PREMIUM Life lessons from a Nakuru law court The judge inside is still drumming on, telling the accused what is what. Saturday Magazine Just now Listen

Between waiting for the judge to finish his pleading, waiting for the askari outside to finish chewing his gomba so he can regale us with more prison escapades, and waiting for the day to end so we can get out of Nakuru, it hit me just how much of life involves waiting.

I half-expect the judge to admonish me, or the court bailiff, who is nothing like the one in Vioja Mahakamani, to lose his temper, so he can find it in my jaws.

Maybe that was one of the punishments of prison — an eternal flat-footed voice in your ear, “Mshatakiwa, koti hii imeonelea una kesi ya kujibu...