There were some veterans of OlKalou town that everybody seemed to know or recognized. Most were the business people who provided goods and services to the people of OlKalou town, the Settlement Schemes and beyond.
It was not unusual to find people from as far as Wanjohi, Kirima, Engineer, Rurii, Tumaini, Miharati all coming to shop and seek services from OlKalou. It was the local hub.
Here are a few of the veterans:
Kimani: His shop was on the opposite side of Gitiyo Bar and Wambiga’s butchery. Kimani was so good at customer service and he always greeted us with a warm smile. It was his shop where our mother sent us for SUTA. Incase you did not know about SUTA, it was a medicine that mothers swore cured a broad spectrum of illnesses. It was even crushed and given to domestic animals when our “doctor mother” thought they were ailing. A chicken starts tilting its head to the side (kugoiya ngingo) mother gave it SUTA, and sure enough it recovered. SUTA came in a huge tablet. I now wonder what medicine that was. Was it an antibiotic or what? Only mother knows. As time went on, I think SUTA was banned from the market. How do I know? Because mother sent us to Kimani’s shop and instructed us not to say SUTA by name. The code was “twatumwo ni mami” translation “mother sent us”. And with that, Kimani knew exactly what mother was asking for. He rolled a piece of paper into a cone shape, like those used for hawking peanuts around town, put a few SUTA tablets in and asked us to stash safely in our pocket. We did. Anybody with information about SUTA?
Serah: The other shop belonged to a cheerful, very light skinned, short lady named Serah or Nyina wa Chiru. Her shop was in the heart of town and she was known all over town for her friendly services. Her husband’s name was Mwangi but he was not as widely known as Serah. Infact a lot of us had never met him, and those who did, it was just a handful of times when Serah left him to man the shop during her brief absences. They had two daughters Wangari and Chiru.
Kuria – Photo Studio: The first photo studio in OlKalou was owned by a Mr. Kuria. He was a handsome young man, always neatly dressed in stylish handmade sweaters, very light skinned with a wide gap in his front teeth (njarumi or as our Nyeri neighbors would say, thenya) His wife worked with him at the Photo Studio and she was also famous for hand knitting beautifully designed sweaters for customers to supplement their income. That explains the beautiful sweaters that Kuria wore, making him the natural advertiser of his wife’s craft. Kuria still owns a photo studio to this day, of course a highly modernized one, unlike when he started out in the 1980s, taking black and white and color photographs in negative films, waiting until the reel was full, then getting them developed into paper prints. Kuria and his family were very active in the local Catholic Church, and they still are todate.
Kuria had younger twin sisters, who resembled him so much, they needed no introduction. They were both light skinned and had the same beautiful gap in their front teeth. They were the first set of identical twins we ever saw in OlKalou it was fascinating just looking at them and not being able to tell them apart. Like the rest of the family, they were active in the local Catholic Church where they sang in the choir and played drums. The twins however left the Catholic Church sometimes in the 1980s and joined the “mai maingi” sect, we could tell from their ankle length pleated dresses and boxy headscarves that covered their ears. They were still beautiful and a sight to behold.
Tom – Tailor: There was a young tailor named Tom who became known all over OlKalou when his wife Joyce won the top prize of the Kenya Charity Sweepstakes, her name getting mentioned on the national radio and her image printed on future sweepstakes tickets. I believe the amount they won was Kes.40,000. Such an amount was unthinkable in the 1970s. To put it in perspective, the monthly salary of a primary school teacher was less than Kes.1,000, and the highest Kenyan currency note was the Kes.100, which was very rare to come by. You can therefore imagine what Kes.40,000 must have felt like in the hands of this young couple that was just starting out in life. Anyhow, Tom and Joyce put their windfall money into very good use, a decision that set their young lives onto an entirely different trajectory. They purchased a piece of land and constructed a house where they settled, and Tom expanded his tailoring business. Tom and Joyce were both very active in the local Catholic Church with Tom being a Catechist, a role he plays to this date. Unfortunately Joyce did not get to enjoy their new home for long, passing away at a very young age, probably in her late 20s, leaving Tom with their very young children.
Mwangi Kiraba: There was a huge well stocked clothes shop owned by a Mwangi Kiraba, a very serious looking man, he reminded us of our father. His shop was on the Uhindi side of town, near Bhachu’s hardware.
Nyina wa Waithira: There was a lady named Wanjiku (Nyina wa Waithira) who sold second hand clothes (nguo cia munaara) in the market. The clothes were either hanging on the makeshift stall or in a huge pile on a tarp (kiandaruwa) that was spread out on the ground. It was the customers job to “dig” into the pile in search of what they needed. Nyina wa Waithira spent her day lying on some of the clothes she piled up for cushioning as she waited for customers. I envied her greatly, I thought she looked glamorous surrounded by beautiful merchandise of all colors.
There were many other veterans who served the people of OlKalou in various ways and we owe them our gratitude.
Then there were the movers and shakers of OlKalou back in the day, with some still there currently running conglomerates that had their humble beginnings in the OlKalou of yester-years. Following are a few of them:
