I still remember this very well;
I was still a bachelor and I had gotten a low paying job immediately after
completing college. During this particular time my salary was miserably late
and I was staring at starvation with wide eyes. There was only Kshs 200 between
me and poverty. Worse where I used to work I had to commute daily and pay Kshs
30 or 50 to work, same on my way home in the evening. With Kshs 200, it surely
meant I could not survive the harsh life of urban area for more than a day.
In my neighborhood there was a
shop owned by a Meru guy, we used to call him “murume”. So in the evening of my
last Kshs 200 I approached Murume. After explaining to him my predicament he
sorted me with 4 KG unga wa mahindi, some cooking oil, and some other food stuffs
and gave me Kshs 1,000. Since we had established a good relationship with
Murume, he knew I cannot miss to pay him when I finally get paid. With that, I
was sorted out for another week or 2.
Come to think of it, even if am a
loyal customer of Nakumatt, can I just walk in, pick good on their shelves with
credit and walk out? Not at all! Even if I am to have a credit card, can you
have that credit or debit card without the initial deposit? huh!
And there goes my reasons why I
rarely buy in supermarkets, shopping malls and city
stalls, but I choose to often buy from the little kiosks and vibanda’s in my
neighborhood.
