Everyone’s number one wish in their final year in High school is to join campus.
While in High School, it’s all good things that you get to hear about campus. Apart from finally being free from a ‘prison’ of boarding, you are relieved from waking up early, preps, carrying Bible-sized Black books and of course your bums are freed too, since no one will get to cane you at campus.
Your diet also ‘improves’ from the daily posho and beans meals to kikomando and to a little bit of chips and tomato source. And you guessed right, you don’t work to afford chicken save for a few girls who can easily access it after offering something in return.
So I was always looking forward to such kind of life. Where I can longer wear a uniform. Where I can club without having to worry about entrance fee……..anti Campus Night!
I always look forward to this day – Friday. So last week I happen to be loaded; armed with my 10k.
With this, I had budgeted to take one soda, buy any catch I find there a bottle of Smirnoff or any beer at 5k then retain 2k for my way back to hostel.
But at my campus, clubbing is forbidden. It can actually even lead to dismissal. So making it there is always by ‘escaping’.
And as always, I safely made it to my favourite spot last week through ‘escaping’.
That day I was lucky as I even got to save my 5k! A group of babes I landed on was loaded. Though only three of them, they had some bottles on their table, five to be precise. I needn’t have to buy any. I totally had fun with them for the whole night at zero cost!
Then came this time I hate most; going back to the hostels. You are always worried on how you’ll safely make it there without being caught by security. On such days, it is very alert because it too is aware some students go to night clubs.
At around 5am, I hop onto a boda and head back to campus. At the gate, I find a group of other students who were earlier with me in the club. They are arguing with askari, asking him to open the gate. On the other hand, he says the gate can only be opened when he is given some ‘tea’, which none is willing to give. The argument gets steamy and the askari calls for the male warden, a person who has the powers of dismissing any student, especially those that go clubing.
Everybody runs away for his future and some can be seen hoping onto bodas back to the club and wait until it’s dawn.
I end up at a bench outside a shop with another student, a northerner.
We are both feeling dizzy but it’s pretty cold here for anyone to fall asleep.
At around 6am, my colleague loses his patience and is determined to enter at all costs. “Once they stop me, I’ll tell them that I am a weekend student and I am just arriving.” I ask him that what if they know all of the weekend students. “No way….. all you need is to walk confident. No one will stop you….”
He entered the gate and I watched him walk until when he disappeared out of my sight.
At this moment I am regretting as to why I didn’t follow him. But owange, I can’t take any risk. Across the road I spot another group of 5 students, who I decide to join. They also want to get in but are afraid.
But there is this one dude who’s convinced nothing will happen to us. He tries convincing us but it turns out that we are all cowards.
It’s now 7am and he, too, can’t wait any longer. He makes his way into the gate and we watched him walk until when he got out of our sight.
We also feel like following him but we wait for about 10 minutes before calling, asking him whether he reached the hostels safely.
“Please, believe me. I am from meeting my dad,” he pleads when we call him.
Since he is answering a different question from that we’ve asked, we now know he is in trouble. Above all, he has been with us and none of us is his dad like he had pleaded in his response.
He was actually caught among tens of others. The warden was hidden in a corner somewhere along the main road to the gate and stopped anyone suspected to be arriving from the club.
We finally made our way inside at 8am. At the time, the raid had stopped.
Though, I almost drowned in laughter on Wednesday when I met my Northerner friend I hustled with during that fateful night.
“My friend, I wish I had stayed with you,” he said on seeing me. By his statement I broke into laugher because I could guess what had happened to him.
“What happened?” I asked him. “Man, I was nabbed!” he responded with a smile on his face. At this moment I was laughing really hard that I almost peed on myself. “Atte How were you caught, did you walk with confidence like you had told me?” I try to mock him. “Man f**k this Sh**t! The punishment I was given is signing in a book at 10pm, 12am and 1am on a daily basis.” Now you see why cowards live longer! Gotta leave this place and prepare for tonight….anti TGIF!!!
