Back in the '90s, there was this anecdote which made rounds in the impoverished Noru-moru Primary School where I began my kindergarten education in 1993. I stayed in the school till the last term of my Standard 7 education in 2000.

The anecdote was of a boy in the school who attended a Catholic mass one Sunday during which he saw people receive the Holy Sacrament: a small, round and white substance that looks more like a biscuit baked without any additional ingredients apart from wheat flour. Curious to know how the sacrament tastes, the boy resolved he would have to receive it the following Sunday.

According to Catholic Church customs, the sacrament is a symbol for a bread for the soul. It is a freebie because Jesus Christ came to save souls for free. All you need to receive the sacrament as per Catholic customs is to attend catechism classes in the church where you will be taught Biblical values, after which you will be ordained in a special mass to be receiving the sacrament.

But the boy who resolved to taste the sacrament didn't know all that stuff. He thought that the tithes offered during mass (which come before Holy Communion) was a payment for the sacrament just like the way you hand out a few coins to a shopkeeper in order to receive a biscuit. So the boy went to look for a few coins and went back to the church the following Sunday.

Now, the Catholic priests usually say "The Body of Christ" before giving out the sacrament. And when the priests say so, you are supposed to reply "Amen", bow your head slightly and then open your mouth with the tongue sticking out in readiness to receive the sacrament. But the boy didn't know that either.

Armed with a few coins, the boy turned up for mass the following Sunday. He tithed during the offertory session. Then he lined up during Holy Communion session to receive the sacrament. And when his turn to receive the sacrament reached and the priest said to him "The Body of Christ", the boy looked at the priest straight in the eye and replied, "I have paid!"

That anecdote usually sets me laughing when I think about it because the sacrament is a symbol of salvation which is free. All you need to get saved is surrender your pride and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. Let no pastor ever hoodwink you into parting with your money in order to get saved. Salvation is free for shizzle.

So to make salvation more freely available in a modernized way, just click the button below if you would like to get saved:


Haha! Indeed, you are now saved. Let no more sins and sorrows grow in you. Be reading the Bible everyday. Be meditating on its message regularly. Be forgiving of yourself and others. Be beautiful. Be grateful. Be loving. Be honest. Be humble. Be bold. Be you!

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How can I forget Philosopher David Munene? He was a high school classmate of mine at Starehe Boys' Centre. My classmates nicknamed Philosopher because of his philosophical remarks. He was first appointed a sub-prefect sometime in 2003 when we were in Form 2. And owing to the aura of confidence that he exuded, he rose through the ranks to become a red-lion, as the three head-honchos of the Starehe prefectorial force were called, sometime in 2005.

When Munene was announced a red-lion during one school assembly in 2005, the whole hall burst into a seething cauldron of cheers. That reflected the kind of wise person he was because as the book of Proverbs points out, there is always great rejoicing when a righteous man ascends to power. I would also have chimed in the cheering by brushing my fingers across the piano had I not been jeered when I attempted it earlier on in the assembly.

As our high school years drew to a close on November 2005, Munene and I were among the students interviewed for a job by a certain Mr. Njoroge. He was offered the job and I wasn't. But he declined it and instead chose to report back to the Starehe Institute to continue serving as a red-lion while pursuing a diploma in Information Technology.

As for me, I madly craved to have the job because I didn't want to return to the institute. But since Mr. Njoroge refused to employ me even after following up on my interview results, I had no choice but to return to Starehe to pursue a diploma course in Information Technology just like Munene.

That failure to get the job turned out to be a blessing in disguise because I would have missed the great days of learning and adventure I had at Starehe Institute. And I later learnt that Mr. Njoroge's job was low-paying and deadly-dull since it involved doing such menial tasks as cleaning his office. So Munene was wise to decline the job offer.

As we prepared to report back to the institute in December '05, I advised Munene to emulate Gilbert Kimani: the 2002/03 Starehe Boys' school captain who struck me as friendly and easy-going. Both Munene and Gilbert bore resemblance in that they were of the same physical size at the time they served as school captains of Starehe. Actually, I think Munene was thinner in his time as school captain than Gilbert in his - something that led my general Moses Aran to backbite him in Swahili by saying, "This Munene is very thin!"

Judging by his recent Facebook posts, I am happy to report that Munene has gained weight these days which I think is beneficial for his wife Miriam for obvious reasons. See?

What I appreciated most about Munene in his time as a red-lion was the way he held me in high esteem. He once referred to me as a genius while addressing students in a baraza for me having set up a website for our high school stream, The Mighty 4F, in that time when such social media networks as Facebook and Whatsapp that we take for granted hadn't yet been created.

And he wrote for me a glowing peer recommendation when I unsuccessfully applied for undergraduate admission at Dartmouth College in the United States. He mentioned in the recommendation of how I had volunteered during the 2006 August holiday to teach piano at a remote Catholic parish in Mwingi District in the then Eastern Province of Kenya in that era of provincial administration.

Unfortunately, and I say unfortunately for a reason I will explain later, Munene dropped out of Starehe Institute in late 2006 and chose to fly for a gap-year internship at an elite school in Australia called the Armidale School. So he turned out to be the only Starehe Boys' school captain who never completed his one-year term during my time in the school. He was also the only student who never completed the diploma course in Information Technology in the Starehe Institute Class of '07.

Had Munene finished his one-year term as school captain of Starehe Boys' Centre, he would have been offered an opportunity to study a post-high diploma at Deerfield Academy, one of the best college-preparatory schools in the United States, from where I am sure he would have been accepted in such highly-esteemed universities as Yale, Harvard and Stanford. As to why he chose to drop out of Starehe Institute - thus sacrificing an opportunity to study at Deerfield Academy - is something I have been dying to understand.

Later on in 2010, I inquired from him in a Facebook chat why he sacrificed an opportunity to study in the United States. He never disclosed to me the reason; he just told me it is true he lost something by not flying to Deerfield, but he also gained something by flying to the Armidale School. That sounded wise. No wonder he was nicknamed "Philosopher".

Of late, I have been thinking that Munene dropped out of Starehe Institute probably because he didn't want to get caught up, like a mosquito in a spider's web, in the negative politics that were brewing up in the school following the demise in 2005 of Dr. Geoffrey Griffin: Starehe's founding director. What else would you expect from such a wise man as Munene?

Anyway, back in late 2006, I was heartsick when I overheard from some reliable sources that Munene was dropping out of Starehe Institute back. I expressed my sorrow to my friend Theophilus Kamwaro who just replied, "Good people never last."

I have always had a feeling that had Munene completed his term as Starehe Boys' school captain, he would have organized for me an opportunity that opened up in 2007 for one Starehian to pursue a post-high school diploma at a college-preparatory academy in Cleveland, Ohio. That's why I have said it was unfortunate for him to drop out Starehe Institute.

By the way, after his gap-year days at the Armidale School in Australia, Munene flew to Great Britain to pursue a BSc. degree in Business Information Systems at the University of East London. He graduated in 2011 with first class honours. And he now resides in Great Britain but he sometimes comes back to Kenya for a visit like he did recently to familiarize his English wife with his roots. I hope, just like I think Dr. Griffin is hoping as he reposes now in heaven, that Munene will one day permanently resettle back in Kenya to advance the course of his Motherland through entrepreneurship, if not political leadership. So help him God.

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