If gambling was ever a person, then it would have died long before it was born.
It has brought both happiness and sorrow in equal measures. The question of its animosity or kindness to its lovers is still out of our usualdictionary.
It has indeed been advocated for by its beneficiary. I have seen both its two sides the kind and the cruel one.
A woman kicked out her "bae" out this morning after discovering that all the money gained from their labour benefited nearby gamblers.
This is not news to those in small or even the big Kabete sub-county. From Ngecha to Wangige through Nyathuna shopping centres, cheap 'casinos' have invaded the scarce population.
Illiteracy and perhaps ignorance has reigned in the region. After doing all the donkey-work, farmers spend almost all of their money at these dens baptized casinos.
A man takes his harvested kales, spinach and other greens to Muthurwa and on getting the 'mullah' he heads straight to a pool den at Ngecha shopping centre.
Here he spend a bit of the money and seeing that he is not getting any returns even after staking highly, he heads to Nyathuna and here he plays dirt and cards all night through morning.
In his dismay all his Sh10000 is gone. On reaching home he meets his two daughters "daddy the teacher wants school fees".
Out of rage and anger he hurls insult at his daughters "you hardly think, now I agree that common sense is not always common".
He gets into the house and the wife is totally mad. "You went to you mistress again?" She is agitated.
"No am fr……" the chap tries to explain but the lady intercepts with a loud scream.
The idle brains and 'village anchors' rushes in. The woman narrates her misery of housing the 'unthankful bae'. The 'lawyers and the judges' of the evergreen village give their verdict.
The lady gives the chap a bag "icio nguo ciaku thii ukarerwo ni nyukwa" loosely translates; "those are you clothes go back to your mother for your upkeep".
The unsatisfied intruders try to be sympathetic to the chap "ona caai ndanamuhe" translates to "she did not even welcome him with tea".
I tease the guy. In a few minutes he opens up: "I started gambling in 2000."
His story is interesting since he has a Masters Degree in Business Management. "Gambling is like a demonic power over me," he says.
I cant help but feel sorry for him. He has gone for psychological therapies with no help. The morning incident is not the first one. He has faced it severally.
So, before you think about betting remember, the question is not how to get out of addiction but how to avoid to get into it. I pen off.