State and Society
Whilst sitting in the SGR from Nairobi to Mombasa with a few learned friends, we got into a serious talk about the happenings of today and around 50 years ago. For example 50 years ago, my Father lived in the Old Town area of Mombasa. He says there were no locks on the doors. When going out they would just shut the door with a small stopper and ask the neighbour or some dukanwala or some handcart man to look after the house and in case some guests come they would be ushered into the house by the same neighbour or dukanwala or handcart man! Now we live in homes with 2 to 3 huge padlocks on the doors and some houses have electric fences too. And it’s everywhere, for example, my Uncle (God bless His Soul) who moved from India to England back in the early 70s used to say that milk was delivered in milk bottles. The Milkman would come at around 5am and you had to put your empty milk bottles with the monies in the carton, and the milkman would take the monies and replace the carto...