The writer and a journalist covering an event in the North Rift. (Photo/ Thomas Chemelil)
Shem Beverton Mukalo, a name which sounds like a well hit chord on a finely tuned piano.
Sometimes back before the tragedy of the Westgate mall, I came across Mukalo Shem as a contributing writer to the then popular online gossip blog, Jackal News headed by the man who introduced us to online writing- Bogonko Bosire.
Indeed, Bogonko Bosire had established himself and his blog as the motherboard of all gossip and news. Shem Beverton Mukalo and I frequently contributed to Bosire's popular blog, Jackal News.
Like all wild Jackals roaming through the jungle of writing, we experimented on all manner of writing.
Bogonko Bosire was kind enough to entertain our online writing then. We were naive amateurs who thrived in wild experimentation in the world of writing. It was only Bogonko's generosity that kept us afloat as we passionately wrote for the defunct Jackal News.
There were no payments for the articles we wrote. It is only the love of 'Were'(God) which kept us going.
A few years later, I would again see this Jackal, Shem Beverton Mukalo, roaming in the jungles of Kenya Today, an online blog, contributing fine pieces as he had altercations with one Dikembe Disembe. Disembe must be a product of Moi University which has distinguished itself for producing fine writers.
To see the great writer Shem Beverton Mukalo in Hivisasa puts joy in my heart. It is testimony enough that Hivisasa has the cre'me' de la creme' of writers in its stable.
It is only the disappearance of the great blogger, Bogonko Bosire, after the Westgate terrorist attack which cut short our great association with him (Bogongo), the man whose love for Mwenda Kiogora was an open secret then.
Hivisasa has brought us back to the fold and we will forever be indebted to it for giving us the chance to ventilate our desires.
For us, writing is a way of life; it is the very oxygen we breath to save us from the intoxicating air of our congested world.