Author: Akello Odenyo
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Surviving Nairobi As An African Immigrant
I slide and lean back on the leather seat watching my feet soak in a pedicure massager. It is a few minutes past 2 p.m. My eyes pace around the room on the fourth floor of a building on Nairobi’s Moi Avenue. As it tends to happen, the place is a salon, a barbershop and…
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Why ‘Njaanuary’ Was Good For Your Health
The apartment block on State House Road in Milimani doesn’t just appear. It unfolds, slowly, revealing the prototypical colonial architecture; walls made of hand-carved stone, clay roofing tiles and large windows with wooden frames. Past the wicket gate, tiny blocks line the pathway to a parking lot on one side, and on the other, lush…
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A Rare Story Of Surviving FGM And Building Back The Clitoris
If I told you the lady stepping out of the Audi Q7 dressed in a floral sheer kimono and burnt orange palazzo pants is a survivor of FGM, you most probably won’t believe me. Like in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the apparel oft proclaims Anissa*, a sculpted figure with a burnished chocolate complexion. I felt acutely underdressed…
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Missing Yassin Moyo. The Boy Kenya Mustn’t Forget
The courtroom was empty. Gleaming wood-panelled walls, a black leather seat on the bench and a door leading to the judge’s chamber stared back at me. I stepped out to check if I was in the right courtroom; the second one after the Constitutional Registry on the first floor of the imposing Milimani Law Courts…
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Travelling Down West, A Busia Odyssey
I have never been claustrophobic. But in the swell of humans and their earthly chattels on this morning bus, I felt anxiety rise inside my chest. Then I remembered. I was going home. For buses, as with pubs and shoes, you will know how your journey will be the second you board. On this particular…
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Drinking in Qatar
“I know how to get cheap alcohol in Qatar,” Brian, my Uber driver said in response to my sympathies for those attending the dry World Cup in Qatar. “As for the quality of the booze, I will let you and your liver be the judge. But mine is still functional.” The rain was thinning out…
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Why Baby Pendo’s Case Won’t Start Yet
The Tragedy. 11 August 2017, Kisumu Baby Samantha Pendo‘s life was short, her death abrupt and painful. That way, Samantha Pendo became a metaphor of Kenya’s 2017 electoral violence. Days after the 2017 general election, Pendo’s family was fast asleep in their Kisumu home, a one room rental in Nyalenda Kilo estate, in Kisumu, when…
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Police Shakeup: Kenya Kwanza’s New Sheriffs
In one of his most categorical commitments since coming to power, President William Ruto has promised the National Police Service (NPS) complete autonomy, but first some changes. The new government has replaced the Inspector General (IG), the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) director and his deputy along with 15 directors of several other DCI units,…