Jana I went visiting my buddy in Theka Theka… and we decided to have a late lunch at a place called Golden Palm Breeze Hotel, off Kenol on your way to Murang’a. So we walked to the meat place and ordered our nyama choma, then selected a serene place to sit. It was this kind of low wall makuti thing - though this one was roofed with ironsheets - with canvas for side walls.
From the transparent sections of the canvas we saw the waiter with the tray full, with at least six cats majestically following him. Nikauliza my buddy “kwani waiter anapelekea paka chakula wapi?”
It looked like a joke until the waiter turned to our direction, and wait a minute - here he was with the cats.
“Mtaoga mikono pale nje mtu mmoja mmoja, juu ya paka” he said in a low voice. Then he calmly walked away, and left us with the cats. Watching through the window, I saw like four other cats sprintinig across the green yard towards our corner. As I walked our to wash my hands, I counted 10 cats around us, including one that was mono-eyed.
My buddy too washed his hands and returned, then we settled down for our meal, surrounded by the purling cats. We felt so mean feastnig on so much meat, surrounded by all these hungry-looking cats. I decided to throw a bone some distance so the cats could dash to fight for it - just to get even a single moment of peace. Shock - it’s just one cat that dashed for the bone, caught it, walked back and sat with it under our table. The rest remained, purling angrily.
My buddy told me: “Kuwa mpole Ingushetia, maybe hawa ni wazee wa kijiji, usiwaonyeshe madharao”. Saying this, he threw another bone at them, and that’s when all hell broke loose.
Kumbe mapaka zinatusoma psychlogically - we were an easy target. One cat jumped on the empty seat next to me, and was headed for the platter on my side, when another one jumped on top of the low wall on my buddy’s side. I pushed the seat, and my buddy stood up to fight, then another jumped on the wall on my side. For once we felt caged. We didn’t want to be seen fighting with cats on what was an otherwise tranquil Sunday afternoon. The cats jumped off the wall and sat back on the floor.
We called the waiter, narrated to him our experience, he just smiled and passed us the bill. Tukalipa tukaenda. We got the impression that they know about the cats but just won’t do anything about them.
I have never felt so much harrased. The meat was tasty - very tasty, but the customer experience was futhu futhu futhu…
If anyone in this village knows the hotel’s manager, please mwambie afanye something about those cats.
Even that waiter hawezi ambia owner to keep only one neutered cat? Cats are important for keeping rodents at bay but these ones are terrorist pests. Last year we visited a joint at kamakis nyam chom area. Same thing happened to us and I ended up giving most of my meat away for fear of being attacked by an army of cats.