There was one famous doctor in OlKalou. His name was Dr. Nguku and his fame went beyond OlKalou. He was the doctor who ushered OlKalou boys into manhood aka circumcision. I can bet every second generation boy who grew up in OlKalou and its environs became a man at Nguku’s clinic.
Nguku was from my Settlement Scheme. His young beautiful wife Foreline Wambui farmed and raised their young children while Nguku treated patients at the old Hospital in town, before the OlKalou District Hospital was built. After the District Hospital opened in mid 1970s, Nguku decided not to move to the new Hospital and instead opened his private medical clinic in town. Patients went to him for all kinds of ailments but circumcision quickly become his specialty due to the high demand for that service. After Nguku established himself as the go to doctor for circumcision, his name became the code name for circumcision. After boys sat for their Standard Seven CPE (Certificate of Primary Education) in November, the next step was “guthii kwa Nguku” translation “going to Nguku’s”. Everybody knew what that meant and no further details or explanations were required. That is how famous Nguku was, and Nyandarua is forever grateful for his valuable services.
Nguku was also a farmer. He owned tractors for hire. During the busy season when farmers needed to prepare their farms before the rains started, it was not unusual to see the doctor himself coming to plow our farm. He had hired drivers but often times he preferred to do the job himself. Nguku also trained his young sons to operate the tractors. His sons went to school with us at Munyeki, but their after school chores were completely different from everybody else’s. There were numerous times when they came to plow our farm after school or on weekends. That was always fascinating because they were in our age group, meaning they were about 10 years old or slightly older, but they handled those farm machinery like pros. Back then, I did not realize how young they were to be handling such heavy responsibilities, but looking back, I admire their father for training his young sons to handle the family business, reducing the overheads of hired help, saving the family money.
Nguku drove the popular pickup truck of the day, a Peugeot 403, registration KKH. I remember it well because my brothers and I used vehicle registration to formulate our own words to help us remember every automobile we encountered. Nguku’s was Karau Karau Haitu. I still remember it, meaning our childish playful method worked.
For all his services, I bow down to our good doctor, farmer, family man, neighbor and friend. God bless you Ithe wa Mbugua na George
