Once, I had a friend called ”Bonny”,we used to be very close to the extent that other street boys and girls used to think that we were brothers.
Our friendship started way back, when we met as new comers on the street life and we would keep on following each other to avoid being bullied by the big boys.
We always did everything together, as we could spend sleepless nights in the cold, shivering, lying on tattered rugs on empty stomachs at a shoddy place we used to call base Chum.
Photo by Martin Ndung'u
Due to harassment from the city council Askaris, we had to adopt nomadic lifestyle, as they were always after us, they would arrest us falsely and beat us up senselessly at times.The situation was becoming unbearable, but what could we do?
As a result of moving from one place to the other, I failed to trace the whereabouts of Bonny, and that was the last time we saw each other eye to eye. More painfully, it was the last time I heard of him, a friend that I treasured most was all gone……………
One day, as I was busy trying to separate dirt from the food that had been thrown away as garbage, a certain gentleman approached me and asked me lots of questions regarding our family,my past and present. I answered all of them to the best of my capability and he got delighted and promised to give me a better place to live in and enroll me back to school to complete my studies.
He was God sent, but painful at the same time, for if I was with Bonny, the two of us would have benefited, right away, it was I alone. What could I have done?
I was lucky to have completed my studies up to a higher level and was now working for a prestigious firm within the city. One day, as I was out for a lunch break, a street boy approached me asking for a penny, I dipped my fingers on my pocket, and while giving him the ten shilling coin, I looked at him, straight on the eye and realized it was Bonny.
I hugged him, immediately tears of joy and sorrow started rolling down my rosy cheeks as I could not believe that my long time friend’s life had not changed to the better.
I took him to a nearby hotel, for him to have a quick shower as I rushed to a clothes shop to buy him clothes. After he was through with preparing himself, I took him home and promised to provide him with capital, so that he could start running a business of his own.
A friend in need, is a friend in deed.
