Today I will tell you of stories going to chase disco matanga as young boys.
In our camp was one man, a great son of the soil in his right. His name is Bolo Otumba.
Otumba was feared by many. Every time we were out at Disco Matanga, that spot next to the DJ and Oxstima-what they call the pressure lamp was always left for us.
The boys from Kobita, kombija, Seme kakelo, Asembo Boy; Asembo Kokise; Seme Reru & Ngere; Seme Katieno; Sakwa Bondo; Ndori, all knew that when we were in town, they had to deflate their huge chests courtesy of brick and stone waits and cede the ground to a strong power.
With that power came many privileges: we decided what Music was to be played- most often it was regea.
Bolo Otumba ruled supreme for so long that whenever we invoked his name, boys would shake.
Until one day at a Matanga disco in Kokise. With Gusto and jest, we walked into a group that would bring our dominance to an end.
On this fateful day, a young man- those when women hug you would think they are mixing their internal body organs like Mukimo, walked to the light to challenge us to a fight.
Feeling offended, Otumba asked me to do the honorable thing of defending the boys. He said “Manuar, los nyathino “ with a puffed up chest, I stepped forward in readiness to execute and put into practice all the trainings Bolo had given us.
We were champions of chudo, jump kick, upper-cut like those Tyson would subdue his opponents with. In shot, we were prepared for a time like this, until we were surprised by a superior weapon.
From nowhere and without warning, the little boy swung something(we later learned it was chain) and landed it on the head of Bolo. Our strong man fell to the ground and with that, we all took to our heels shouting to our legs to take us as far as possible and as fast as it was able. The type of run we say “Tienda gima ne achamo atuoni”
For weeks, most of the warriors of Otumba never went to the market. We were forced to learn how to use chain and even today, I can say I am an expert in that warfare. But we learnt that day that we could be beaten.
Bolo retired as our hero.
The lesson is simple, even the strong can be beaten. It may be easy to wreck a boat from inside, but you must be careful if the captain of the boat invites you in to consume you.
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