The 90's

Gratewall TV

" Like sand through the hour glass, so are the Days of Our Lives"...I tell you I used to love this series especially when 'Malena' was posed, for those who are still floating copy paste that phrase on Google. This generation have no idea how analogue TV was the ish. You know those days you would come back from school to get 'uji' ready and you switch on the telly to find the colored stripes, then the national anthem would start playing as the showed the Kenyan flag. I was so patriotic that I'd stand at attention with my right hand on my chest singing along us my nostrils flared with enthusiasm. Am proud to have experienced this moment in time.Gratewall was the brand to have in your living room and we never fought over the remote, OK, their was none at that time. News would start and 90% of the time they would talk about the former President Moi. He was my 3rd hero right after "Danger Mouse" and "Sonic". Tahamaki, Vitimbi, Vioja, Tausi...I know someones blood is boiling right now, something you could watch as a family without nausea checking because of a "pwani oil" ad popping up(I still don't get that advert). Life was simple, organised and adventurous.

greenfields estate 2012

 The guys who grew up in Embakasi can relate with the quarry, every Saturday after
school we loved going down the to fish for tadpoles, swim in that river which is now a sewage dump site, 'dandia' those trailer us they shipped stones to and fro then go start a fight with the street boys in their own turf. Rodger was our neighborhood bully and I kept buying him 'patco' and 'chupa chups' for protection from other kids, yes I was a mean kid. Eastlands was the hood to live at that time, fresh cut lawns, vets came every month to check up on your pets, cops spoke good English...yes people I am not making this sh*t up. The 'Maziwa ya Nyayo' days were actually this blissful but this is what happened to 'Savannah' (my former hood). The real estate businessman who built it past away suddenly which resulted to the government taking over the property and selling it to individuals. The City Council at that time did not have clear by Laws and people started building extensions to the original houses and cutting down trees every where.

Maziwa ya Nyayo

The great migration to Nairobi had started. Let me not bore you with history, back to my interesting life, lol. My primary school was within a walking distance from the house, I would say approximately a 3minute walk, actually from my bedroom window I could see the morning parade taking place. Caxton was my best friend, they lived five house from us. Come rain or sunshine we were always late for school, we would sneak into class  after assembly and blame the ngong road traffic when busted. We played the devils advocate so well not even our mum's knew if we were lying, once bitten twice strategic was the motto f* this YOLO vyb. Our math teacher was called Mr. Mathai, he always came to class chewing on garlic like "miraa" my gosh his breath, but the good thing about him was  the smiley stickers with different colors, so each sticker color determined the percentage you got in an assignment,  its funny he never put two and two together why me and Caxton got the same  problems wrong o.O

E-sir Nairobi Legend

So who were the artists we listened to? well Juacali was still upcoming and Esir was still being heard kidogo kidogo. Naughty by nature, Kriss Kross, DMX, Sisco, Tupac, B.I.G...someone just whispered to me ati Elvis, excuse me Ashley if you want a mention on this blogpost just say instead of eves dropping SMH. Where was I, yes Aaliyah, man I had a crush on this girl until Mya came into the picture. I remember the tape recording error, where we used to stay radar on a specific radio show and when they play your song you record it on to a tape, we never got the full song as some silly presenters would talk in between a song *side eye Machoka* lol,  but it was still satisfying. Shout outs to Kanda Bongo Man I loved his jam "kwasa kwasa" but catch me dead wearing a high waist. Mobile phones, huh huuuuuuh..well we started with a phone booth, there was only one in the entire estate and we used it mostly to wait for calls from our loved ones in the states. Don't laugh, but you could find us waiting a whole afternoon and get no call :( stop giggling and your mobile hasn't rang since morning nkt. If you are from this time and never owned a flip phone, well you suck like this big.



And my all time favorite, FOOD...there is only one thing I would ask for when I knew someone was going to town, Chips. All kids asked for this and if you had chips for lunch you would walk around with your oily lips to brag how awesome your mum was but if you had ugali, you wouldn't show your face till the following day. Wimpy was such a big deal back am shocked on how they hire "momos" to serve you food...am still waiting to be served a one legged chicken, the wahala I will bring. Fabs kept on rotating, you would find "shake" was the in thing this holiday and next "hide and seek" was the talk. For kati I was natural a pro #TeamPetit say," I" am sure by now all the playgrounds have been grabbed and someone erected a pub hmmmmm society can be so blind with utilization of the environment all in all The 90's babies rocked. Till the next blog post, keep it bura and Happy Moi Day if he was still President :p

dan obura,
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