As though I was not shocked enough by the things around the house, my sister took me to one of the offices she visited for work. My ride there was hair raising. I had never seen so many cars in my life, and people crisscrossing in front of the cars with no concern. My eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. My heart was in my throat.
As her driver navigated through the crowded streets, I almost peed in my clothes when I saw a huge bus barrelling down the highway towards us. When it came up close and stopped at the traffic light, I noticed it had two doors, one at the front I could see the driver in a green uniform, and another door at the back.
My sister must have seen the way I jolted from my seat to take a good look at that monster of a bus. She told me it was a city bus service called KBS (Kenya Bus Service) but they generally called it Muuthubari. I still remember its cream color with a green stripe that ran all around the bus, just below the windows, it made the KBS look like it was wearing a wide fashionable belt.
That first KBS that I ever saw had on its side a picture of a turbaned Joginder Singh, the Safari Rally driver of the 1970s advertising Chloride Exide Batteries. From our fascination with the Safari Rally over the years, seeing the picture of one of our heroes, our very own Joginder Singh made me feel like I had met a friend in the city.
