In
Peter Kimani's Before the Rooster Crows,
socially unacceptable happenings breathe life into the novel. Daughter suffers
rape under her own father. Mumbi, Muriuki's childhood girlfriend, escapes
sexual assault from the village to the city of Gichuka where she becomes 'a
girl of the night.'
The
protagonist, Muriuki, avenges his girlfriend's death by murdering the British
young navy officer killer, Sam Dessertstorm. Muriuki is then sentenced to life
imprisonment by the president, after the judge - Harkman Anderson himself 'is
found guilty of leading the suspect to commit a crime - to kill on the
basis of whiteness versus blackness'. There are several flashbacks illuminating
Kimachia's bloodshed struggle against the British during the Mau Mau.
Henry
Ole Kulet's Bandits of Kibi also
explores societal atrocity. The whole Masai community suffers dearly in the
hands of intra-ethnic clashes; which claims the lives of many, including Mama
Manta's son - Lanto. It's interesting to note how Kulet, the winner of the 2013
Jomo Kenyatta Prize for literature with Vanishing Heards, parallels these
clashes with the post election violence which dogged the country in 2007/2008.
My Dear Bottle,
authored by David G. Maillu, takes the reader through the main character's great
friendship with the bottle - beer. He thinks that it directs him to good things
like winning women easily, while it really makes life miserable for him. He has
nothing to show from his job, and his wife severally runs away.
© Peter Ngila 2013
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