A roach showed up for dessert at a fine city diner, we all responded with calm

Were there not too many people bearing witness, one would be hard pressed to believe that I saw a mid-sized roach jump out of the menu booklet at a five-star hotel in the city. I acknowledge these are hard times, when anything and everything could be dismissed as “fake,” so I am not taking this narrative lightly.

But the roach was real, resplendent in its brown hues, with a belly that had a hint of cream to reveal it was well fed. I have several inferences to make about this strange find. One, it could that there is an over-population of roaches in the kitchen in this establishment, necessitating some to seek asylum at the table.

Or, it could that some roaches are groomed to eat at the table, while the more jua kali ones eat in the kitchen. A fun-fact about roaches: Roaches have wings, so they can fly fine, so it could be that our find may have taken flight after eating in the kitchen, before sprucing up for dessert at the dining area!

My response to the vermin even surprised me. Cognisant that several compatriots succumbed to cholera in different parts of the country this week, a contagious though treatable infection because so many of our people still can’t access basic needs like food and clean water, I ate my fish with nothing a solemn sense of gratitude, then quietly made my exit.

No fussing and fighting over harmless roaches is a healthy mantra to adopt in Ruto’s Kenya where, one is constantly reminded, it could get a lot worse.