It has been some months since we have seen any manner of
rodent here at our place in Kibera.
However, this moratorium was broken on Friday as we saw the resurgence
of the rat populous.
In the process of
cleaning up our compound, I was pouring some water down a large drain.
Shortly after the pouring began, I saw a
flash of fur over my right foot produced by a very large and severely soaked
rat.
I subsequently gave him chase.
He darted behind a great deal of rubble (for the lack of a
better word) and sought refuge therein.
I quickly grabbed a large metal rod, a rod of iron as it were, in order
to usher him into the land of death.
Prodding around the rubble pile, I was able to extract him but flushed
him into another pile of wood and buckets.
Like a madman I threw the objects from their place in order to reach the
inner chambers of his escape route.
Succeeding he again flew past me before I could strike him.
The heavy footed security guard gave very
little assistance as he was more in the way than not.
The rat returned to his former place of hiding until he
decided, very much on his own, that it was not sufficient and began to climb a
partially vertical pole leaning on the house.
This was his fatal error.
I stood
there, blinded by rage and blood thirst, swinging wildly at the air and his
clambering silhouette.
With great luck I
struck him in the middle of the back, thus breaking his spine and sending him
into a collapsed and lifeless heap.
A
quick strike once more sent him with the eternal boatman over the river
Styx.
He will not
see another day in this world.
This afternoon I was still reeling from the days prior when
I learned that another rat had been spotted, this time a young offspring.
He was large to be a youngster, especially
for one that had not yet opened his eyes.
Nevertheless, his fate had to be that of all the others for it would not
be right to show partiality.
With a
swift drop of the foot he joined his ancestors.
I am unsure what to blame for this resurgence of rats, other
than the fact that they could have been stirred up by the ins and outs of
various visiting teams.
Whatever the
case, they are always met with a single fate…a free one way trip to the
underworld.