ONCE BITTEN.......BY TINNAH KIIO 09-0941

You might have found yourself asking me, "why don't you want to light the gas cooker?", or wondering,"why is she height phobic?" Here are the answers.

One Tuesday morning, at the age of four, though very young, i remember the day vividly. Mum and dad had left for work, and left me with our househelp. Although to date i thank her for helping bring me up, i also blame her for the many bad encounters that i had during those good old days.

After her normal house chores, she left with her boyfriend, mutuse, who came to visit her oftenly, i can't remember his look very well but he was usually in green suits, he looked like a game warden.Out of boredom i decided to climb a tree to cheer myself up,little did i know that there was a beehive. When i was almost at the top of the tree, i heard the buzz of bees.I had heard father tell a story of how they bit a woman to death in their home village and i could not wait for them to kill me too. I decided to come down holding the stem of the tree dear to avoid falling. The more they came closer to me the more i got scared, lost balance and unfortunately tripped and fell down with a thud.


My neighbor came to my rescue after hearing my loud cry and took me with her. She nursed my wounds and promised to cook me chapatis as an incentive to keep me quiet. She sat me beside the gas cooker as she prepared them. She gave me one to taste, i say, she was one of the sweetest i had come across then. I started forgeting my pain though my legs hurt very much when i moved them.

Tragedy did yet again strike when Mwende was removing the frying pan from the cooker. She under-estimated the heat of the pan handle and when she could not take it any longer she dropped the pan. I could not but scream as the hot oil dripped and ate my little legs.She quickly poured cold water on my legs and rushed me to the hospital where my mother worked.

I was hurriedly attended to and sedated, i left Mwende crying explaining the whole occurrence to my very furious mother,she understood Mwende's case, but Mutindi's.....she had to face the music.