Meja Mwangi's first novel, Kill Me Quick, was written in 1973.
This young adult novel displays Mwangi’s talent for writing
lively stories depicting rural youth and societal problems in
Kenya. It narrates the experiences of Meja and Maina, two
youths who have come to the city with the hope of bettering
their lives, confident that their high school diplomas will lead
to success. However, they are unable to compete for jobs in
the city and, ultimately, they resort to petty theft and crime,
and being exploited by employers. Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, in
her article ‘Half Education Is Madness!’: Mwangi’s Teenage
Characters Battle Poverty in a Post colonial African City,'
states that the novel shows the failure of the educational
curriculum in post colonial Africa. She writes that it is 'a typical
story of a dream deferred because each pays the price of
daring to hope for a better life' (15). Kill Me Quick was also
made into a stage play.
Mwangi’s keen eye for the drama and humor in everyday
rural life in Kenya shines throughout his work. Striving for
the Wind, set in the drought years of the 1980s, contrasts a
traditional farmer, who is dependent on oxen for plowing, with
a wealthy neighbor whose imported tractor is incapacitated
during a global petrol crisis. While this novel is suitable for
young adults, it does not shy away from some painful
realities. It includes the seduction of a young schoolgirl by a
rich old man, and when the young girl becomes pregnant, his
son says that he will marry her in his father’s place.
Other themes that are common to all his works are the
difficulties young educated Kenyans face when trying to
return to their rural homes to apply their learning and the
impact of corrupt officials on the lives of the poor. The young
adult novel The Last Plague, which won Mwangi his third
Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2001, offers a seldom-
heard African male perspective on the impact of HIV/AIDS in
rural areas. Again, it features a well-educated, well-meaning
young man facing many obstacles as he tries to set up his
veterinary practice in a small, dying town. Mwangi’s
tremendous concern for the poor and disadvantaged—and
his prescriptions for how they could really be helped—
resonate throughout the novel.
Mwangi continues to be a prolific writer. His latest novel, The
Boy Gift, will be released in North America toward the end of
2006. Suitable for adults and young adults alike, it is about
the confusion caused by the birth of a light-skinned, green-
eyed baby in the Bush Hospital. While political aspirations
and intrigue surround the birth of the boy, at the emotional
and psychological levels the author explores a community’s
reaction to the strange and inexplicable
Readers interested in fast-paced stories that impart
considerable information on contemporary obstacles to rural
development and healthcare are encouraged to continue
reading the impressive list of novels published by Meja
Mwangi.
By Harriet McGuire.
This young adult novel displays Mwangi’s talent for writing
lively stories depicting rural youth and societal problems in
Kenya. It narrates the experiences of Meja and Maina, two
youths who have come to the city with the hope of bettering
their lives, confident that their high school diplomas will lead
to success. However, they are unable to compete for jobs in
the city and, ultimately, they resort to petty theft and crime,
and being exploited by employers. Vivian Yenika-Agbaw, in
her article ‘Half Education Is Madness!’: Mwangi’s Teenage
Characters Battle Poverty in a Post colonial African City,'
states that the novel shows the failure of the educational
curriculum in post colonial Africa. She writes that it is 'a typical
story of a dream deferred because each pays the price of
daring to hope for a better life' (15). Kill Me Quick was also
made into a stage play.
Mwangi’s keen eye for the drama and humor in everyday
rural life in Kenya shines throughout his work. Striving for
the Wind, set in the drought years of the 1980s, contrasts a
traditional farmer, who is dependent on oxen for plowing, with
a wealthy neighbor whose imported tractor is incapacitated
during a global petrol crisis. While this novel is suitable for
young adults, it does not shy away from some painful
realities. It includes the seduction of a young schoolgirl by a
rich old man, and when the young girl becomes pregnant, his
son says that he will marry her in his father’s place.
Other themes that are common to all his works are the
difficulties young educated Kenyans face when trying to
return to their rural homes to apply their learning and the
impact of corrupt officials on the lives of the poor. The young
adult novel The Last Plague, which won Mwangi his third
Jomo Kenyatta Prize for Literature in 2001, offers a seldom-
heard African male perspective on the impact of HIV/AIDS in
rural areas. Again, it features a well-educated, well-meaning
young man facing many obstacles as he tries to set up his
veterinary practice in a small, dying town. Mwangi’s
tremendous concern for the poor and disadvantaged—and
his prescriptions for how they could really be helped—
resonate throughout the novel.
Mwangi continues to be a prolific writer. His latest novel, The
Boy Gift, will be released in North America toward the end of
2006. Suitable for adults and young adults alike, it is about
the confusion caused by the birth of a light-skinned, green-
eyed baby in the Bush Hospital. While political aspirations
and intrigue surround the birth of the boy, at the emotional
and psychological levels the author explores a community’s
reaction to the strange and inexplicable
Readers interested in fast-paced stories that impart
considerable information on contemporary obstacles to rural
development and healthcare are encouraged to continue
reading the impressive list of novels published by Meja
Mwangi.
By Harriet McGuire.
| MEJA MWANGI Books |
 | |  | |  | |  |
| Books |
| Kill Me Quick HEB 1973 |
| Books |
Pass the word
"My predecessor was a most meticulous man. College educated, like
you. He believed in dealing fair with thugs and criminals, and tried to
understand people, to assign reasons for their evil deeds and such
like. But me, I didn't go to college, and I know different. People do
bad things because they are bad people. Like dogs bite because
they are dogs. So I handle them like dogs. I have a file on you this
thick. A most interesting dossier, I must say. It has details in it you
would not want you mother to know. You see, being college-
educated like you, he too had one great failing - he trusted everyone
and thought good of people. He tried to deal humanely with
lawbreakers, criminals and wild beasts. He tried to understand things
that are simply not there, to attribute cause to badness, to explain
unadulterated evil and things like that. Did you know he was from
your alma mater?”
Juda’s mouth dropped farther.
“He was,” nodded the OCS. “He believed he could understand
the criminal psyche and tried to prove it. He had files and files of
what he called his Kambi Case Book. A more detailed directory of
fools, crooks and madmen, I have never seen. But it all amounted to
nothing. You see, there are people and there are animals. Some
people are no better than animals. They are good when they are
good and bad when they are bad, and there’s nothing more to it.
How else do you explain the murder of a stranger by another, simply
to deprive him of the contents of his pocket? Can you explain that?”
Juda could not explain anything anymore than he could
understand why he had been singled out for this lecture. He looked
about nervously, at the small groups of people watching from a
distance.
“Life is a battle between good and evil,” said the OCS. “And, for
there to be a proper equilibrium and harmony in the universe, good
must prevail. You must understand that, being a college man and all.
In my long career as a CID officer, I’ve found that there’s only one
way of dealing with violent criminals, and that is with greater and
more uncompromising violence. If they shoot one innocent man, I
shoot three gangsters dead. If they chop up someone with a
machete, I chop ten of them with my AK 47. If they thump a drunk
with a beer bottle, my boys thump them with truncheons, jembe
sticks, or whatever is at hand. Why, you may ask? Because that’s
the only language that dogs understand. It works for me, and that’s
why I intend to apply it here also. You see, I don’t consider human
anyone who violates others because he can.”
He paused to let it all take hold, and Juda decided the man was
not as primitive or as uneducated as he made out to be, which made
him all the more dangerous.
“Don’t mistake me,” the OCS continued, “I’m a religious man, a
believer in the good book and the old laws. A labourer is worth his
wage? You reap what you sow? An eye for an eye? Have you ever
read the Bible? But of course, you are a well-read man. Woe to the
lawbreakers, for they shall eat the bread of sorrow?”
Juda shook his dazed head.
“Why are you telling me all this?” he asked.
“I want you to understand me completely,” said the OCS.
“What for?” asked Juda. “I don’t like you and I don’t even know
you.”
“You will,” said the man, “you will. I’m counting on everyone’s co-
operation in this, especially on people of high IQ and good education
like you.”
Juda finally closed his mouth. He had been flattered many times
before; come to think of it, the people who called him Professor did
nothing but flatter him; but a policeman had never before flattered
him.
“I can count on you, can’t I?” the OCS asked him.
For a fleeting moment, Juda wondered what would happen if he
said no. Would they dump him in the boot and cart him off to Ngobit
or simply conscript another unfortunate.
READ ON ...
"My predecessor was a most meticulous man. College educated, like
you. He believed in dealing fair with thugs and criminals, and tried to
understand people, to assign reasons for their evil deeds and such
like. But me, I didn't go to college, and I know different. People do
bad things because they are bad people. Like dogs bite because
they are dogs. So I handle them like dogs. I have a file on you this
thick. A most interesting dossier, I must say. It has details in it you
would not want you mother to know. You see, being college-
educated like you, he too had one great failing - he trusted everyone
and thought good of people. He tried to deal humanely with
lawbreakers, criminals and wild beasts. He tried to understand things
that are simply not there, to attribute cause to badness, to explain
unadulterated evil and things like that. Did you know he was from
your alma mater?”
Juda’s mouth dropped farther.
“He was,” nodded the OCS. “He believed he could understand
the criminal psyche and tried to prove it. He had files and files of
what he called his Kambi Case Book. A more detailed directory of
fools, crooks and madmen, I have never seen. But it all amounted to
nothing. You see, there are people and there are animals. Some
people are no better than animals. They are good when they are
good and bad when they are bad, and there’s nothing more to it.
How else do you explain the murder of a stranger by another, simply
to deprive him of the contents of his pocket? Can you explain that?”
Juda could not explain anything anymore than he could
understand why he had been singled out for this lecture. He looked
about nervously, at the small groups of people watching from a
distance.
“Life is a battle between good and evil,” said the OCS. “And, for
there to be a proper equilibrium and harmony in the universe, good
must prevail. You must understand that, being a college man and all.
In my long career as a CID officer, I’ve found that there’s only one
way of dealing with violent criminals, and that is with greater and
more uncompromising violence. If they shoot one innocent man, I
shoot three gangsters dead. If they chop up someone with a
machete, I chop ten of them with my AK 47. If they thump a drunk
with a beer bottle, my boys thump them with truncheons, jembe
sticks, or whatever is at hand. Why, you may ask? Because that’s
the only language that dogs understand. It works for me, and that’s
why I intend to apply it here also. You see, I don’t consider human
anyone who violates others because he can.”
He paused to let it all take hold, and Juda decided the man was
not as primitive or as uneducated as he made out to be, which made
him all the more dangerous.
“Don’t mistake me,” the OCS continued, “I’m a religious man, a
believer in the good book and the old laws. A labourer is worth his
wage? You reap what you sow? An eye for an eye? Have you ever
read the Bible? But of course, you are a well-read man. Woe to the
lawbreakers, for they shall eat the bread of sorrow?”
Juda shook his dazed head.
“Why are you telling me all this?” he asked.
“I want you to understand me completely,” said the OCS.
“What for?” asked Juda. “I don’t like you and I don’t even know
you.”
“You will,” said the man, “you will. I’m counting on everyone’s co-
operation in this, especially on people of high IQ and good education
like you.”
Juda finally closed his mouth. He had been flattered many times
before; come to think of it, the people who called him Professor did
nothing but flatter him; but a policeman had never before flattered
him.
“I can count on you, can’t I?” the OCS asked him.
For a fleeting moment, Juda wondered what would happen if he
said no. Would they dump him in the boot and cart him off to Ngobit
or simply conscript another unfortunate.
READ ON ...
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| The Big Chiefs hm books, 2007 248 pgs ISBN 978-0-9796476-3-5 |
| (c) Copyright 2007 by HM Inc. + meja mwangi |