Like every other Kenyan, I have been gleefully watching as senior government officials inherited from the last government are sacked, one after another, and replaced by cronies of the new government.
It has also been great to watch people who were previously very powerful humbled and forced to experience what me and you, mere mortals, go through every day.
“Serves him right,” I said when, two weeks ago, there was an alleged siege at Dr Fred Matiang’i’s home . “When he was in power, he never thought he would leave. Now see,” I added as we took tea in the staffroom.
Mrs Atika defended him, saying Matiang’i had been following the law.
“It is Kindiki who is misusing his powers. He doesn’t know he will soon be gone and the same police officers will be sent to arrest him,” she said.
“I am surprised you all can’t see how some people here are behaving worse than Matiang’i. They do not know power is temporary,” said Kuya.
“They are doing so yet they are just acting. Sembuse if they were real headmasters?” Asked Sapphire, who had come to school for the first – and probably last – time this term.
Although I did not respond to them, I did not stop celebrating, seeing the changed fortunes of the former senior officials. Until it hit closer home. But for you to understand my story, I must take you back to February 2021.
If you remember, at the time, I wanted to offer Fiolina a job as a BOM teacher in Mwisho wa Lami Primary.
She, however, declined saying there was a sales job she was pursuing in Kakamega. She never told me how she had come across the opportunity.
I was pessimistic that Fiolina could get a big job and as she travelled to Kakamega for what she called attitude tests, I was sure she would fail for she had such a negative attitude in life.
I gave her fare so that in the unlikely event that she got that job, it would be on record that I supported her.
To my shock and awe, Fiolina passed all the interviews and was offered a good sales job. Although she did not tell me what her salary was or give me more details about the job or company, I did not need a calculator to know that it was a good job. She was given a new laptop and phone and they would often go to Mombasa for team building.
Compare that with my job where we are not trusted even with a box of chalk. And I am not talking about dustless chalk!
In all this time, I, reluctantly, supported Fiolina for I had no doubt that our lives were about to change big-time. Indeed, our lives changed. Fiolina moved from Mwisho wa Lami to Kakamega city and when she moved into an even bigger house, she came back and picked Electina, Honda and Sospeter to Kakamega, leaving poor Branton and I to rot in the village.
As time went by, she reduced her visits to Mwisho wa Lami and increasingly, every time I visited Kakamega, it was clear that I was not wanted. Her boss, whose name I did not know or remember, was now her priority.
Had I been Deputy President Riggy G, I would have described her as having been full of kiburi and madharau, but I am not a deputy. I am the headmaster of Mwisho wa Lami Primary School.
But late last month, Fiolina started behaving like the Fiolina of old. After many months, she visited Mwisho wa Lami village. I say “visited” because before this, she would occasionally make a courtesy call to Mwisho wa Lami. “Courtesy call” because her visits would be short and she would complain about the backward state of village life and lament how our house looked like a cow shed. She would leave within minutes.
When she visited in late January, for the first time, she talked about her work. “Things are not good where I work,” she told me. I was shocked to hear this because, before then, she would tell me off any time I complained about my job.
“You have to change your mindset, Dre. Do you know that your thoughts rule your mind and life?” She had asked me. She added that she was always in good books with her boss because she had a positive mindset and a strong mentality.
“The boss of my boss was fired by the new management, and my boss was demoted and transferred to Garissa,” she said, adding that she had a new boss who was giving her hell on earth. I remembered how she had told me when, in 2020, I had complained about Bensouda: “No person should steal your joy…”
Unlike her, I did not dismiss her. I gave her an ear.
“The new boss thinks I am sympathetic to the previous administrations. So, I am targeted,” she said.
“It will be well,” I told her and hugged her. I went with her to Kakamega and only returned after two days. For the last two weeks, I have been trying to reach her on the phone whenever I wanted to for she has been picking my calls. If you remember, after getting a new job, she had become unreachable to us commoners. “Pray for me,” she sent a message last Monday. When I called her, she indicated that the new boss was not even talking to her.
“I have just taken a bank loan to buy a car,” she told me. I did not know of this. “I also took the kids to expensive schools. How will life be if I lose my job?”
We prayed for her and Apostle Elkana asked for a fat envelope so that he could commit us in special prayers.
She then went quiet. It was only yesterday that she sent me an SMS: “My last working day was yesterday. The new people do not want me. I have forgiven them and I leave everything to God.”
A part of me was sad to hear about this, another was happy because, finally, I had my wife back. I will be travelling to Kakamega tomorrow to support Fiolina transition from being a high-flying sales lady to the village wife of a village primary school teacher.
I do not know what the future holds for us, but I am hopeful that the new regime will not be vengeful to her. Please pray for us!
