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Hustle and bustle of life in Nairobi

Saturday April 30 2016
mats

A matatu stop downtown Nairobi. Oduor Jagero’s True Citizen is based on the life of matatu driver Maina, while focusing on themes of corruption, love and poverty. PHOTO | FILE

Books have been written about Nairobi over the years that have tried to capture the nitty gritty, the highs and lows of the life of the inhabitants of this huge city.

In the True Citizen, Oduor Jagero plunges you head on into a typical Kenyan slum complete with poverty, domestic violence and alcohol abuse. He then catapults you into the life of matatu driver Maina. The author then introduces us to the main theme of corruption through the traffic policemen on the road.

Using simple language, the author weaves a story of pain, akin to a curse. If the reader is superstitious or deeply religious, they may interpret Maina’s suffering as a curse because he had a hand in the death of his father.

Maina, who is self educated, marries a beautiful woman who loses her uterus and their child suffers Paget’s, a disease of the bone that leaves her an invalid. Maina loses his job because he fails to bribe a policeman. His happiness is shortlived and ends in pain and discomfort.

Maina’s conductor Kama comes from a wealthy family, but he disagrees with them because they do not support his love for art. He finds himself thrust into the matatu business and actually enjoys cheating passengers because he claims that, “Even the government does not give anything for free.”

Later, Kama, Maina and their computer hacker friend Roger, with the help of Achieng the commandant’s wife, expose the corrupt police commandant Ademba and the minister for transport.

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Oduor writes short paragraphs and short chapters that are easy to read. His powers of description prove his mastery of the language and understanding of the subject matter he is writing about. Oduor holds you spellbound from the first chapter to the end of the novel. His books is like a hot cup of coffee on a cold Nairobi morning.

The author aptly describes Kenyan society; the slum and its humdrum life, the rich such as Achieng, the Commandant’s wife, who live a lavish life that is the envy of most; the corrupt and their love for the good life.

Oduor paints a vivid picture of life in the different social strata in modern Kenya. The themes of corruption and love are interwoven in his narrative. He shows Maina and Nyawira in love despite their poverty then juxtaposes this with the life of the Traffic Commandant in whose home there is opulence but almost no love.

He paints a vivid picture of how the rot in Kenya, personalised by corruption in the traffic police department, is so deeply entrenched that it starts with the minister for transport himself and goes right down to the traffic officer on the street.

The author seems to suggest that the root cause of corruption is women, as the minister is shown as having many women whom he has to cater for; the detective, instead of doing his work resorts to being used for the extra buck by the commandant and the cycle goes on and on.

Oduor, however has a tendency of introducing a character smack in the middle of the plot, which makes the reader work harder to connect the dots.

Achieng’s family is barely talked about and you hardly see her interacting with her children, or siblings. His narrative too sometimes goes off on a fairytale kind of tangent, like the Achieng-Maina romance that seems to have Achieng spellbound, the relationship between Roger and his virgin girlfriend… and above all the perseverance, enduring love that Nyawira has for Maina. Does the author seem to say that African women are wired to stay put even under the most difficult circumstances?

His portrayal of Maina’s educational status and mastery of the English language is a bit hard to believe. He also leaves gaps in the development of Maina’s character. He fast tracks Maina’s life from the slum to a matatu driver without telling us where he went, whom he stayed with, how he got his education and changed from being a robber.

Oduor Jagero’s True Citizen is a powerful narrative of life in modern Kenya. If you have lived in this city, you will see yourself somewhere in the story and if you haven’t, then you will live it through the book.

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