Kufa Kuzikana: Background of the Author

Ken Walibora is the author of Kufa Kuzikana which was published in 2003 by Longhorn Publishers in Nairobi. Ken Walibora whose real name is Kennedy Waliaula is of Luhya origin (Waititu, 2005). He coined his pen name by replacing the last part of his surname–aula

“good”or “better” in Luhya as well as in Kiswahili with its more common Swahili synonym

“bora”, hence Walibora (Bertoncini, 2007:153). Born in January 1965, Waliaula grew up in Western Kenya, in Kitale, a town in the North Rift Valley. Growing up as a small boy in

89

Sangura village, Walibora dreamt of becoming a policeman. However, somewhere along the way, the dream of enforcing the law fizzled out. It gave way to a burning desire to become a football commentator.

Between Kitale town, where he went for his primary school and his rural home in Sangura village, Cherangany Division of Trans Nzoia District, the young boy of 10 found an avenue to his future. He spent plenty of time playing football and watching television in a local social hall. This was the only television set in the neighbourhood. He listened keenly to live football commentaries by legends such as Salim Juma, Leonard Mambo Mbotela, Abdul Ngalawa, and Salim Mbonde. Those were the people who inspired him to pursue the dream of becoming a media personality - one that he later achieved.

After completing secondary school at Koilel High School, he joined Kenya Institute of Administration to train as a social worker. He then worked as a Probation officer attached to the Prison Department for eight years. It was during this period that he wrote his first novel Siku Njema (A Good Day) (1996). His dream however, was to become a broadcaster. In 1996 he got a chance to read and anchor news, becoming a well-known Kenyan radio and television anchor-man. In the meantime, he graduated from the University of Nairobi with a first class honours degree in Literature and Kiswahili in 2004. He then won a prestigious University Fellowship Award at Ohio State University where he studied African Literature.

Walibora is considered one of the best Kiswahili writers and broadcasters in Kenya (Waititu, 2005). Kufa Kuzikana (Friends Indeed) is his second novel. He has also published several books including a secondary textbook of Kiswahili and three books for children. Ndoto ya Amerika (The American Dream) (2001) won the 2003 Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature (in the children category). Ndoto ya Almasi (Almasi‟s Dream) (2006) is his third novel. He has written a short story entitled “Tuzo” in Mayai Waziri wa Maradhi na Hadithi Nyingine, edited by Wamitila (2004). His latest novel, Kidagaa Kimemwozea (His Sardines are Rotten) (2012). Kidagaa Kimewuozea and his short story anthology together with Said Ahmed Mohamed entitled Damu Nyeusi (Black Blood) (2007). The two works are among the set books in the secondary school curriculum examined in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education as from the year 2013. Until May 2013, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. Currently he is the Nation Media Group Quality Manager in Kiswahili in Nairobi, Kenya.

90

In an interview with Ken Walibora on 5^th and 6^th May 2011, he categorically states that he has always drawn his themes from his life experiences. He credits his late mother for nurturing his literary skills early in life. According to Ken Walibora, ethnic prejudice is a major impediment to the progress of Kenya. Walibora made this statement when he participated in a panel at the symposium held at Leipzig on 5^th and 6^th May 2011 in honour of Abdilatif Abdalla. Reading Kufa Kuzikana, one sees how Walibora‟s personal experiences are reflected in the novel.

4.1.2.1 A Synopsis of Kufa Kuzikana

The story in Kufa Kuzikana takes place in a fictional country of Kiwachema. Two antagonist ethnic groups, the Wakorosho and the Wakanju live next to each other in Korosho district.

Two young characters; Akida and Tim from the Kanju and Korosho clans respectively are faced with the challenge of ethnic prejudice that almost breaks their friendship but they withstand it.

Akida, a fifteen-year-old primary school graduate relates how he travels by bus from his village to Tandika the capital city of Kiwachema. He is to be rewarded by the Minister for Education as one of the three best primary school graduates in the country. While in the city, he hopes to stay with Tim for a short time. However, when an ethnic clash suddenly breaks out in Baraki, his village, he is unable to return home. The government chooses to gag the media from covering the massacres, creating the false impression that all is well. The two friends have no news about their families until Tim‟s sister Tamari manages to reach her brother‟s place. This is when she narrowly escapes from death. After looking in vain for their relatives in the mortuary and in hospital, they decide to ask for help from Tom, a young American-educated elite and influential man from their village. They call at his luxurious home when he has just learnt that his father has been killed in the ethnic clashes in Baraki.

In spite of the risk, Tom decides to bury his father in accordance with his community‟s customs. Akida volunteers to join Tom and his four bodyguards in this dangerous journey.

Akida takes this chance to go to his home only to find that it has been burnt down. When he returns to the others, he finds Tom‟s body lying in the mud. He was stabbed by Korosho policemen. Tom‟s colleagues and his bodyguards did not lift a finger to protect him. Akida does not want to return to Tandika city before burying Tom‟s body although the others urge him to leave at once. He remains with his friend only to discover that he is not dead after all.

91

With great difficulties he carries Tom to the hospital and stays with him until he slowly re-covers.

In the meantime, Tim has lost his job because his uncle accuses him of siding with the Wakanju. Akida finds Tim living with Tamari in a slum in abject poverty and is invited to settle in with them, living on casual labours like Tim. One day Akida strikes a Korosho man who boasts of having killed hundreds of Wakanju. Convinced that he had killed the man, Akida flees to another region where he is hired as a servant by a local farmer. Nevertheless, three years later, he returns to the capital city and gives himself up to the police for the murder he thinks he committed. After the trial he is released because the man did not die, but was only injured. When he learns that Tim‟s father is responsible for his father‟s death, Akida weeps bitterly. Akida accepts Tim‟s apologies and the two friends stick together.

Unfortunately, the relatives of the man that Akida injured try to take their revenge and Akida has a narrow escape disguised as a woman. In the end, Tom, who has relocated to Canada arranges for Akida to join him there.

Although Kiwachema is a fictional country, a reader who is familiar with Kenyan history can easily associate it with Kenya. There are several names designating real places in Kenya. In a live interview with the author, it became clear that Sangura and Baraki are villages that exist in Walibora‟s ancestral home in Western Kenya. Other Toponyms include river Kibisi, names of streets, roads and estates such as Mandela, Nkrumah and Shaurimoyo which can be located on the map of Kenya. Hence, Kufa Kuzikana draws heavily from Walibora‟s personal experiences a post-colonialial country as the setting. Certainly, a reader who is conversant with the history and geography of Kenya is likely to read the generational conflicts in Kufa Kuzikana as reflecting the situation in post-colonial Kenya.