A TRIBUTE TO A BEAUTIFUL SOUL

We laughed at the memes doing rounds on social media upon the introduction of the Alco-blow.We enjoyed the ingenious ways drunk drivers used to evade the Alco-blow. We tweet to inform our friends still getting intoxicated at the bar of where the police are so that they can evade the police.We make jokes with one another when we after a night out get into a vehicle drunk as a skunk and say to one another that the vehicle knows the way home. It is somehow a heroic act-you know(driving under the influence of the damned alcohol).

I too have laughed at these incidents. Especially the one where people mange to avoid Alco-blow.
Maybe I should start by saying that I have been blessed enough not to have lost somebody I have been close to all my life.I have lost an aunt,both my grandmothers,a former classmate but never someone I have shared moments with.Never someone I have shared jokes with,never someone I have worked with.In an industry like the one I am in,working with someone is a bond that lasts forever. Going on set everyday,shooting together,eating together,sharing ideas; we become family. We develop from just people out to make a buck into brothers,sisters,mothers and fathers.The bonds formed on set or on stage are usually very very special.

Well,on 20th September, 2016,one of the drunk drivers in Nairobi hit one of my Auntie Boss family members and I lost him.I lost someone I laughed with,someone I shared my passion with. I lost family.You see the jokes and the memes are funny only when you are not involved,only when the reality if the NTSA statistics is too far from home.They say 3,000 lives are lost annually on Kenyan roads.These are just numbers before you loose family.They are just numbers before among the 3,000 is one of yours.
NTSA says that young people between the ages of 24-44 years are most at risk of dying on the road and you know why? Because of drunk driving.

You see,it is never that serious until it is.It is still funny to drunk drive and be congratulated for arriving safe and high as hell until it is not funny.Until it is too painful to even cry.Until it is too shocking to know what to say.Until it is too abrupt to believe.Until you loose a beautiful soul.Until Maina Ndirangu is hit from behind by a Toyota Premio while holding a torch to redirect traffic on the road.I hope I did not forget to say the driver of the Toyota Premio was drunk.Then it becomes well,not funny.It becomes a call to quit driving while driving. It becomes full support of the Alco-Blow.

Maina was an amazing Director of Photography or a Cameraman. He was a father of two sons and a dedicated husband.

He was always happy.Always happy ,always smiling.And he is gone; forever.

Maybe when we go back on set and find a new camera man,we may believe you left. Maybe.

So,before you loose someone you care about,before you loose family too,DO NOT DRINK AND GET BEHIND THE WHEEL.
I will list a few things you can do;
* Get a sober designated driver.
*Call uber/little cab/Njoro wa taxi to take you home
*Buy alcohol and take it in your house
*Book a room and stay the night
* Quit alcohol(last but not least).
Accidents do happen but it is very hard to come to terms with one that could be avoided.

All in all:let us live a complete and full life because no one knows their time to leave the earth.Maina lived a full life-loved by many and the memories he left us with are all we have now.

25

When I celebrated or rather marked my 25th year of life,I stayed awake upto about 4am. I did because I was terrified. I was so afraid for my life,so afraid that I did not have  a direction I could see as far as my life was concerned.

In the course of my 24th year(that is between 24 and 25),I did most of the things I have done in my life.I struggled to make headway in life but I kind of made full cycle.I normally know that it is a complete cycle when I am back at home in Kakamega.

I have even prayed and told God that if it is a curse ,he should finally uncurse me.I either have not figured out my real reason for being alive or I am stupid or I am lazy or I am simply not insightful.I have narrowed my list to these things.

There are a few things I thought I had a grasp of in the course of my 24th year.
*An acting job with a reknown thespian.I went for auditions and passed for once.(Things went this way and that way and then it has not happened).
*A 'ruracio'.Mr.Man had declared his eternal love to his "wife" as he liked to refer to me and finally agreed to go see my parents.Noooo,(things went this way and that way,and I assumed the single lady title again).
*A theatre show.I spoke at length with a certain writer with whom we were to push the project with.
Turns out,I was just a listening ear to fill up her time all the many times we spoke about the project.
My 24th year gave me hope,but on my 25th birthday, all these were gone and I was scared.
I was scared that I would never come out,I would never get to breathe again, that the water that was my existence would swallow me and I would suffocate to death.
My entire life was a painful trudge through history.It was as if I was going through someone else's life.A movie of sorts.

25years of What?
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