Cocktail Books Chronicles

Book: Of Pawns and Players Author: Kinyanjui Kombani Genre: Fiction First Published: 20 1 8 Publisher: Oxford University Press Price: 450 A book has never been as timely as 'Of Pawns and Players '. Betting situation in Kenya today: it is a multi-million dollar industry. Financial stakeholders of betting and gambling firms are determined to tell you the 'good and the good' of betting, over and over, and they are as sleek as they can be. Every second billboard, every second advertisement on radio and TV station shows happy and excited formerly poor Kenyans telling currently broke Kenyans how betting had improved their lives. Those advertisements get the whole country reaching for their phones to try the same luck; it’s all k’ching to the bank for betting firms. Only that the tragedy of betting is not advertised, left to the village grapevine. Too often the tragedy is so ultimate, it involves death, and depression. How many people do you personall

The heart is not so smart Can’t always trust it no, the heart is not so smart Goes where it should not go Always seems to find Its way to trouble but the heart is not so smart oh no                  DeBarge It was six PM when Jamba dropped Kamaria at her gate. Had it been up to him, he would have extended their time together. Kamaria had wanted to go home and rest, her excuse being she needed to be fresh for work the following day. ‘I may have to execute my plan B’ , Jamba thought, feeling disappointed by Kamaria’s refusal to spend more time with him. The plan B should have been his plan A, but again, for the millionth time in his life, the tribe of Eve had confused him. His phone, one he had deliberately put on silent mode all day, had been ringing nonstop since four PM. Rosa was relentless in calling, would follow up every call with a ‘Do you think you will make it ’ text.  Rosa was what Sudi termed as Jamba’s sporadic girlfriend. ‘ What does that even mean ?’