The clan

Jane agreed to stay at home for a few days and then she would go back to Nairobi, look for

work and raise her children from home. Her father, Mzee[1] Ndorongo, told her of the house

he had in the Nairobi Mukuru Kwa Reuben slum where she could go and maybe use the

house as a place to stay as she worked or found a place to work. The man she had met

during a commotion with a Makanga at the matatu terminal, Marobo, was so much in her

head that she could not buy into her dad's idea. So she tried her best to accept whatever

Ndorongo was saying while at home to avoid any bad blood between them but she knew she

would be the one to make the decision on where she'd go.

Her brother Mwaura didn't like the fact that Jane would bring up her children from home

while away,he was not happy that his sister will be working in town while his mother and

sisters would accommodate her children. that pissed him off. He thought Jane would feel

comfortable when her children were safe and that if she became careless with her life and if

she died her children would be a big burden to everyone especially their mother. So he

strongly opposed the idea of Jane leaving the children at home with parents. She started

having the bad feeling of rejection again even after giving her siblings everything she had in

her pocket. Her home was poverty stricken; good food was only during a ceremony or when

someone came from the outside or city. That would be Jane herself, their already married

sister or their father. Jane's children being at their home meant other stomachs and food

quantity for the already existing hungry siblings would not change, so there was tension

between them as no one was asking her directly about the stay.

Come what may, she had to leave her children at home and whoever among the siblings that

felt Kiwaru[2] had to prepare to swallow it as her dad had her hand this time and would

support her. "Father had fought for his family back in the day" Jane said, "when his father

Guka[3] was alive, they were three, two brothers and a younger sister after whom I am

named, and she died." She continued "dad's brother, who was a white-settler's cook, could

share whatever would have been their inheritance and they both raised some money to get

the title-deed of what was theirs. They both contributed Ksh.60 to make Ksh.120 which was

very large amount of money that time. The piece of land was a couple of acres and they all

had families when his brother passed away in the early 80's. Dad hadn't followed up the

papers and this was the time ignorance cost him his ancestral inheritance". She always kept

the story and could share it with her siblings as her father narrated it to her. This was the

injustice that had left her family in poverty and meant they did not have enough land to till.

Jane was convinced that her father had tried to make life work for his children and that it was

the evil of the world and mate mbaya ya watu [4] caused them so much trouble. She was

ready and prepared to go to Nairobi so that she could find life. A life so she could lead her

children to a better future, and also for the family at large. Her son had already started going

to school while the other was always left to stay with granny who could go to the Shamba[5].

Whenever she bent over to the ground on her digging and planting, Njoki would not wake up

from shamba which would take several hours. The little child's naughty mistakes of playing

with water and throwing stones at birds would interrupt her at least to rest and overlook him.

On her way back to Nairobery[6], Jane went straight to Marobo's place. There were only two

ways of finding anyone in town or anywhere in the country: firstly people used the telephone

1