Father evasive on land issue as he summons me to village

Finally, I received the call I had been waiting for from my father. He called me and told me: “ young man, you need to come home we talk about the shamba.”

I always marvel at how my father still insists on calling me young man and how he expects me to drop everything to go and see him.
As fate would turn out, the government decided to grant us an unexpected holiday and I decided to head off to the village and meet mzee. Before I left, I discussed the whole trip and even suggested that I take Maingi with me as a “boys only trip.” But Shiro was having none of this and told me, “I really do not like it when Maingi goes to your shags.”

As expected, this remark opened a rather heated debate that escalated into a full-blown argument. Shiro finds my village backward because “you guys do not have electricity and running water in this day and age.” I was taken aback by how strongly she felt but this just strengthened my resolve to take Maingi with me and I said, “well that is where I come from and he too needs to learn that.” So, I asked her, “please pack his bags because we are leaving in an hour.”

I also quickly went and informed Maingi that, “daddy and I are going on a road trip.” In doing this, I knew I had won the battle, for Shiro would not allow herself to be the bad mum who lets down her son. So one and a half hours later, we left the house and I felt that Maingi’s excitement somewhat thawed Shiro from her original anger.

I do enjoy the ride to the village; it is really scenic and lovely. Maingi was enjoying it too though after one hour he promptly fell asleep. When we got to the village, the children of our homestead quickly claimed Maingi and went off to play. My mother and father seemed genuinely happy to see us as my mother promptly asked, “Where is your wife?” My mother has never really taken a liking for Shiro so I responded by saying, “I just wanted to come alone.”

Slowly young man

She gave a snigger and promptly disappeared to attend to cooking for her guests. I was keen to discuss the land issue. So I went right into it and said, “so, when do I see the land? I have such plans!”

My father is not one to be pushed: “slowly young man! We cannot discuss land as if we are discussing the sale of bread, let me compose my thoughts and then we discuss.”

I was taken aback by this hesitancy but I decided to go along so I said, “what do we do now? “ He said, “let us go to the shopping centre like real men and you tell me all about Nairobi.” This was not a bad idea seeing that Maingi was fully occupied.

On the way to the shopping centre, my father pointed at some tracts of land and said, “This is the land I am talking about.” So I asked him about the size, “I think it is about two acres, we really have never had a surveyor to take the measurements.”
I could not help but ask him, “who owns the land? Who holds the title?”

He said, “you know after my parents died, the elders sub-divided the land and each of us got our portion. So my portion is the one on the left, that is the one you can have.” Though this sounded good I realised that there were some practical issues that needed addressing so I said, “but are you transferring the land to me or are you leasing it to me? How do you ensure that my uncles do not come baying for my blood for taking over their land.”

My father became a bit cagey. “They will not but once you sort out the letters of administration and transfers all is well,” he said.

To change the topic, he started pointing to some electricity poles and said, “the government is finally bringing us electricity.” I did not know what to make of all of this. I get the feeling my father just wants to use me to sort out his land issues.