life does not just happen; xiii we cause it to happen through our response to life’s events. Our response to life determines the rate of growth that we experience in our lives. When life hands you a blow, you can choose to sit down and succumb or wake up, shake the dust, and move on. How you respond to life is more important than how life happens to you. Key to your response and view of life is attitude. The attitude that you approach an issue with will determine how you will handle that issue and definitely how you will come out of it. A negative attitude will always aggravate the matter, while a positive attitude will lighten it no matter how heavy it is. A positive attitude is key in achieving your life goals. It will enable you to face uncertain times with a sense of certainty that something good is ahead. It helped me overcome many obstacles; it sure will help you too. A day of worry is more exhausting than a day of work. -John Lubbock xiv CHAPTER ONE: THE DAWN Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.- Corrie Ten Boom H umility is a trait I have grown to appreciate over time. Whether it is from encounters, I have personally experienced or from observing the prideful fall of others on television, over the internet, or even in contemporary society. Personal encounters are, by far, the primary source of humility and inspiration. If not for this great virtue, at the moment, I would proudly sit back and smile when I visualize my successes, considering what I have been through to be where I am finally. The significance of working hard while also remaining humble has never been as clear to me as it is now. I can only trace my inspiration to a few people, including my parents, who did everything in their capacity to ensure we got the best despite the multitude of challenges that thronged us from all sides. 1 My belief and approach to life can only be attributed to my modest upbringing. Childhood is not only a challenging but also a defining stage of life. The stage is even more demeaning and challenging when you are from a pitiable family. While I can’t say that my family lived on the streets owning nothing apart from the tattered clothes we were in like the images we see on television, I can say that my family of six was living on a meagre teacher’s stipend for the first years of my life when I was under my parents care. The family lived in a small, poorly constructed brick house that we could hardly fit in comfortably. The house protected us from the scorching sun only as the rains were too much for it to take. We would sleep well only to wake up wet in the morning during rainy seasons. This led to the frequent contraction of illnesses such as pneumonia and flu. Every penny counted, every coin was valuable. Even though my parents were both trained teachers, my mother had to resign to take care of the siblings. With our father’s income being below average, it would hardly take care of all of our most basic needs; we had to find a way to supplement the income. We engaged in farming on our small piece of land that hardly yielded anything, but we had to keep farming with the hope and firm conviction that it would produce abundantly one day. A combination of poor convectional farming skills and unfavourable climatic conditions were to blame. 2 Sharing clothes with my brothers and sisters, which is rather unthinkable at the moment, was a norm. Sometimes we even had to borrow clothes from our neighbours whenever there was an occasion that needed to be attended. That was, however, infrequent as the decision to keep away from such events was the most common. That separated us from people, denying us the chance to live normal lives as other children did. I was too young at the time to understand why we had to share clothes or why other kids at school had more toys than me. Problems were coming in thick and fast. Drought was a familiar word since missing meals seemed ordinary to us. We would sometimes walk home from school only to find nothing to eat often, taking water to cool our stomachs before retiring to bed. All kids shared the same bed regardless of their gender. I look back, and I figure out how bad the situation was much to my disbelief. The situation would have been worse, had it not been for the two miscarriages my mother had, which according to my own analysis, may have been caused by a combination of poor diet and inadequate medical attention. More Troubles The congestion in the bed was so severe that in the event that one wanted to turn in the course of sleeping, they would have to move out of bed and come back in the position they wanted to sleep in. In case food was available, in the rarest of times, it had to be boiled githeri or ugali with sukuma wiki (kales); which was something to rejoice and celebrate about. Sometimes we had to leave school premises and go home during lunchtime knowing too well that there was nothing for lunch. We had to go and even pretend to have taken some sumptuous meal at least to hide the shame and agony from our fellow learners. 3 Neighbors used to make fun of us that‘ it was just a matter of time before the ‘seeds’ started germinating in our stomachs.’ These proclamations seemingly hurt, but I didn’t allow that to dissuade me from working hard. I remained focused with an unwavering belief that one day, things will get better. Delicacies such as chapati and rice were deemed flashy would only be obtainable once in a year, mostly during Christmas after months of saving and sacrificing. When there is no alternative and options are not at our disposal, we tend to adjust to the prevailing conditions naturally. When things don’t go your way, the body adjusts to fit the scenario. This cannot be demonstrated any better than by the toughness and the rigidness of our feet as we grew up. Cracks covering our feet were a great testament to the toughness we had to endure as we walked barefooted throughout our childhood. Speaking poverty Poverty traits were displayed all over our bodies and one needed no clarification of how poor we were. Our appearance could define the meaning of poverty more than any dictionary could ever do. Dressed in patched shorts and shirts, we soon became the perfect epitome of a joke in our society. The patches were too many that they changed the original look of the clothes. 4 Like any other modest family from rural areas, finding solace in Christ was the only comfort. We were staunch and religiously committed Christians. We would pray every day before meals, whenever there was any, and before retiring to bed. On Sundays, we had to wake up at wee hours to prepare to be in church by dawn. My siblings and I were fully committed to church activities from a tender age. This commitment and full involvement in church activities helped shape me into the person I am today, developing into a person with good morals and ethics. This was despite the apparent deficiencies which limited our effective participation in the church activities. Concentration in class is always a vital cog in the learning process. To achieve maximum concentration, one needs to be in a state of tranquility and comfort. That state was a far cry from our position then. Up to class four, my concentration was at its lowest, which unsurprisingly drove results on a negative spiral. That was a dangerous trend, and something had to be done to turn the trend and improve the state of my academic performance. I inherently knew that the only ticket I had out poverty was education. The key to these improvements was amplification in the effort, passion for education, and sheer dedication. The will to snatch my destiny out of destitution was intense; I hand to break loose from the shackles of poverty. I put my best foot forward, even when it was inconveniencing, and soon the fruits were out there for all to see, proving my doubters wrong. Focus and Courage As from standard five, I leapfrogged my classmates into first place, a rank I maintained up to until I did my standard seven exams. My efforts were finally bearing fruits. Though I don’t regret one bit, I have always felt the results would have been much better if I had the chance to partake my studies in a favourable learning environment. Private studies in the evening were done either at our neighbours’ 5 house, who were comparatively and relatively privileged enough, to own a little glassless kerosene lamp. The obvious dangers posed by smoke from the lamp were not averted. No precautions were taken to protect our eyes from the smoke. This was the best available lighting option, and if anything, the dangers posed by the smoke were never thought of or given a consideration. The decision to halt the negative drift in my performances is something I have always been proud of up to today. Comparison leads to desperation Through all the failures and hardships my family endured, I genuinely can’t recall a time when my parents compared themselves to others. They accepted the situation and always toiled hard to change it. They helped me realize that there will always be people who have more as there will be those with less than me. I learnt that what truly matters in life is not what you have or don’t have, but what you do with the cards given to you by nature. One always has to focus ahead to overcome the obstacles on the way. Upon thinking where I have come from, I can’t help but wonder how far I would like to go on ensuring that my ego doesn’t get ahead of me. Staying humble through both successes and failures is paramount. To rise from my humble background up the ranks to where I am has taken hard work, commitment, and a little bit of luck. But once a goal is attained, it’s essential to look back reflectively and remember where you came from. Respect is a function of humility, and humility is strength. This is the mantra that I have never ceased believing in. 6 CHAPTER TWO: HOP-STEP-JUMP Never tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon. D espite the massive shortcomings, our hard work, passion, and dedication finally paid. When the road we were trudging seemed all up the hill, we could only sigh even though we wanted to smile. We did not give up even when the future seemed bleak, and the pace grew painfully slower. We kept going towards our destiny with zeal and determination. After years of committed effort and focused attention to our studies, my brother and I cleared our primary school education after sitting our grade seven exams. When the results were out, the entire village was thrilled, and ululations and shouts of joys were heard in the village as people celebrated their heroes. My brother and I had performed exceptionally in the national exams proving that commitment, dedication, and hard work rewards handsomely. 7 I couldn’t help but smile after reflecting on how all things had changed with a single verdict. Champions get up even when it is not the best alternative. We had turned all this with a single resolution in standard four. We became the talk of the village, but this time not in the unenthusiastic of ways we were accustomed to but rather affirmatively. We had proved our doubters wrong, and every parent in the village sought an audience with us to offer inspirational chatters to their kids. Everything is okay in the end; if it is not ok, then it is not the end. We had to circumvent being carried away by the occasion and think ahead. Owing to our strong ties right from childhood, we fancied admission to the same secondary school. Our uncle was tasked with looking for a school for us. It’s always said that the finish line is a starting point of a new race. The new track was now beckoning at us. As fate would have it, we were admitted to a distant local secondary school, which would only add to our predicaments. This was for the apparent reason that my parents couldn’t afford a better school for us. Being a village school, there were minimal resources for learning, but we had to forget about all the reasons it would not work. We only needed to find one good reason why it will work. And the only reason in our case was the fact that it was a school. It took time for the reality to sink, considering the good scores we had and the funfair that preceded this admission. We agreed to join the school, though with reservations, skepticism, and cynicism. From Village to Village 8 We had budged from Kangundo civilization to the challenges of Masinga villages. Our quest for education was faced with a ray of challenges and problems. The problems escalated, ranging from pitiable school infrastructure, lack of playing fields, and equipment such as balls to lack of adequate textbooks. Classes in the afternoon were horrendous owing to high temperatures coupled with a lack of water. We could have taken the option of carrying water from home had it been sufficient in the first place. The hot red soil did not aid our cause, given that shoes were a foreign word to us. Somehow, we never thought of looking back since we knew that after all, the enormous oak was once a little nut, which held its ground. I always looked upon my little brother to steer me through the cruelty of this world. This was a time to remain amalgamated, think big thoughts, and relish small pleasures. The customary instigation process of monolization was conducted with some sense of relative comedy. At times we had to laugh at the jokes and touches of sarcasm despite their ridicule. We would be given shoes to ring home, wash clothes and dishes for the senior students, and give out the few coins we had. All these were accompanied by a few slaps and volatility once in a while. Being firm Christians, hope was always our cornerstone. Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible. We had in mind that dawn was a few miles away. Despite taking long treks under the hot solar, water deficiency forced us to go several days without taking a bath. This was not only a risk to our health but also messed up the 9 learning environment as the classes were filled with a strong odour of sweat. Some afternoons were unbearable. Occasionally we would go to Kangonde River or Masinga dam to fetch water and wash clothes from school, which was quite a distance. The challenges made my resolve to strive for academic excellence even stronger. I had nothing to lose, but I had everything to gain. We kept the belief that whatever our minds conceived and believed was achievable. We had proved this in primary school, and we were bound to do it again without making any excuses. Due to my tender age, I would occasionally wet the bed much to the perplexity of my elder brother. Usually, weekends in secondary schools provide an excellent opportunity for students to reflect on what has been learned throughout the week while also undertaking private studies. But, in lucid contrast here, we would spend our weekends in the neighboring families’ farms, which were our schoolmates’ homes as casual workers. This was the only sure way to earn a coin or to at least, get some foodstuffs to supplement our diet. This acted as a temporal reprieve to our already malnourished bodies. The diet challenge The poor diet in schools meant our bodies were always a ticking bomb for diseases. Despite having struggled with food deficiency throughout childhood, the situation worsened during my high school time. This made it hard for us since we could barely concentrate on drained and empty stomachs. 10 A thought of my humble background heartened me to push myself further. The situation at home motivated me to remain focused. I had nowhere to run to, I had to make it, and the only way out was education. We took each day at a time without looking back. On one occasion, we were forced by circumstances out of school to shoplift a loaf of bread, which we had not eaten for months. We were lucky to have not been caught, but we were bright enough to realize that it was just because of lack. The challenges were countless, but we could never consent to creep when we felt the impulse to soar. We continued to perform admirably well, owing to our sheer dedication and constructive discussions with my brother, helping each other in areas of weaknesses. The night disaster The lowest point in school arrived when the students went on strike, intending to kill the head teacher. Not everyone in school may have been reasoning as rationally as I did, but our troubles and predicaments were way past our helpless head teacher. Many properties were destroyed, including the single alternative uniform I possessed and my rusty metal box leaving me with nothing but my tattered uniforms I was in. I had no way to revenge against the person who did this, but, as Les Brown says, the best revenge in life is massive success. I had to pick myself up and continue with life since life shrinks and expands in proportion to one’s courage. 11 All these happenings and challenges, coupled with the mental pressure, affected my health. The situation deteriorated with time, which forced a transfer to Tala Boys High School, which was somehow closer to the environment I had been accustomed to in my childhood. This being a superior school, as opposed to Masinga secondary school, I faced a reality check forced by the massive competition and resistance I received. There was also an element of culture shock propagated by switching schools in the middle of the term. For the first time, I was ranked 47th in a class of 48 students with the 48th person having not completed the exams. The new distance from home to school and back proved an added stumbling block to an already long list of challenges. However, there was no option; I had to cover the over twenty kilometres to and from school every single day. I found it challenging waking up at four in the morning to make it to school by 7 a.m. latest, which was the compulsory set time for arrival. This routine started taking its toll on me since after taking these long walks to and from school, in the evening, I had to fetch water from the river for my mother. This would leave me exceedingly exhausted by dusk. The regular option was to take rest at a time when I was supposed to be doing my private studies. This contradicted with the kind of aspirations I had, taking into consideration my rank in the previous exams. 12 I, however, chose to see the positive in the whole situation. When one door closed, another one opened. I could not gaze for so long at the closed door to avoid missing the one that had been opened for me. I was back to my home where poverty had proved a hard nut to crack, but we still devised measures to cope. The Hitchhiker There was no shortcut; I had to work hard and improve my performance. I managed not through the easiest of routes. It was an upshot of hard work and sacrifice. Occasionally I would hang about my friends’ homes on Fridays to give myself a chance to attend the weekend classes and also hold discussions with the friends. At the friends’ place, I would also get an opportunity to do private studies since they owned a lamp, unlike as was the case back at our home. I would also get away from going to the river every evening, thereby saving time for my private studies and assignments. This idea was particularly unpleasant to my mum, who felt I was developing a distasteful habit. My explanations seemed insufficient due to her conventional way of thinking, but the results of the term offered the best form of justification to her. The ‘hanging out idea’ eventually seemed a good fit despite the inconveniences and challenges it came with. When one is offered a seat on a rocket ship, they shouldn’t ask what place but should instead get on despite the apparent reservations. By the time I was in form three, my grandparents had observed how my parents were struggling to pay my school fees and opted to support them by taking up the mantle. 13 Education costs money, but so does ignorance. They took care of my fees while my parents concentrated on supporting my brother, who was still in Masinga Secondary School, where I had left him. Our dream of undertaking the entirety of our studies together had been cut short. With the support of each other, it was easier to face the daunting school life challenges. Memories of him would break me down into tears. This situation only lasted for a few months before I got used to it. I had come to appreciate the fact that each one of us had their own dreams and destiny to pursue individually. Tough times never last long, but tough people do. I considered myself a tough one. Under typical circumstances, a vacation is supposed to be a period where one takes a respite to revitalize the batteries while also undertaking minimal revision. This was not the case for me during my holidays. We would get involved in farming activities for at least 6 hours a day; that is in case we were lucky. My parents viewed vacations as a perfect opportunity to get free labour and were eager to seize us as far as our availability would allow. This was in spite of the fact that the farm yielded almost nothing. With the help of the petite comprehension I had gained in school, I was able to advise my parents on better farming techniques, but this proved to be of little impact as there was no money to implement the slightest of my advice. 14 After the farm work, I would still be able to find some time for my clandestine studies. I would do binge reading whenever my body would allow. I would lock myself inside my room and read through the night until the home-made tin lantern lamp ran out of paraffin, or until my bone-tired body could take it no more. However, many times I fell asleep as soon as I had opened my books to do my little home studies. This was an upshot of the daytime exhaustion in the farming activities. I couldn’t, however, give myself these limitations as an excuse and allow them to hamper my dreams. I believed that limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, ideally our possibilities become limitless. This kind of mind-set, coupled with God’s blessing, kept the thoughts of losing hope and giving up at bay during all these trials and tribulations that yielded to my success. 15 CHAPTER THREE: THE VILLAGE ICON Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted -David Bly F or the second time in as many times, I was again a pictogram of pride not only to my family but to the whole village as well. The news of my success went far and beyond our village, shaming my critics in the process. I had attained division one of sixteen points, emerging number two in the school in the process. This caught everyone by surprise, chiefly those who were skeptical of my abilities upon transfer from the previous school and my performance of the first exam at my new school. I was optimistic throughout, though, with my desire for success being greater than the fear of failure. 16 This opened the prospect of further studies in ‘A’ levels, but the most pleasing thing is that the most testing part was behind me. I was at a point where I would become what I believed. Special appreciations go to my classmates for their unending support, particularly those who accommodated me in their homes during weekends. I would also like to thank the then school Principal Mr John Peter Mackenzie and my English teacher, Mr Peter Kimbowa, who despite being Ugandan by birth, took me as his own child. He also saw the potential in me and always referred to me as Dr. Wambua at that level, which always proved a priceless impetus. Today, I am what he saw and spoke to me in those years. Finally, I had done it contrary to the belief of many. I would look back and remember all those we started schooling together, with some falling off on the way to engage in casual jobs in the local shopping centre. The little money they earned offered little distraction. Whenever I felt like everything was falling apart, I always remembered my Sunday school teacher, who once told us that there are no traffic jams along the extra mile. It’s often hard just getting on the right track, but you always have to remember that once you get to the path of life, there it’s no place to idle. There was no time to rest on my laurels. Getting to the right track in life is not the end by itself, you have to propel yourself along the route towards your destiny. 17 If it took you much effort to locate and get to the track, you might be already too exhausted to carry on, but you have to. Things get more comfortable as you go along the track. After ‘O’ levels, I was in a better position than I was when I finished my primary school level education. Once you have the hang of it, it’s easy to stay on that right track and keep the pace, so you don’t get run over. 18 CHAPTER FOUR: THE NIGHTMARE There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen. S chool may be mind-numbing, a killer of creativity and downright appalling, but the fruits of education are too charming to disregard. That constantly kept me going in my school life. I aimed for success and not flawlessness. In life, it is not only important to look away from failure but to primly look towards success, it is not enough to only run away from pain, but it is more rewarding to run towards your dream. I never gave up my right to be wrong since this would have made me lose my ability to learn new things and move forward in life as I always knew that at the end of the day, fear always lurks behind perfectionism. 19 I was in the fourth year of my secondary education, and this was not the time to allow slip-ups. This was the time to keep away from people who were trying to belittle my ambitions. It was time to associate with great people who pulled me up towards greatness. I had to choose who to associate with and who not to wisely. When the series of exam timetable was published, my heart almost sunk. I had come to the most defining part of my life. The moment that was going to determine my future. Throughout my high school life, I had performed averagely. I knew I had the capacity to be at the top of my class, but the challenges I faced pinned me down. I, however, had a dream of becoming one of the toppers not only in my school but also in the whole district. The open clandestine to this was hard work and grit. The power of determination Cowards never start and the lukewarm die along the way.An invincible determination can accomplish anything, and in this lies the great distinction between great men and obscure men. I applied a psychological motivation method to inspire me throughout the examination period. I prepared a report card of the marks I wanted to achieve in all subjects engraving the total percentage I wanted to accomplish in each subject. I gave myself even a greater challenge than the one I was trying to master, giving myself powers in the process to overcome the original and ultimate goal. 20 I would always focus on the report card, visualizing it before going to bed. Over the course of the troubled four years, my parents had developed expectations towards me, laying their hopes of better living conditions on my shoulders. This put a lot of pressure on me; but I could not allow that to affect my preparations. They had always told me how much their future rested on my shoulders. I never knew what that actually meant until I realized the exams were around the corner. Finally, we did the exam and went home to wait for the results that would come out several months later, as was the norm. When the results came out, everybody was amazed and startled in equal measure. I had achieved top grades when it mattered most. I had scored division one, having accrued 16 points. Not only were the grades good, but the results were well balanced too. Successful and unsuccessful people do not differ significantly in their abilities; they vary in their desires to reach their maximum potential. There were relatively good grades in Social, Arts, and Humanities. I had laid a strong levelheaded mathematical foundation, which had always been my favourite over the course of my entire schooling period. With a combination of good grades in mathematics, Geography, and Economics (MGEcon), my dream of joining one of the best high schools in the country was well within reach. All the goals I had set since childhood were finally going to be achieved. The good grades were a result of hard work fuelled by internal motivations. There was no time for much celebration and funfair since it was the time to contemplate the next move that was crucial in determining my future career. The story of Abraham 21 Lincoln and the struggles he went through to become the president of the United States of America helped me steer through my fair share of struggles as they were meagre compared to his. In life, I have met great people whom we have shared a lot. I have learned that success goes beyond having ‘good luck.’ The dashed hope The greatest assassin of dreams is haste, the desire to reach things before the right time Despite attaining good marks in my ‘O’ levels and dreaming even bigger, little, did I know I was in for a rude shock. My dream was almost thwarted when I could not secure a position in my dream school for my ‘A’ levels. Then, the country, including the education sector, was riddled with corruption, nepotism, and favouritism. My parents’ low social status and lack of finances aggravated the situation and did not serve me any better as they could not afford to secure me a space, leave alone sending me to the school of my choice. This was a torturous moment for me. Nobody would have an idea of the amount of pain I was feeling at the time. I honestly believe that it is better to be a failure in something you love than to be a total success doing something that you hate. The measure of academic success does not only depend on grades achieved at the end of the course but also on the level of satisfaction derived from the course. 22 I do not see the purpose of anybody working so hard to accomplish success when they don’t have the infatuation in their craft. You may end up with the money, which equals a decent lifestyle, which may be potential happiness, but dedicating your time to a task that is of little interest to you, in the long run, am almost certain will lead to regret at some point. I believe that it is not only vanity but vulgar to live your life working for the sole sake of wealth. Many people commit this mistake. At my tender age, I was keen to avoid committing this kind of slip-up. My Dream School Nothing can come out of nothing-Shakespeare. I had already gotten too much from my parents, or so I thought. There was a feeling of sympathy for them since placing an extra burden of paying my school fees was the last thing I would do to them. To this point, they had suffered enough agony just to make sure I fulfilled my potential and achieve my goals. Moi Forces Academy was the only best school I was aware of, and joining the school always toped my wish list. I have come to know and believe that the surest way to achieve a goal is by setting one that is far much bigger than the actual one. The mere idea of joining Moi Forces Academy motivated me to work hard to attain grades that would allow me to. The required grades; I achieved, but there was the financial bottleneck. The school was far beyond what my parents could afford, and as fate would have it, I was never to join my dream school. I eventually gave up on that dream 23 and settled on rejoining Tala High School, where I had graduated my ‘O’ levels from. At the end of it, the quality of my life was directly proportional to my commitment to excellence, regardless of the combination I took or the school I attended. This reality gave me the comfort and peace of mind to once again pursue my dream relentlessly. I entered the school without giving mental recognition to the possibility of defeat. I chose to concentrate on my strengths instead of my weaknesses, my powers instead of my problems, and the opportunities at hand instead of the missed ones. It took me more than two months to settle in the school I had spent more than three years in, just to show the magnitude of the frustrations I was nursing. My class was the second lot to do ‘A’ level examination since its inception in the school. I finally settled and readjusted my mind to focus on the task lying ahead of me. I was sufficiently self-motivated not to let the disillusionment get me downhill. I had to work my way to success and finally achieve my dream of joining a public university. Passion and determination were the driving forces, choosing to do four principle subjects instead of the conventional three. Things were better this time since I became a full-time border, and there was no more trekking to and fro school. This necessitated me to concentrate my vigour on books, which would only serve to make me better and triumphant in classwork. 24 I also owned a pair of good school uniform, which brought me a feeling of equality with the other students. It was at this level, whereby I also came to meet students from poorer backgrounds who made me feel a bit well off. We formed some form of an organization, which was meant to strengthen us to face our challenges together in unity. The leader without a position I engaged myself in several school clubs, which made me forget my entire predicament by keeping me busy. The clubs also engaged in activities that taught me about life. I felt the urge to not only lead in academics but also in other sectors. I started assuming leadership responsibilities as well, leading from the front in agitating for students’ rights and affairs. I made them feel that education makes people easy to lead but difficult to drive, easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. The students had the right to be involved in making critical resolutions that affected them. At one point, we got into problems with the administration under my self-imposed leadership while disconcerting against poorly prepared meals. This earned me a suspension for two weeks, much to the fury of my parents. What followed was harsh punishment by the school administration, which reminded me of the hard work we used to do in the neighboring farms during my earlier years while looking for foodstuff. We were forced to lay the foundation for a new dormitory under construction in the school, a very severe and inhumane 25 punishment. This took me two weeks of absenteeism from class. At this point, I had missed classes for a whole month. I anticipated this would have adverse negative effects on my education. There was a need to refocus and bring my concentration back to the main agenda; academics. At night, however, I spent my time catching up with what was being done in class during the day with the help of my classmates. Being a darling to the majority of the students, many of them were willing to assist me to dig up the trenches that were a part of my punishment. The students ranging from form one to form six would sneak in at night to help with my punishment. This act of unity caught the attention of the administration, who lifted the punishment with the belief that it was not serving its intended rationale. The school administration resorted to imposing a travel ban for us in the compound. My relationship with my parents had reached a breaking point. They believed that I was getting out of hand, and there was a need to control my behavior. Trouble 26 For the first time in my life, my dad was forced to cane me despite my age. The school administration, on the other hand, felt threatened by my ability to unify the students, acting as their voice when we came up against their school management strategies and decisions. What the school management did not realize is that their role was not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. They, therefore, placed a lot of pressure on my dad to transfer me to another school. This was not an idea my dad would even dare considering since he was perfectly aware of the limited options available if I was to change schools. I started being a target to some teachers who would cane me for the slightest of mistakes in anticipation of my violent reaction, which was never forthcoming. I knew they were working hard to have me out of the school and I had to be smarter to manoeuvre their traps. At one point, I even dropped a tear. The actions of the school administrators and some teachers had an adverse negative psychological effect on me since I was well aware that almost everybody was on my neck. Time passed on creeping, still holding on to the hope that one day I will be successful and among the best. Seconds passed into minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years painfully. I finally sat for my ‘A’ level exams with the same uniform I had been admitted with two years before. By this time, the pair of uniforms was worn out and had a feeling that it did not allow me to receive the amount of respect I deserved from my schoolmates, having been their self-imposed student rights activist. Nonetheless I left the school to wait for the results that would come out months later. After the release of the ‘A’ level examination, I got a pass, the same grade as my brother, who had joined Machakos School. 27 Despite my exceptional performance, I had missed my university admission with one point due to the fluctuating and non-consistent university admission criteria during the KANU regime and the same time introduction of the 8:4:4 system of education. I could not believe it—another hurdle shattering my vision and sending me back to zero again. 28 CHAPTER FIVE: THE ESCAPE The only time a lazy person succeeds is when he tries to do nothing. B y this time, I was experiencing the level of poverty at home first-hand. There was no more time to stagnate. I had to go out and kick start my life. The big question, however, was where I was going. I didn’t even consider answering the question for the reason that even if I did; I undeniably knew I didn’t have any answers at hand. But, what I was sure of was that I had to leave the village, to where; I had no idea. I shared and discussed the idea with my family, who agreed and blessed my decision. I still remember vividly the day I picked my certificates and scurried out of our poverty-stricken compound using the back exit, leaving behind our poorly constructed manyattalike houses footing in the place I grew up knowing as home. Despite all that I had been through and the miseries I had 29 persevered in this home, I left a proud young man with my head high. I had accomplished a lot and achieved the much the prevailing circumstances could have allowed me to. I still believed I was destined for greatness, and all the happenings were just but croakings of frogs in the river. After walking for a few steps, I looked behind and waved goodbye to my mum and dad. I was so emotional that tears started rolling down my face. My brother followed me and offered to escort me to the bus stage to board a bus to the unknown. That was the point where he nicknamed me ‘Majesty Haile Selassie,’ after the much-famed Rastafarian movement icon. I must admit that the teachings of the Rastafarian movement icon through various artists, such as the notable songs by the late Bob Nesta Marley, coupled with the word of God, have played a significant role in my life to this end. I arrived at the bus stop, still not having figured out where I was destined to. Somehow I had an attraction towards the capital city – Nairobi. After hours of ecstatic wait, the Nairobi bound bus arrived. I hurried into the bus forgetting to bid goodbye, my brother. When I turned to wave at my brother, I saw him waving frantically and shouting at me to pick a small bag he had been carrying all through. I took the bag and curiously gazed inside. There was a pair of trousers and a white shirt. The act touched me so much that I almost gave up my journey just to be with him, but there was no turning back. 30 A take on Education Some say ‘nothing’ is impossible and yet there are a lot of people doing nothing every day. I now have a different outlook on education. I respect it more and will pursue it just a little bit more now, and I will take it any way I can get it. Knowledge comes in many forms, not necessarily in books. There is education that is offered only in the school of life and in the University of Hard Knocks. There are several benefits of having some sort of education. Education boosts the confidence and courage of a person. To me, education means a lot more than just receiving a lot of information or preparing myself for my future. It means that I need to succeed in order to open the doors of college to the future generations of my family. Where I am is a result of the education I received and continues to receive. I believe education leads to greater opportunities and unlimited possibilities. The main thing an individual should focus on is getting off to a good start because a good start helps for a smoother finish. And the only way you can get to that point, it just to focus on the tasks at hand. Sometimes it can feel like too much, but then realize that it’s all for the better of your future, and your purpose will never be complete if you don’t learn to finish what you initiate. 31 CHAPTER SIX: A JOURNEY TO THE CITY Though no one can go back and make a new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor. I want to be the best doctor in the whole nation. I want to be one of the best doctors in this present world, integrating my expertise with the dynamic world, changing with every dawning technology, and being at the forefront of innovation in the field of medicine, to better the lives of every individual in both big and small ways. Every jab I give will be a jab of magic, and far away from it, I would give much just to cure with neither pain nor strain, even if it would be just a smile; it would be a doctor’s healing smile; you know… 32 After I clear my masters at Harvard or Maryland and grind further into my doctorate and post-doctorate, I will make sure that with the help of friends and family; my medical organization will be one of the best medical organizations and will offer services the needy and the poor who cannot afford good medical care back at home…” T hese, among others, would be some of the thoughts that would be going through the mind of any A level student who is joining or even eying to join the university today. Mine were very different. Sitting on this particular bus; one of the few buses that ferried people directly to the capital city, respected much for its precision in the time of departure to the city, about sixty kilometres from the village, my mind wandered. The dusty brown seats, the hardness of their cushions, the overloading that almost caused suffocation, and the rattling and the cringing engine would make a journey uncomfortable. But not to me and not at that hour, the excitement of going to the city for the first time preoccupied my mind. The faded paints on its metals and shredded edges of its seats were either by design or age, but despite all these, this bus was indeed very famous in the village, I mean, it carried people to ‘The City.’ The “City Bus” The hype, with which the word ‘The City’ was always mentioned, drew some pride over those who had never gone to the city, and it was always accompanied by the name of the bus. In fact, the bus was synonymous with the city back in the village. During the whole journey, the shining faces of the passengers and the rush of the wind through the spaces between windows preoccupied my mind for the most part of the journey. 33 Outside, everything was quite the same, dashing towards the rear. All these were in my eyes. Something different was in my mind; the future. The future held no hope. Casting my mind into it, I could find nothing that befitted the definition of hope. The worst part is that I saw nothing to hold onto. For the first time, feelings of hopelessness engulfed me. It was all bleak and black, with no hope in sight. My ambitions were undefined, my dreams were shattered, my vision blurred, and my target clearly out of sight. The frustrations that befell this son of a peasant eroded away the slightest optimism for the future. They carried away all that I had for the future, and all I remained with was nothing, total nothing. Such thoughts would sometimes provoke goose bumps on my skin, jitters in my heart, and often, a swell of tear on each eye, and when overwhelmed, I would let them roll slowly and gracefully down my cheeks. Men don’t cry like so, we are taught by the society. But no, I was not crying; rather, my spirit was bleeding. If I kept bleeding like that, I would one day die out. I was not ready for that, so each and every passing day, I nursed it at the back of mind that I had to soldier on no matter what. There was nothing hopeful on sight, but I kept going with undying hope that just maybe, someday some light would shine on my way. 34 For now, there was no hope; life was hard as the seat I was sitting on with poverty screaming at me just like the tired engine of the wagon I was seated in. So I was moving away, moving away into life and away from home. I had set out on a journey whose destination I had not the slightest idea, but what was most important was that I was moving anyway. The City I Heard About I had heard many stories about the city since I was a child. I was told of the fastness of the city life and how every time, everybody was always in a hurry. I was told of the many very tall buildings in the city. Of very particular interest was this one building I was told about; so tall was it that the clouds formed halfway its length and that if you wanted to see its tip, you would need to move three kilometres away from it. I was also told that white men came all away from London and the United States to sit on top of this tall building. But then, how do they get there? I wanted to see the black and white roads. I wanted to see the green, yellow and red lights and how they rotated to release cars to different directions, as I had read and heard the stories back in the village. Nairobi, as it sounded from the village tales, was a heaven everybody wanted to go to. Two hours later I was in the city. The day had started with taking cows out for grazing and was now ending with me in the big city. In the City The city was truly fascinating. Cars were almost everywhere, moving one after the other in straight lines. Sometimes they would wait for one another in the very 35 queue, and when the front one would start moving, the rare ones would follow, closely after each other at high speed like they were chasing each other. At times they could stop for a long time back to back with each other. I heard one of the passengers call it jam. The streets were orange lit from above, and from the car headlights, the slight darkness that was setting in was overdone; it actually felt like midday. The city and its happenings were a world wonder to me. Never had I seen too many cars at once, never had I seen street lights, neither had I seen such vast masses of people. He had waited for me for about half an hour. That was quite some amount of money lost, for I was also told that in the city, time was money. Estimating the amount though would be a lie, but the echoes in my mind since childhood, of what I had heard most of the time, was that city people were rich. Regardless, my cousin had waited for me. He couldn’t risk losing such a naïve boy in the forest of people. He had to cultivate his patience. Soon we were helter-skelter squeezing through the masses often times bumping onto them unpleasantly. I had to keep my eyes on the shoulders of my cousin, who was walking faster than I could keep up with. Walking right behind him, we headed towards another matatu stage; don’t ask me the name; I didn’t know either. 36 My bag on my right, we literally manoeuvred through people, at times giving space and at times pushing through. The only time I saw such crowds, or at least something close to it, was during crusades held in our local market. But the ones in the city were quite different; they were all moving to undefined directions. We moved too, occasionally changing my luggage from the left to the right hand and vice versa while keeping up with the city pace. People were not afraid of cars like in the village. Instead of people waiting for vehicles to give space before they crossed, the vehicles were actually waiting for people to cross; How? Gaining distance across the city was fun. What was said back in the village was indeed true. When you passed next to the buildings, you hardly saw their rooftops; I had heard about the city while in the village. That was true; we actually walked past a kiosk made from a shipment container, but I had hardly seen its top; it was taller than me. Away from the City Centre As we walked away from the city centre, everything changed gradually. The litter moved into the roads, fresh air slowly vanished, and people I saw on the roadside were dressed less neat. One thing that never changed was my cousin’s pace; I had to keep up with it. I mean, who would find me in such a sea of people if I got lost? At times he would hold my hand when walking across the busiest parts of the streets. Who does that to a big boy like me? It was dark anyway, not many people saw me. And even if they did, did they know me? Even if they knew me, did it make any difference? 37 The ‘shoe-talk’ The trekking voyage was less of a lip conversation and more of a shoe conversation. I think mine spoke loudest; they were new. We didn’t wait long at the matatu stage. Since almost every person was rushing home, it only took a few minutes to fill the empty seats in the matatu, and soon we were on the road again. Today, when people are on transit, very so often, they are on their phones, either listening to music through their earphones, perusing through social sites, giggling through funny messages, reading a book, or even a newspaper. Those days, such gadgets had not yet gone through creation. Everybody had to listen to the sound coming from the coughing speakers hanging loosely on top of that modern ‘ma-three.’ So, we moved on and on, maybe for hours; I had lost count in tracking the minutes from the nineteenth-century piece of chronometer on my hand. It was too dark inside the vehicle anyway, for me to gaze at my watch. Some places are literally confusing, sometimes equally astonishing, like they are intriguing. How does one touch the wall, and all of a sudden, the house is fully lit, and yet there is no sun? I had to run out just to confirm that the sun had not dawned on us alone! Hahaha… I am kidding. 38 But truth be told, it was amazing; the house well lit with overhanging orange bulbs, so awesomely arranged that no shadows formed, just by a touch on the wall. This made a mockery of my imagination. It was far from what I had ever imagined. Drawing the differences while still standing at the door, staring at the brightness of the lights, village life was totally different. Lanterns dominated the big homes, generously complemented with paraffin tin lamps. So sooty were they that at the end of the day, anything that occupied the upper side of the house towards the roof adapted to the black colouration of their soot. The soot was actually an indication that the house was inhabited. Poor homesteads like mine relied on firewood for both cooking and lighting. The Contrast After supper, we would play with our shadows, forming images and figures on the walls and putting them to war. But look at this place, a distant contrast from what I was used to in the village. No shadows, no soot, you couldn’t even see the roof. The roof and the walls were similar. In fact, I was tempted to think that the house was a cuboid; with a flat roof until I was informed that the upper part was the ceiling. Time moved like it always does, and the more it moved, the more I was integrated into the city life. I didn’t have to cross the maize plantation to gain access to the latrine at the back of the homestead; it was just in the next room. This was one of the miracles I learned of the city; a toilet inside the house. There were no rivers for swimming and taking baths like was the case in the village. Rivers in the city, like today, came from above, in sprinkles. My cousin introduced me to its adjective; shower. Luckily enough, it was not as cold as rain. 39 CHAPTER SEVEN: CITY OUTSIDE THE CITY The man who wastes today lamenting yesterday will waste tomorrow lamenting today. I had landed in the city, but was the city this wide? Why did we have to traverse all this distance of about twenty kilometres in the dark, leaving the splendour of the city, yet we were in the same city? Why was this long-winding road not as lit as the city I had alighted to some minutes ago? And where had the mammoth of people crisscrossing and pressing against each other disappeared to? The road was less congested, and the activities far lessened as the matatu went by and by. 40 Anyway, all these were the questions lingering in mind as we traversed the distance to my new aboard. When we got to the house, there was much more to wonder about; so much that I forgot to ask about these queries that lingered in my mind throughout the journey from the city to this new city. As I would learn with time, these were the suburbs of Ngong town. This was long before the infrastructure was much beefed up and developed to feature the present sleek roads with state of the art lighting that is there today. The roads were dusty with gaping potholes and nothing but forests and bushes lining on the sides. No major towns, shopping centres, or even buildings that had developed in between Nairobi and Ngong as is the case today. But, with all these, life in Ngong was a paradise for me. By no means did it compare to my life in the rural village. It was much later into my stay that I came to realize that Ngong was a town in the former larger Rift Valley province headquartered in Nakuru. A New Home Thank God for the family of the late Mr and Mrs Timothy Nzoka, who took me in, accommodated me, and oriented me into the city life while residing with them in Ngong. Through their humility and kindness, I got acquainted with city life. I would later settle in the comfort of many relatives in the city in my initial years in the city. Special thanks to my cousins; Killian Nzioki Muli, Lillian Mbeke Muli, Vivian Syekonyo Muli, Spirian Kasivi Muli, and Albanus Kioko Muli for accepting me and treating me like their blood brother. There is no one time I felt unwanted in the family. I was always included in all family activities, including shopping and outings. 41 Let me appreciate childhood friends in Ngong; Santokei, Bonny, Allan Fear, not forgetting Kanyi. They made me climb the Ngong hills often as we went for hunting expeditions which often bore nothing. These friends made me understand and appreciate the Maasai and Islam cultures. They went as far as nicknaming me Wabra Abu. When they fasted during the Islam celebrations, I fasted with them to express my support for their faith. With time I got accustomed to city life and was no longer perplexed by the events of the city as I had in the first few days. I would go to the famous Uhuru park to relax over the weekends and would, at times, crown it with entertainment in cinema and dancehalls. 42 CHAPTER EIGHT: TRACING MY STAR Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. T he magi arrived in Jerusalem in search of Him, who had been born the king of the Jews. How did they know? They saw his star from the North and therefore decided to follow it. In life, we all have a star. I am not referring to the normal stars that are on the newspapers every day, but that one light that is meant to signal you to your destiny. It might be on the far North, but if you are willing to pursue it, you will definitely connect with your destiny. While residing with the Nzoka’s, I got admitted for an accounting course, courtesy of my late aunty Beatrice Mbithe Nzoka, at the famous Kenya Polytechnic, the now Technical University of Kenya. I had to cope with the challenges of 43 commuting from Ngong to the City Centre for classes. But these were nothing compared to the struggles I had grown through my childhood. It did not bother me much. At last, I could see some light at the end of the tunnel. A ray of hope illuminating from afar. And a voice of destiny beckoning from a distance. This is what kept me determined and going through the accounting course. Transport from Ngong to the city was not always there, and more often than not, I had to rely on a borrowed lift from a relative to commute from Ngong to the city to attend the classes. Throughout the course, there were many challenges, but that bothered me less as I was fully driven by my desire for a better me. A dream for a brighter future and a never-ending urge to improve the lives of my immediate family back in the rural village. I was the perceived light for the family, and all their hopes were placed on me. This was motivation enough to keep me moving against all the odds. Thanks to the Almighty Living God, once again courtesy of my late aunt, I was invited for an interview as an accounts clerk grade III at Nairobi University, of which I successfully went through and was offered a job in 1989. Having stayed with my relatives for quite a time, I requested to be allowed to leave the comfort zone and fed for myself. The request was approved and soon, I was on my out of the family that had housed me. I did a small shopping for each member of the family and also attended an outing with my cousins at the famous shade hotel in Ngong. The next day I left accompanied by Spirian Kasivi Muli to start a new life on my own, and GOD knew it. 44 CHAPTER NINE: FROM CITY TO SLUM BOY You seldom get what you go after unless you know in advance what you want. T his was a scary but a long-anticipated move. From the very first day I set my foot in Ngong to all the time I enjoyed with relatives, I knew that a day would come that life would require me to face it as a one-man army. Finally, the time was here; I could no longer overstay my welcome at my relatives’ places. From Ngong, my first stop was in the biggest slum in East and Central Africa, Kibra. In the slums again, there were other relatives, but I chose to fend for myself since I had a job. I take cognizance of my maternal uncle’s family; Mr and Mrs Makau Mbuvi, for helping me settle and acclimatize to the slum life. My beautiful and handsome little cousins; Ndolo Makau, Faith Makau, Ann Makau, and Kivisi Makau, were 45 an inspiration and a motivation to me. Looking at their innocent faces made me settle and appreciate the life therein. Life in slums is tough, but in Kibra it was tougher, as tough as the name itself implies. The name Kibra is a Nubian word meaning forest or jungle. True to the name, Kibra is a jungle where life is all about survival and not living. Adjusting to the slum life was not easy, but I didn’t have any choice but to adjust and conform. Life in Kibra Here is a place where basic necessities were a bonus. Access to clean water was elusive. Toilets were a dream, and a proper sewerage system was a mirage. Back then, the slum was notoriously known for its famous flying toilets. Walking through the messy tiny pathways that served as sewage lines in the darkness only meant that you could be a landing zone for one of the flying toilets. Criminal gangs ruled the jungle. You never knew when you could fall into the hands of the notoriously terrorizing criminal gangs. Life was a gamble; tough and unforgiving. Staying sober and out of the evil vices of the slums required a staunch decision, high levels of discipline, and to a greater extent, the guiding and guarding grace of God. Taking a shift wasn’t easy. I had come from Ngong, where there was a nice house with a cemented floor, warm shower, proper lighting, and a fence offering an assurance of security. 46 Now here I was trying to fit in this tin ramshackle with no floor, no piped water and no toilet in the vicinity leave alone in the house. Unlike Ngong, here I was with the dilapidated tin walls acting as my walls and my fence, all at the same time. The house in Ngong was well ventilated with a relatively standardized climate inside. On the contrary, my tin ramshackle had no respect for the weather. During cold seasons, I had to put up with the cold drops falling off the tin roof while in the hot season, temperatures hit their highest. As days went by, I adapted to the ghetto life and soon found myself no longer bothered by the atrocities and vices going on in the slums. Not because they were good but because I had no other option at the moment. But through all this, I never let off my dream and desire to become somebody better. I never forfeited my dream of one day, changing not only my family but the lives of many less privileged members of the society. It was the hope for a better future, a promise for a better life, and an undying desire for a more purposeful life coupled with the faith in God that kept me through the life in the slums. Life reveals itself in phases. Its beauty lies in living and appreciating each of the phases in eager anticipation of the next phase. Life is all about living through the terror 47 of the night, hoping and anticipating for the sunrise. I faced the slum challenges unfazed because somewhere at the back of my mind, I knew that better days await me if, and only if, I beat the discouragements of the day and overcome the obstacles at hand. Several events will remain indelibly etched in my mind. The hotels I used to patronize in the slums still remains clearly engraved in my mind to date. These hotels knew nothing close to hygiene. It was a common scene to eat your meal with raw sewage flowing right under your legs. Wardrobe choices were very limited, given the muddy environment of the slum throughout the year. I remember vividly one day, I had to rush back to my cubicle after the white trouser and T-shirt I was in were splashed with mud from one of the vegetable vendors. She had come from the market, and as she was alighting the matatu, I was waiting to board. Her sack fell on me, painting my clothes with mud. 48 CHAPTER TEN: FROM HOPE TO HOPE If you look back too much, you will soon be heading that way. L ife in Kibra was unforgiving, to say the least. After some time, it was time to move out of the Kibra slums, but where to? I had to leap out of the slums in pursuit of a better environment. I had realized that location is key to destiny. At times, you will have to literally move from some zones for you to realize your destiny. Some things will never unfold until you change your location. In the slum, the environment was so toxic that it was contaminating and suffocating the seed of greatness inside me. In my never-ending quest to become the better me, I left the slums of Kibra that had become a part of my life. 49 My next stop was Dandora massive. My new residence was not that much better, but it was at least far much better than Kibra. I had made a move from a worse slum to a better one. Dandora and Kibra shared quite a lot in common, the high crime rate, general poor hygiene, and lack of basic necessities. In fact, on hygiene and crime rate, Dandora was abreast of Kibra. Though there were no flying toilets in Dandora, the environment was an eyesore owing to the famous Dandora dumpsite. Fresh air was in low supply, as was the case with freshwater. The dumpsite is an environmental hazard, and its burning at night choked the air. But life had to continue, one day at a time. Literacy levels were low, and this, coupled with the dumpsite and sewage collection in the neighborhood, fuelled crime rates to the highest point. The neighboring estates of Kariobangi, Baba Dogo, Gitare Marigo, and Korogocho did not make it admirable to live in Dandora either. At least I had made a move. I believe that in life, the only bad step to take is the step back to zero. In as far as you are taking a step towards one, you are in the right direction, no matter how small the step is. Like Abraham Lincoln said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk backwards.” Your move doesn’t have to be in miles and kilometres to make an impact. It could be in inches and millimetres, but in as far as it is towards one, it is a worth move despite its visibly minute impact. 50 Life in Dandora Life in Dandora was a heck, but I had become accustomed to the life of hardships owing to my stay in Kibra. Every day I kept the hope that one day I will have a better future alive. The cogs of time never stopped to sympathize with me; neither will they ever stop to sympathize with you either. Keep hope, and keep moving. Never lose hope in the face of adversities; keep moving in search of your true north. You will soon find it if you don’t despair and give up. From Dandora to Huruma After some time in Dandora, I felt it was time to take another baby step towards my dream life. I left Dandora for Huruma massive. In Huruma, life improved a bit, but still, the environment was not as friendly as the name suggests. There were no flying toilets and no dumping site on site. The structures were relatively improved compared to Kibra, and sanitation was far better than that of the Nubian jungle. Though crime rates were still prevalent in the area, they were relatively lower than was the case in Kibra and Dandora massive. Though there was a great improvement, I was still in the informal settlement. I was just making some small steps within the same environment but at least towards my desired life. Huruma was not that far from the slums I had come 51 from, but at least I was not at the same spot I started. Life is all about taking those small steps towards your destiny. Goodbye Slums Another change of neighbourhoods came, and this time I landed in Eastleigh. Life had tremendously improved. Not yet out of the struggle but not with the basic necessities, as was the case in the slums of Kibra. Now there was a noticeable change. At this point, I came to terms with the truth that it is not the last axe hit that splits the wood, but rather the accumulation of all the hits in the process. You may seem like you are not making it, but every move towards your destiny counts, no matter how small it is. Keep moving. One day you will find yourself in the world of your dreams. The Peer Pressure Factor Choice, not chance determines destiny. In Eastleigh, with the now improved life status, I fell into the trap of peer pressure. The pressure to conform to the demands, requirements, and norms of the peers took over the once rational me and drove my decisions. I lived a dangerous life, driven by the urge to conform and keep up with my peers. 52 I had no direction or will of my own. I had surrendered my reasoning faculties to the influence of peers, and my decision making was jeopardized, paralyzed, and impaired. My purpose was chocked, and my dreams suffocated by this lifestyle. Life was purely driven by approval addiction. Every decision had to be approved by the peers or else be forfeited, no matter how good or bad it was. I had become a marionette tossed side by side by the decisions of others as well as my own unruly and unjustified impulses to keep up with peers. I had become like a scarecrow tossed all and about by the turbulent winds of peer pressure. This peer pressure-driven life continued until I got married to my lovely wife and moved to Umoja estate. I felt a sigh of relief as I regained myself. I had broken off the menace of peer pressure. 53 CHAPTER ELEVEN: LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL Your Destiny And Call In Life Is Always Forward Never Backward. W hile living in the ghettos of Huruma and working at the University of Nairobi, I decided to enroll for a bachelor’s degree. I didn’t have all the resources I needed in terms of finances, but I dared to do it anyway. I applied and was admitted to the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor of Education (Arts) –Business Studies and Economics at the Kikuyu campus. 54 The year was 1995 when I enrolled for the bachelor’s program. By then, I was working in the back office at the University of Nairobi. God always has a way of seeing his people to their destiny. He will occasionally place people in some positions who will hold you up and help you cross through the waters whenever they get rough. To this day, I am grateful to the then Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nairobi, Prof Gichaga, for supporting me through my bachelor’s program by allowing me a chance to pay fees through a check-off system. Were it not for this kind gesture from the Vice-Chancellor, I must admit, it could have been an uphill task for me to raise the fees owing to the many financial demands I had to meet. It took me five straight years to finalize my first degree. In the year Two Thousand, I had finished laying the cornerstone to my destiny. It was a milestone and a great jump in my career, a dream realized, and fate for a brighter future sealed. At last, the star seen by the wise men from the East was clear, and the once dim light at the end of the tunnel now shown with shining brightness. The first degree If you run with wolves you will learn how to howl, but if you associate with eagles you will learn how to soar to great heights. I graduated with a Bachelor of Education (Arts) Degree, Second Class Honors, Upper Division in the graduation of the year Two Thousand. This achievement was greatly boosted by the love of my life, Nancy Kamola Muvengei, who supported me fully whenever needed on campus as well as helped me with discussions and classwork. My deeply heartfelt appreciation goes to her for her immaculate role in my achievement of that great milestone. My special thanks also to the late Prof Stephen Nzuve (Lower 55 Kabete Campus) and Prof Macharia (Kikuyu campus), who gave me their unwavering full support towards my Bachelor’s degree. Two years later, I heeded to the call made during the graduation and yielded to the powers to read that had been conferred to me. In the year Two Thousand and Two, I applied and was admitted to pursue a Master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of Nairobi, with a specialization in Human Resource Management. After four years of determination, commitment, and focus, I graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA), specializing in Human Resource Management during the graduation of Two Thousand and Six. This milestone could have been thwarted, maybe were it not for the input and support of Prof Mbithi and Prof George Magoha, who allowed me a chance once again to pay my fees through the checkoff system. My special appreciation to them. 56 CHAPTER TWELVE: THE RISING STAR Wishing has never made a poor man wealthy. A ll this time, from switching residences in the ghetto to pursuing my first two degrees, I was working at the University of Nairobi, in various capacities and different departments. I had started at a very low rank as an accounts clerk officer grade III in the accounting department. I worked in this position for a while, waiting for the right time to make a move. I kept faith and hope alive, knowing that I was destined for something better and greater. It is not about where you are at present but what you are doing in preparation for where you want to be in the future that matters. The reason as to why many people don’t make it from zero is because they despise the days of their being at zero. 57 A vice that even the good book of life warns us against when it tells us not to despise the days of our small beginnings. Zero is the starting point. It is not a disaster to be at the starting point, but it is a disaster to remain at the point the rest of your life. We have to agree that nothing starts at the peak. Everything begins at point zero. Even the rockets and missiles that launch into space start from the ground. Every marathon starts at point zero. Every plane that is soaring the skies and traversing nations starts on the runway. Even life itself starts from point zero. You have to start somewhere and move with a purpose. I later moved from Finance to Registry as a clerk on promotion, from registry clerk to records clerk on another promotion and from records clerk to accounts assistant, on yet another promotion. All these movements were composed of inter-departmental switches. I later moved again from the accounts assistant to administrative assistant and finally to senior administrative assistant. All these movements were promotions given upon application. All these movements from one department to another were necessitated by the need to make some extra coins to pay for my school fees and meet my normal bills besides supporting my parents and siblings back at home. These movements did not make sense to many, as they did not have a focus on any specific profession. 58 Many people wondered as to what I wanted to be as a professional; it did not add up to them. They did not and could not understand why I did not stick to one line and grow through it as part of cutting out a career path. To me it was still early to get fixated on one line. And indeed early it was. Their concerns, no matter how genuine they were, mattered less to me. There were pressing and urgent needs at hand that needed to be attended to by all means, and this required every effort from me. To this day, I do not regret these abrupt job switches as they helped me meet the needs of the time besides giving me a diverse and huge experience as well as rich knowledge in regards to the university operations. 59 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LIFE IS A GAMBLE; TAKE THE RISK It is not enough to know that you know. It is more important to show that you know. B y the time I was finishing my Master’s degree, I had reformed and matured, having experienced the toughness of life in the ghetto first hand. It was time for me to explore new heights and move away ‘Towards One’ as much as possible. 60 It is important to note that movement without direction is lethal. It is not as important to move from Zero as it is to move towards the right direction. I find it absurd that in this generation, almost everyone is emphasizing on the speed, and very few are focusing on the direction. In fact, many people are moving towards their destruction at supersonic speed. Moving from Zero is very important, but to which direction is the most important point of focus. It is better to remain at Zero than to move to the negative side of life’s number line. The Great Gamble When faith and work operate together the result is a master piece. Armed with my MBA, I dared to take the greatest gamble of my life. I applied to join the teaching fraternity of Kenyatta University. This was a gamble since the position I was applying for was a two-year contract job, yet at the University of Nairobi, I was on a permanent job. I went for the interview, aced it, and got the job as an assistant lecturer at Kenyatta University’s School of Business, Business Administration Department. Here, I was at crossroads. The contract job offer on one hand and my permanent job on the other hand. I was faced with a dilemma; what happens after the two years contract? I was gripped by the fear of losing the known and secure job for new, exciting but less assured one. Like many people on planet earth, I was tempted and, in fact, biased towards preferring to remain in the hell I knew too well than exploring the new unknown heaven presented to me by this job offer. I was to prefer the guaranteed existence of certainty than exploring the new infinite world of great possibilities. 61 After deep consultations, and with the help and advice of the then Vice-Chancellor, Prof George Magoha, the then Deputy ViceChancellor, Prof Peter Mbithi, and my immediate bosses, Mrs Lydia Akaranga and Mrs Mbithi, I took the long stride into the world I was not sure of. I left my comfort zone and ventured into the world of infinite possibilities knowing not much of what awaited me ahead. In the year Two Thousand and nine, I left my job at the University of Nairobi and joined Kenyatta University as an assistant lecturer. 62 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: MIRACLES AND WONDERS ARE REAL Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. I t is recorded in the holy book of the miracles that used to happen from the times of Elijah and Elisha to the times of Messiah’s life on earth and even to the events and exploits of the apostles. Many people think that miracles ceded with the apostles or are a preserve for a few, but to me, miracles are there on a daily bases. Miracles and wonders happened the day I was given a twoyear unpaid leave from the University of Nairobi to go and take my new position at Kenyatta University. This was unprecedented permission for an employee of my status; A great miracle indeed. This meant that my position as a senior administrative assistant was still there after the two years at Kenyatta University. 63 At least I had a place to fall back should the contract end in the two years. But the shortness of the contract was still traumatizing. Anyway, I picked the job and worked devotedly at my new workstation in my new position. It was exciting and thrilling to be in a class imparting knowledge and impacting lives. I liked and loved it, to say the least. The two years fizzled out too fast. Now was the time to ponder the way ahead, I thought it over and decided to ask for an extension of the contract. Within the two years, I had enrolled for my doctorate degree and advanced quite a lot. I presented my request for an extension of the unpaid leave of absence to the Vice-chancellor University of Nairobi. As I presented a request for the extension of the unpaid leave of absence I also presented a request for extension of my two-year contract as an assistant lecturer to the Vice-chancellor, Kenyatta University. Both requests were supported by the evidence of my doctorate degree advancement. Another miracle again happened. Both institutions accepted my requests, and a two-year extension of both the contract and the leave was accepted and approved. This gave me peace of mind to focus on my doctoral studies as well as perform my duties without much stress. The Big Blessing 64 While all these miracles were happening and my career progressively gaining traction, there was another miracle at home. My wife and I were blessed with triplets in 2011. This was a big blessing to us as a family and the children have grown to be a source of joy to us. However, the big blessing came with its fair share of challenges. This time, I was pursuing my PhD while at the same time discharging my duties at Kitui Campus, far away from my family that was living in Nairobi. I had to enlist the services of a qualified nurse to take care of my family every night while I was away discharging my duties. This was really tough and challenging; costing me financially and taxing me emotionally. But, the Almighty God once again saw me through the challenges of the time and to this end I thank Him. The Shining Star Before the next two years of my contract were over, another major event took place. Indeed a miracle happened. I got promoted and confirmed to be a lecturer at Kenyatta University. For this, I thank Prof Olive Mugenda, the then Vice-Chancellor of Kenyatta University. It was indeed an honour and a privilege. Within the same period, I was declared the BEST lecturer of the year 2014. I concluded my doctoral studies, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the School of Business, Kenyatta University in July, 2014. At last, I had sealed my fate. I had achieved what had seemingly looked and appeared as elusive as the Everest or as 65 the sub-four-minute mile before it was crashed by Rodger Bannister in May 1954. I went back to the University of Nairobi, thanked the management, and tendered my resignation, which was formally accepted. I left this great institution with a promise to come back and give back to the community. I am always grateful and appreciative of the role the University of Nairobi played in my making. Shake the dust and step on it There once lived an old man in a tiny village in the deep forests of Central Africa. This old man had one possession that the rest of the villagers did not have, a very hardworking donkey. This beast of burden served the old man’s family well, giving them an edge over the rest of the villagers. This evoked jealous from the villagers who had to carry water pots on their heads and bundles of firewood on their backs. They orchestrated a plan to eliminate the donkey so that the old man’s family can suffer the same predicament as they did. Their plan was to first make the old man believe that the donkey was ugly, noisy, and disturbing the peace of the village by the noise it made at night. 66 The villagers routinely badmouthed the donkey to its owner, but when this did not pay off, they reported him to the council of elders. With the council of elders convinced of the villagers’ concerns, they instructed the old man to eliminate his donkey. The old man remorsefully asked for a favour; that the villagers help him bury the donkey alive because he loved it too much and would not fathom seeing the donkey dead. The villagers happily agreed, and early the next morning, they poured into the old man’s compound in their numbers. They dug a pit wide and deep enough to bury the donkey. They lowered him into the pit slowly and started shoveling the soil back into the pit to cover donkey. But this never happened. Whenever they threw a shovel of dust, the donkey shook off the dust and stepped on it. By the end of the day, the donkey was standing on the same ground level with the villagers who were burying it. 67 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE FIRST LANDING Faith without works is like gold within the earth. M y first posting as a lecturer was to Kenyatta University, Kitui Campus in the year Two Thousand and Ten. It was a newly established campus deep inside the South Eastern Region, in Kitui County. Having come from Nairobi University, where life was generally good with a very nice working environment, I found myself in the bushy lands of Kitui County. The campus was kilometres away from Kitui town and Miles away from Machakos town, with a small shopping centre developing about a kilometre away from the campus grounds. 68 It is here where I met colleagues such as Prof Wilson Njue(Director), Dr Peter Karanja(Deputy director), Prof Cush Ngonzo, Dr Joseph Muthike, Dr David Ndegwa, Dr Kennedy Ocharo, Ms Mary Mutiso, Dr Charles Mugendi, Dr Kenneth Ngure, and Dr Odhoji, just to mention but a few of the teaching fraternity staff at the campus back then. To say the least they motivated me and I borrowed so much from them as regards teaching ethics, humility and perseverance. Accommodation in the campus was a nightmare; all the staff houses had been allocated to students owing to the great population of students and with only three medium-sized hostels and not enough rental houses at the shopping centre. The shopping centre was Kwa Vonza or popularly KV, as was known and referred to by the students’ fraternity. With this, I had to look for a place to reside as I undertook my duties. I appreciate the assistance accorded to me by James Mwangangi, the directors’ driver and the campus cateress, Ms Constance Kambua, who helped me to identify a decent plot to live in. I rented a single room at Kwa Vonza in a plot that I shared with some of my students who lived outside the campus. The building was somewhere in the midst of the bushes, about a kilometre away from the campus and a few hundred meters away from the tarmac. The place was very dry and dusty almost all year round. Water was as scarce as it was in the slums of Kibra. You had to either get it from the vendors at forty shillings per twenty- 69 litre jerrycan or go and queue at the only water point at the small shopping centre which was more of a village that shopping centre. Moving from my small cubicle to the campus was mostly by foot as the Boda Bodas were very few, and getting one necessitated a long wait. Therefore, walking was the most convenient way. Foodstuffs, particularly the vegetables, were a scarce and precious commodity at the shopping centre owing to the dry climate of the region. This place reminded me of my growing up in the village. Poverty levels at Kwa Vonza were at unprecedented levels, and literacy levels were so low. Illicit brews were prevalent, and this worsened the situation. Men and youths were wasted into the brewing dens leaving women to take care of the families. This meant that women had to work on construction sites to get something to feed their families. I held through these hardships because I knew this was an opportunity presented to me by my creator not only to reach my destiny but to make a contribution to the lives of the students that were entrusted to me. Despite these hardships and challenges, I took life positively and interacted with my students at a personal level, giving not only my best to them but all of myself to them. I made every effort to ensure that I did not only deliver content and impart knowledge alone but also impact the lives of my learners as well. 70 In the spirit of Horace Mann, I executed my duties with diligence. In 2014, my efforts were recognized by the management of Kenyatta University as I was awarded; The Best Lecturer Award. It was such an honour. I highlighted the story of the donkey in the opening of this section to highlight the importance of not giving up, even when faced by a myriad of challenges. Whenever nature or people throw dust on you, shake it, and step on it. When life knocks you down, stand up, dust yourself and move on. 71 GIVING BACK TO THE COMMUNITY Every accomplishment, great or small starts with a decision T o this end, I can only say it is God, determination, and focus. Looking back, I can only help other people reach their destinies by giving back to the community. In this quest, I started a Non-Governmental Organization –ZERO TO ONE through which I am reaching out to the society and giving back to the community. Please join me in helping the less fortunate through this noble course. The journey towards one is still on. For more information on my contribution towards academia and the society visit my profile online @Peter Philip Wambua (PhD). 72 ABOUT THE AUTHOR Peter Philip Wambua, (PhD), is a lecturer Kenyatta University’s School of Business, Department of Business Administration. His research interests and discourses cut across the disciplines of Human Resource, Strategic Management, Marketing, and Entrepreneurship. He is accredited with a significant number of publications focusing on performance evaluation of teaching service delivery, performance contracting, and curriculum development in Kenyan public universities using a business perspective. He is an examinations coordinator in the school of security, diplomacy and peace studies at Kenyatta University. He was awarded the best lecturer award in 2014 by the management of Kenyatta University for his contributions to teaching, research, and community service. He is a motivational speaker and founder of Zero to One, a non-governmental organization that offers free talks to parents, teachers, students, pupils, and the community at large on; living values, life skills, discovering your potential, how to prepare, and pass examinations as well as career choices. 73 Dr. Wambua can be reached through: +254 722 310 635 [email protected] 74