Our little stories and how they fit in the wider narrative of autonomy

Our little stories and how they fit in the wider narrative of autonomy

T

hing is, at least everyone has a niche they are pushing borders with. I know and understand there are many untold stories.

BY MUSYOKA NGUI

Last Wednesday’s Entrepreneurship class is arguably the most inspiring in the entire four years we’ve been around campus.  Since the course is taught in form of case studies, the story time is one of the most enjoyable moments of the class.  Comrades loathe endless notes and nonstop dictation. We are glad it is coming to an end. At least for a while. Another thing comrades hate with passion is having their time get “wasted by lecturers”. A lecturer will make a date with class rep for 7 am class but somehow thinks he is supposed to keep you waiting for an hour without explanation. Worse still, he may never show up. You doze sitting on the desk. Wasted morning glory and delayed or skipped breakfast.

Now you can imagine the break from norm when lecturer Dr. Gilbert Mugambi Miriti entered the story session with home-grown case studies. It was like hearing a new song. Refreshing, different and uplifting.

I found myself questioning the credibility of those case studies he narrated. Were they true stories or were just mere fictions designed to give hope to leavers fearing the reality of joblessness and a raft of other deficiencies of a graduate expected to meet high gradient societal expectations?

Juma Geoffrey’s story touches the heartstrings of anyone determined to excel in life. It is a manifestation of raw willpower to prove critics wrong and silence the naysayers who passed judgment that he will never be anybody. Being poor and on the verge of dropping out of school, well-wishers came to his rescue to put his destiny on the recovery path. Look at him now. Less than a month he will be leaving college shoulder high and confident that heavens will soon open windows and doors of a radio station so that he will practice what he learned in Chuka.

Nothing exemplifies comradeship than in the runners-up for exams. Genuine cases of students unable to finish or pay school fees show up for assistance. The comrades contribute anything they have be it 50 bob or just a word of encouragement that everything will be okay. In the end the friend in need actually sits his or her exams. Lecturers too chip in. They are not just tutors but guardians and mentors.

Enter Charles Njagi fondly referred to as Tycoon. He is an accomplished motivational speaker getting paid KES.1000 per minute. He cited Pepe  Minambo as his role model. Many agree there is a distillery of wisdom and understanding in his cool demeanour.

You see Njagi has helped youth groups start and take off by guiding them in the logistical aspects of management.  He is not greedy for leadership or drunk with power that comes with controlling the purse strings of NGOs funded by donors and philanthropists. His dream is to see youth become financially independent and help their communities. I guess he has achieved something tangible in his native village.

But Fleare Mtana’s story seems most compelling. I don’t know why but methinks it is because it is about food. The smell of her sandwiches has gets many a mouths watering with saliva begging for a bite. She has been distracting students and lecturers alike when the classes are on session. At first her customers were reluctant to buy minced meat, toast, margarine and serviette at KES.30. But in the long run Fleare’s life has transformed from Miss Kilifi to Mama Sandwich. Friends agree that she has expanded her wardrobe and her shoe rack is bulging.

She also has a boyfriend who apparently she is not ready to unveil.  And talking about relationships it was rather a disturbing and embarrassing revelation about the role of comrades and spouses in entrepreneurship. Comrades look down upon colleagues who do odd jobs like hawking or sales jobs. They think these jobs taint the images of their friends since they are not “cool”. Yet they add extra shilling to the pockets of the practitioners. It is quite discouraging why a comrade can just go on a mission to discredit the enterprise of another rather than helping the person find market. The boyfriends are also to blame. They get insecure that the extra buck may overthrow them as the sole breadwinners and fundamentally change the rules of the dating game as we know it.

And so Fleare was not surprised when she employed a friend who later quit on the ground that she was being looked at disapprovingly by comrades and her boyfriend was rather uncomfortable with the rounds she was doing around the hostels selling sandwiches.

Perhaps the most relevant story in media today is Steve Mbego’s. I congratulate him on appointment as the news editor for County Review. Prior to that he was the blogger and still is the proprietor of chukauni.com- a campus blog that specializes in student affairs and the community around. He has grown audience as well as advertisers. Students have published in his site and are now more visible that their faceless former self.

But I’d like him to control the paper and make it mean real value for the people of Tharaka Nithi, Meru, Embu and Isiolo counties. He should not accept sensational stories at the expense of developmental and devolution pieces that would make differences in Mount Kenya East. County Review is not a tabloid. It should remain a respected paper it has always been.

There are still many people doing great. Frank Momanyi of Cafe Ripples,  Chrisphine Magak of rilvalu.com, Edwin Mogere and his Mashariki Company and many more. Thing is, at least everyone has a niche they are pushing borders with. I know and understand there are many untold stories. Your story is important. It must get out. For you, for him, for her and for them. Kudos Media Class #2015. Nyinyi ni watu wa ajabu sana.

The writer is a blogger at musyokangui.blogspot.com and a Fourth Year Communication and Media student at Chuka University.