A Dirge on the Death of Sh 1,000
Dirge for Ngiri
Once, life here was so good.
So good that upon the coming
Of the Red Strangers, a bundle of snuff
Was worth only so much, I forget what.
A good wench was worth
One hundred virile goats;
While a heifer was worth ten such goats
But the stupid bull was worth a mere five.
When all hell broke loose!
And everything went berserk,
A woman’s hut had to pay two rupees.
“Rupees? What is that?”
Two months labour in a mzungu’s shamba.
No goats. “Why?”, I dared ask.
“None of your bloody business. Just pay up!”.
Welcome Jomo’s copper coins and crisp notes.
No more jingling coins especially that holed king’otore.
Which, in due course, birthed the ubiquitous Matatu.
How times have changed!
Changed? “No”, the teacher told me,
“The more things change, the more they remain the same”.
Just ask the sun which knows no day or night.
So now, a quarter of a century later,
My fondest note that I have known as ngiri,
The pride of Kenya, I am condemned to use other tunotes
That even a blind man cannot see with his trusty fingers.
All I can see as I gaze at the new faceless notes
Are the faces of the faceless capitalists who run
Their faceless rackets.
But who am I to complain?
“When you get a thousand shillings on Mpesa”,
They tell me, “do you ask: where is the face of Jomo?”
The time for faceless money has come and,
As a former Governor of the Bank of England
asked in his book “End of Money”:
“Is it the value you want or the crisp note?
In whatever form”.
So, goodbye my dear old trusty ngiri.
I will miss you but I will, with time,
Learn to love your faceless successor.
JH Kimura
30th Sept, 2019
Now that I think about it, was it worth my time to have commented on how the disappearance of the old Ksh 1,000 note bearing the familiar face of Jomo Kenyatta had affected the Kenyan economy?
Whether it has or not, it is clear that the economy is doing quite badly after the 30th September 2019. Whether it is by a strange coincidence or as a consequence is something for our economists to decide.