Bwana Sasa Hivi of Marsabit

Jaldessa Diko, the Boran station Mnyapara (foreman) during my service with the Provincial Administration in Marsabit in the early 1950s earned his nickname of “Sasa Hivi” meaning right now. Jaldessa was out to please everyone, and if ever I told him that I required...

Sailing to Africa

January 1946 A well-traveled ship, the seaworthy freighter Gripsholm would be our home for our trip to North Africa. High cranes and derricks covered its deck with little room to accommodate extra passengers as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean. As a three-year-old, my...
Lions in Langata?

Lions in Langata?

It is about a mile from Margaret Downey’s house to the Giraffe Centre. On Saturday 11th February 2012, Margaret rang up the Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) because two large female lions, assumed to be mother and daughter, had been prowling around her plot and her staff...
Baby Encounters Python

Baby Encounters Python

In l957, my husband Jobst was building a boarding school at the small settlement of Chimala on the Great North road between Iringa and Mbeya.   At the time we lived in Tukuyu, the Headquarters of Rungwe District and about 70 miles from Chimala over a mountainous,...

On Growing Old in Kenya – Part 2

My enthusiasm for all things Kenyan originates from my having been granted my Kenyan citizenship soon after independence and I thus find myself being one of the ‘oldest’ Kenyan cits around. Having spent 37 years of my life as a British citizen and 46 years as a Kenyan...