People take their eyesight for granted; in my mother’s case, she had childhood surgery to correct being boss-eyed. The long and the short of it, she was long-sighted in one eye and short-sighted in the other.
She worked for the general manager of a bank as a personal assistant and would vet anyone wanting to see him.
Being a little vain, she didn’t always wear her glasses and when a smart gentleman asked to see her boss, she enquired, “Have you an appointment?” He replied, “I believe he would see me” and her response was “What name shall I say?” He said, “My name is Jomo Kenyatta”, she then put her glasses on.
I remember seeing Jomo Kenyatta; we were driving towards a large crowd and in the middle was an open top car with him inside. We stopped to let the procession go by and I could see him with his distinctive zebra tail fly whisk.
Our servants were more interested in a neighbour of ours, Tom Mboya, a fellow member of the Luo tribe, who later became a minister in Jomo Kenyatta’s government. Sadly, Tom Mboya was assassinated in 1969.
As I write this, Jomo Kenyatta’s son, Uhuru is now president of Kenya, (uhuru means freedom).