【Short Story】"Who is A Just Judge?" by OLEPA #3
All this Mbaku was thinking at his four-walled less-spacious room. He could touch all the corners of the room while sitting on his bed. Life has been so unfair to him, he thinks, since he missed a chance in Law school. Mr. Bingi was now aged and to him life has lost meaning. He had lost patience with Mbaku whose hunts for a job turns always to be a disappointment. They now live in abject poverty, only relying on relief food from well-wishers and some non-governmental organizations. Their small farm could not help either owing to constant draughts and crop fails. Amidst all this Mbaku always looked forward to turning things around in the near future. But how soon?
His rugged beddings were becoming uncomfortable for him and he decided to move to other only stationery in the house--an old chair. He was at least comfortable and his past endeavours thronged his mind again. The turning point of his life has been his failure to report to law school. Though not his fault nor his family’s. In a country where corruption and favourism is the order of the day, such things are expected to happen. He was told his vacancy was given to somebody else who was ‘interested.’ Life seemed to lose meaning but professor Gobe advised him to take a course similar to law, bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration. Anyway, degree is a degree, he accepted to take. That was his secret, everyone in the village knew he was taking a law course and for the first time the village of Reteti was going to have their own son in top courts of the country.
The four years he spent in the college were the ones to be forgotten by Mbaku. He was lonely all the true thinking the direction his life would take. His friends come from rich families and spending money was only enough to feed himself and send a quarter to his parents who had nothing to depend on. Buying himself a pair of clothes was a luxurious thing and rarely occurred. Sometimes he would fail to submit the assignments due to lack of money to pay for computer services in a nearby cyber café. Finally he managed to graduate with second class upper division honours. His graduation was attended only by his father and local priest from his church. It was less a celebration, they just picked him up and went home, the priest however thanked God and congratulated Mbaku.
