Losing Kui

Things are going from bad to worse in Ingigi village. No one knows why five-year old Kui has gone missing. Nor does Sergeant Njau want to find out. He has his own problems, pressing matters that are far from legal. Then there is the endless rain. Will it never stop? Some Ingigi folk think it means the end of the world. Old man, Winston Kiarie, has other ideas. He senses some man-made disaster, and when it happens, it is worse than his worst imaginings. The fierce storms are causing landslides and throwing up British bombs, unexploded for forty years. Their discovery is giving the Assistant Chief ideas: how to make himself very rich. And then there’s young Joseph Maina and the primary school drop-outs thinking they have found treasure, and about to do something very, very foolish. Meanwhile, is anyone looking for Kui?

“Losing Kui” is a fast-paced novella of interwoven tales. There are secrets, conspiracies, tragedy and dark comedy. The setting is a fictional East African country in the late 1990s, a time when El Niño rains were causing havoc. The author lived in Kenya during most of the 1990s, and much of the story was inspired by real events. An earlier version of this long short story was published as “El Niño and the Bomb” in Cicada Magazine in the United States (Nov/Dec 2008) and, before that, a much briefer version called “Material Days” was short-listed in a Carve Magazine contest.

Tish Farrell is an award-winning writer for young people. Her first book “Jessicah the Mountain Slayer” received a White Raven citation from the International Youth Library. She writes for the African Children’s Literature market (“Joe Sabuni P.I.” Heinemann Jaws, “Sea Running” Macmillan Pacesetter) and has works published by Zimbabwe Publishing House and Phoenix Publishing Nairobi. Now living in Shropshire, England, recent books include quick-read adventure stories for reluctant teen readers in Ransom’s Shades series: “Mantrap” (ivory poaching in Zambia), “Stone Robbers” (foiling antiquities thieves in Guatemala), “Mau Mau Brother “(freedom fighting in 1950s Kenya, out in Sept 2014). Her stories for adults have been short-listed in the Fish International short story contest, and in 2013 “Flight” came third in the International Bath Short Story Award. Nonfiction works include ‘Kenya’ in the Franklin Watts Changing World series, and the first six volumes of the award-winning Write Your Own creative writing series for Compass Point Books.