The Puzzling Lake of Homa Bay

Njenga was running so fast that he bumped into Muiruri.

“Hey, watch it, where’s the fire?” Muiruri asks.

“Oops sorry, I found this wallet outside the classroom door. I think it belongs to Mr. Miruka the janitor. I need to give it to our teacher before the bell rings.” Njenga replies hurriedly.

Their class teacher Mr. Kimitu is in the staff room, getting his books together to go teach his class when he hears a knock on the door.

“Come in,” he invites.

Out of breath Njenga poses for a few minutes before speaking. 

“Njenga is something wrong?” the teacher asks.

“No, no, I just wanted to give you this wallet I think it belongs to Mr. Miruka, I found it outside our class” Njenga responds.

“This is great of you Njenga! Mr. Miruka was here a few minutes ago looking for it. Thank you for bringing it.” Mr. Kimitu says.

“Welcome sir,” Njenga says. 

As he leaves and heads back to his class, Mr. Kimitu falls in step with him and they walk to class together.

“Are you ready for today’s lesson on county  number 043?” The teacher asks him

“Of course, that’s Homabay right?” Njenga says.

“Yap” the teacher responds.

“I read up on it last night, it was pretty interesting. One it’s named after Mount Homa, two they host the famous Suba cultural festival on Rusinga Island, and three my favorite, my hero Tom Mboya’s mausoleum is there,” Njenga says excitedly.

“That’s excellent!” Mr. Kimitu says giving Njenga a high five.

On arriving at their class, Mr. Kimitu calls for order and everyone takes their seats. Mr. Kimitu loves beginning his lessons with a story and so he begins.

However, that was not what Mr Kimitu wanted to know, so he tells him the story behind a Simbi Nyaima which is a crater Lake in Kendu Bay.

 “Long ago in a village named Simbi, the villagers were holding a big celebration when a visitor arrived. The visitor was an old lady that looked malnourished. The villagers were kind to her, welcoming her and making sure she had plenty to eat. 

However, there was one male villager amongst them that was mean and unkind to their visitor. In those days the elderly had superpowers. The old lady was troubled by this man’s disagreeable and unkind behavior and ordered that the whole village get rid of him or she would curse them all.

Afraid of curses, the villagers chased the disagreeable man away from their village. Soon after he left and heavy rains followed. So heavy were the floods that the village caved in forming a crater. That my students is how the crater at Lake Simbi Nyaima was formed” Mr Kimitu concludes. 

Everyone laughed, with some shouting out that the story was fake.

Mr. Kimitu quieted them down, adding that his story had a moral. He told the class about Njenga finding Mr. Miruka’s wallet and returning it to the rightful owner. 

“If Njenga hadn’t returned that wallet you all would have been punished for his bad behavior, always know that one rotten apple amongst you can spoil the batch,” Mr. Kimitu says. 

“Ok today we talk about Homabay and I’ll start with Ruma National Park, who has heard of it?” Mr. Kimitu asks.

A few hands go up. Mr Kimitu picks  Muiruri to tell the class what he knows.

Muriruri explains that the Ruma National Park in Homabay is the only terrestrial park in the lakeside region and home to the critically endangered Roan Antelope.” 

The class carries on sharing facts about Homabay county. As the class comes to an end the students put down ideas on how to save the Roan Antelope they decide to forward their ideas to the Kenya Wildlife Service.