Bogonko Bosire, ( A long read)
He had a famous quote inscribed on his door in room 314 at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication (KIMC)
“Dwellers of the CITY do NOT understand the feelings of the village hunter,” forever memorable.
Bogonko was always holding a book, most times a classic read.
He literally picked blouses and easily appeared for interviews. Quite the guy.
Then when it got to the time to get jobs – He got a job with AFP.
When there, he literally looked for all of us, offered tips and opportunities.
GENIUS. Brilliant writer. Good friend.
*********
As life would have it, we all got jobs and started our different journeys
We kept in touch.
We had a meeting point.
The great GIGGLES.
We exchanged ideas, encouraged each other, chased the girls, made new friends, recited poetry, danced and debated world events to the dead of night
Bogonko’s signature was always Guinness mbili.
********
Guinness mbili, eventually became a weakness.
Twice we took our friend to rehab.
Twice we thought we had won.
Twice he went back but moderated.
Eventually even friends took off.
But we stood with one of our own, the son, who was so proud of her mother – The Teacher.
Son of a teacher. We declined to fight Teacher’s strikes and we declared our interest publicly, always.
We shared that fact of parentage, our mothers were teachers.
*******
As we fought the addiction of drinks and with a job lost – we began speaking Internet News.
Bogonko was excited.
We both did not have resources to mount a Giant operation as we envisioned and dreamt it, but we dreamt it.
” Jackals, we are,” one evening he told me. “But we will run the Jungle, the lions will have little choice but find find cover”
He had found a name and a sponsor to start the venture.
“You were either a SOURCE or the TARGET,” His slogan, catchy as ever.
The man, ran a great website, everyone was a story, even his friends.
Story first. Association’s later.
He did a great job. He was aggressive in pursuit of stories and when his pen got to work, you read his stories three times, hoping it was longer.
*******
Towards the end of the UhuRuto campaign in 2012, I had no problem introducing him to our team of communication leads and as expected they all fell in love with the skills of Dickson Bogonko Bosire.
He took near dead ideas and like a master Potter, rolled the clay of words by his computer and churned masterpieces each after the last fullstop.
He injected life, made us laugh and as usual kept his Jackal.
It had become life and by now he had a partner in the Netherlands, a Kenyan who helped him maintain the site, redesign it and host it.
During this time he gave one of the best interviews to a friend.
A story about Bogonko was now written.( https://www.kenya-today.com/…/carol-kimutai-sits-down…)
He had fully recovered from addiction, found purpose, maintained the respect in his circle and changed his news sources to a crucial network.
I was glad to have found him a job. One that was a perfect fit to his lifestyle and creativity.
****
We finally won elections. As politicians moved on. We kept our eyes fixed on growing the online assets we had developed.
In State House, some people who had gotten jobs and did not have any idea how we had won elections and the role Bogonko had played was clear, ” There is no way that guy is getting employed here”
We fought, but you win some and lose some.
Luckily, we had our way to the President as a team and we agreed that as we prepared to get him a place he would remain on his personal payroll
He remained on the private company payroll and there was no demand on output as we began the task of getting him a job.
But Giggles continued. Our moments got even better. The ideas factory at Giggles now even had people in Government.
Then Westgate happened.
We could not understand how Jackal could be silent on such a major issue and our friend was nowhere to be seen.
*****
Our friend was nowhere to be seen.
We searched for him.
We used our networks to trace him.
We got datafrom cellphone companies.
We followed up every rumour and fact.
We hanged on every tip.
We got a great Police officer at Industrial area who kept us hopeful.
We ignored the naysayers.
Still we could NOT trace our friend.
******
I Personally remain hopeful.
I however..
1. I decline to reduce my good friend to a hashtag. Or an online exchange.
2. Ignore the rumours, Bogonko only knew what was in Public domain on ICC. He had little detail on the case.
3. This my last response to the ‘Dwellers of the CITY,’ who only bring up Bogonko as an update, a graphic, a hashtag and barely know the man he was…
A) Where were the questions and updates when he was struggling with an addiction?
Where were they when all he wanted was to start a website?
C) Where were they when he could not pay his bills and all he wanted was a job?
D) Where were they when all he wanted was friendship, company and someone to listen to him?
You cannot pretend to care too much about a person, yet when he was energetic and available you were nowhere in his real struggles.
4. Bogonko, when we could see and meet him lived a great life, where he is, I believe, he is as happy.
I do not think I can stop writing, when the subject is Bogonko.
God Bless Bogonko. I miss him much.
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