From Struggle to Statehouse: How my Father's Resilience Got him Statehouse Job, House

Dr. Isaac Kalua Green 

In our second sterilization, an excerpt from  his book; Green for Life, Dr Isaac Kalua Green, a reknown environmental icon and the Chief Steward of Green Africa Foundation, details his life's story in such a gripping detail. 

In this excerpt, Dr. Kalua documents how his father's solid faith in God and resilience landed him a job at Statehouse during president Daniel Arap Moi's tenure, following a period of struggle and biting poverty after he resigned from his Prisons job.

Enjoy!

.... The following year, yet another weary matatu rattled to a stop just outside Nairobi city center. Just like the previous times, I was the first one to alight. But unlike those times, on this occasion, Nairobi had truly become the Promised Land, the landscape of possibilities. I was about to start living one of my wildest dreams.

“Just follow the flags until the place where they end,” the police officer told me in a kind tone that reminded me of my grandmother.

I was at Ambassador Bus Stop right in the center of Nairobi and had just asked the police officer how I could reach State House, the official residence of Kenya’s President. Because it was a Public Holiday, Kenyan flags were lined up on both sides of the road from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, through the city center, all the way to State House. I had never seen so many flags in my life.

I hoisted my blue aluminum box onto my shoulder and started following the flags.

Upon reaching Kenyatta Avenue, I walked on and crossed Uhuru Highway, then proceeded along Valley Road for about ten minutes. I smiled at a Kombi van that drove past me. It reminded me of a similar van that my father had owned ten years earlier when I was still a child.

The flags didn’t proceed along Valley Road but turned right onto State House Road. So I also turned right, crossed the road and walked on. A yellow Renault Fuego car sped towards me, its gentle growl pleasant to my ears. I turned and gazed at it until it disappeared around a corner. I can’t wait to buy my own car one day, I thought. Especially a Mercedes. It was my dream car.

Although my suitcase was quite heavy, it felt like a feather on my right shoulder. Excitement can make you lift weights beyond your strength.

My excitement had been building for the entire week preceding our school’s closing day assembly, which had been earlier that morning. Earlier that year, 1983, I had joined Mutito High School where I was a boarder. When the School Principal dismissed us and wished us a nice holiday, my excitement simmered and boiled over.

Britain bestowed upon Kenya the boarding school culture. British Church Missions initially popularized these schools by setting up numerous boarding schools across Kenya. After independence, Kenya’s government established boarding schools all over the country, especially at the High School level.

During my entire four years of High School, the closing days became the happiest days of my life. They unleashed me from the confines of boarding school into the sweet freedom of the world beyond our weary school gate.

This particular closing day was even more thrilling because I would be boarding a matatu and leaning back in my seat for two hours as it sped to Nairobi where my father had found an amazing job!

He was now working as the Senior Superintendent of Gardens, State Houses and Lodges. Thanks to this new position, he was given a house at State House Nairobi, the President’s official residence, Kenya’s answer to America’s White House. I had told all my friends that we would now be living in the President’s House. Most of my classmates didn’t believe me when I shared this exciting news, thinking that I was just dishing out tall tales.

Yet there I was, following the flags that were about to lead me to State House. Flags that were now flapping more vigorously as the late afternoon breeze gathered speed. After almost one hour of walking, I finally reached a big gate where the flags ended. Three soldiers in red berets immediately walked to the gate and glared at me.

“What do you want?” One of them, tall and very dark, demanded in a strange accent.

“My father works here,” I replied, “I have come home.”

Home was no longer the one-room Githurai house with walls so thin you could hear your neighbor’s loud breathing. Breathless, I inhaled deeply after saying these words. This was like a dream.

As I waited, nerves buzzing, I wandered over to the fence to relieve myself, my own strange ritual to calm the storm within. But there was no calm. I kept pacing, adrenaline pounding through me like a drumbeat. Then the soldiers, stern and unreadable, pointed me toward Gate D, the staff gate. My heart thundered, not with fear, but with sheer, electric anticipation.

Beyond the imposing steel gate lay the immaculate, almost surreal beauty of State House grounds, manicured lawns stretching out like a dream I wasn’t sure I was supposed to be part of. I froze for a second, eyes wide. Was this really happening? I was about to walk into State House.

............

As soon as I arrived at Gate D, I saw my father striding towards me. Believe me, he looked different. There was a bounce in his long strides and a radiance in his countenance. He smiled widely as he grabbed the handles of one side of the aluminum suitcase. It creaked. We walked along a pathway lined with massive trees whose mighty branches created a partial shadow along the pathway. 

I had never seen such large trees and couldn’t help but stare at them as we walked on. I felt very proud that my father was now in charge of those giant trees and the entire landscaping at State House.

Nau asked me about school and I asked him about his new job. His eyes had a sparkle that hadn’t been there before. It’s as if the sun had slipped into them and couldn’t stop shining. He was like a man reborn. The last time I saw him, a few months earlier, it had been him versus the world. A world that demanded food for his precious wife Deborah and children; school fees for his first son Isaac who was now in secondary school; occasional treats for the entire family and other unending daily needs.

All this required money that had become increasingly hard to come by after he resigned from his job at Prisons. The older I had grown, the more I had seen my father’s struggles and the unspoken toll they were taking on him. I noticed the little wrinkles that had formed around his eyes.

As I walked with Nau from Gate D, along the tree-lined pathway that led us to the staff quarters, I couldn’t help but marvel at how our lives had transformed within the span of a few months.

The turnaround of my father’s fortunes was occasioned by two things: his faith in God and the sheer excellence of his work. Although he had resigned from Prisons, he was routinely recalled to coordinate landscaping for the department, especially during the prestigious Agricultural Society of Kenya shows.

His landscaping techniques were so exceptional that President Moi himself took note. On one occasion, he was so impressed that he demanded to know the person behind the magnificent work. He directed that the person behind the landscaping magic be given similar duties at State House. That’s how my father landed a job at State House.