COLD.

At what point does a man become dead to life?

At the point where he no longer breathes or is it at the point where everything about him is taken away from him in every manner?

“Things like these, I have no time for, they are worse than rats, you can only shoot them”, the grizzled senior warder comments as the prisoners who have chains on both their legs and hands move awkwardly. They stiff themselves into fortitude and numbed with resigned acceptance. It is from here that Marly comes to terms with the psyche of the prisoners who because of the tortures experienced on transit as well as in the prisons no longer find hope in themselves or the reality of their existence.

It was the revolt that led them into this rat hole. Their resistance and black-conscious movement drove Marly and his loyal missuses to be caught and dragged along this forest. What did we do? A question that stabs his mind and shatters his heart. Marly cannot figure out how fighting and protesting for what’s right can be a state offense and lead one to the claws of a lion. He took an oath of secrecy and loyalty to forever stand with his ‘people’ and fight to the ends of the earth for them to be liberated. For the prisoners, life is to be lived based on the demands of the system and not on their self-interaction with themselves and the society to which they belong.

Marly and the rest of the prisoners are being transferred to an island which will in turn be their new sanctuary. There is a lot of isolation and outright abandonment as they match through the forest, the stabbed grass with three o’clock dew sucks through their naked feet. The warder's comment clear- cuts between the emotional displacement and inhumanity transferred to them by the government. He even calls Marly and the rest “things” to show how valueless they are and as such the liberty to dispose of them at the slightest opportunity is considered right and legal.

The bereft state of Marly, and the desertedness he and the other prisoners experience allude to the same reality Jesus Christ had on the cross. The forest is a lonely place and the longing for home gnaws their soul. What pained Jesus on the cross was not the hammering of the nails on some parts of his body or the lashes he received instead what broke him was the sense of loss of God’s presence on the cross. Exactly what Marly feels as he is being pushed forward and commanded to ‘move’ fast.

This is what it means to be cold, and it’s not a good experience to behold. The desolation is such that shatters his and his friends’ lives into that synonymous existence. As they keep walking, the idea of life to them is reduced to living for the sake of the system. There is no true ownership of one’s voice rather than submitting one’s voice to a denser level of corruption that erases empathy and humanity from one’s heart. Overhead is the large frosty glitter of the stars, and there is dim hope in the eyes of Marly. He starts a song which the prisoners join in unison.

The warder reduces the length of his talks and shrinks his thoughts into active paradoxical expressions. He is now irritated and asks them to shut up. The forest seems to listen as the trees are calm and there is no movement from leaves only a cold breeze that sweeps the entire forest making the prisoners' bodies shiver involuntarily.

‘Soon, I get them to that island and my work here will be done’, says the warder to himself then spits out a large phlegm. He then whips Marly saying that his movement was slower than that of a snail.

Mau Forest is a forest complex in the Rift Valley of Kenya. It is the largest indigenous montane forest in East Africa. The Mau Forest complex has an area of 273,300 hectares (675,000 acres).

The forest area has some of the highest rainfall rates in Kenya. Mau Forest is the largest drainage basin in Kenya. The forest has been traditionally inhabited by Ogiek people, whose hunter-gatherer lifestyle is sustainable. However, due to immigration from other ethnic groups, large parts of the forest area have been cleared for settlement. Human activities, especially logging, have led to deforestation of more than a quarter of the area since 1973. This is due to the increased charcoal trade in places like Narok town and the supply of logs to sawmills in Baringo, Nakuru , and Narok counties.

The British colonial regime in Kenya announced a state of emergency and launched a spirited effort to flush out the men, and a handful of women, who had left their homes and retreated into the nearby Mt Kenya and Aberdare forests. From deep within these forests and often under the cover of darkness, the Mau Mau would launch their offensive against the colonialists and their loyalists, agitating for independence.

To survive, they transformed some naturally occurring caves within the forests into strategic hiding spots and bases of operations, catering to guerrilla fighters from Nyeri, Meru, and Kirinyaga Counties.