He had been missing for four days. In that time we had gone to the police station and checked to see if they were holding him, then we’d been to the hospital to check if any unidentified accident victim had been brought in, and finally to the morgue where we’d pored through the unidentified bodies. We’d come up empty...

It all began with the murder of Kuria, the wholesale shop owner and his wife, both hacked to death with a machete.  Then there was Maingi, who had just sold a piece of his land. It seems he had made the mistake of heading straight to the bar where, quickly inebriated, he had proceeded to tell all and sundry of his great and new found wealth. They would later say that Mutitu followed him and crushed the man’s head with a 6 by 4 concrete brick, and took the man’s money...

The rules of engagement probably existed somewhere. If they did, I never quite did learn to read them, and father’s violent and disorganized sorties often and suddenly fell upon me at the most unexpected moments, taking me by surprise… leaving me bloodied and wracked with pain...

It had never been Njuguna’s plan to end up as world news. To be quite honest, he really had no plans at all. He was not what you would call an ambitious person.  Njuguna left the small dusty town of Ndumberi for Nairobi city on August 10th 2006, at 12 noon. He was 16 years old and he was fed up with the toiling.  If you have ever tilled through an “ibuti ”, you will understand why...

The taste of dying and bitter hopes fills my mouth,

I long for days without shadows moving in the dark

when the menace lurking in my dreams

is blunted by easier times...