Tribute to Peter Kaiganaine Wanyiri (RIP)

Abraham Lincoln wrote: And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.

It is not the number of moments that you take your breath but the moments that take away your breath that matter.

No words however grand or immaculate can capture the entirety of life in the moments of Peter Kaiganaine's years. Peter, a first year student in the School of Tourism and Hospitality's Bsc (Hospitality Management) passed away on Thursday, 10th September after a short illness. He was an active member of the Community Outreach Club and was part of the team that made desks for Uref Primary School in Ugenya District between 19th and 22nd of last month.

Talk about words and deeds in time of need. His longings for love, the search for knowledge and pity for the suffering were the passions that drove him. Kaiggz (as he often referred to himself) was a cheerful young man with a prefiguring vision and boundless hope for the future. For even while he was hospitalized, he would reminisce on the lessons he had missed and regretted not handing in his assignments.

Through distinctive excellence in the field of hospitality, he dreamt of shaking the world and redefining his field like Usain Bolt did in his. Peter had a big heart that accommodated every breathing being. It is through his limitless goodness that he produced this kind of piquancy in his living.

His past was no different. One of my earliest memories was when he was seven years old. I was a year older. He asked me to accompany him to the shopping centre to purchase a few items as asked by his parents. We decided to race there. On our way we met an old lady who was over burdened with a heavy load in a kiondo (basket). Kaiganaine was 20 meters ahead of me and winning.

Upon seeing the old lady, he froze and ran to help her. As feeble as he was, he pumped all he had into lifting the heavy load. He was overwhelmed by the load and fell, hitting the ground hard. He picked himself up, dusted himself off and tried to lift it once more. I had seized that opportunity to overtake him and I watched this from a distance.

What a heart! What kindness! What compassion! Whenever we fought with age mates after watching wrestling, Peter would stop us. Whenever there was a job to be done, Peter would do it. Whenever we laughed at him for his poor table tennis skills, Peter would laugh with us. If life was a paragraph, then this brief paragraph is punctuated with commas of humility, hyphens of simplicity, apostrophes of hard work, colons of integrity, semi colons of humor and full stops of fear for God.

Peter was pious. Yes, Pious Peter. It was part of his life to pass by the University Chapel every evening to give thanks to God for the day that was. This he did even in his last day in the University premises.

You do not choose how you are going to die or when. You can only decide how you are going to live now. Peter life is a shining beacon for us all. This is how he chose to write his name with destiny. Let us ask ourselves, will our lives be worth watching when everything replays in front of us in the end? How will our lives be valued? What will be the measure of our days, weeks and years? This is our chance to answer this call. Let us summon the spirit of vitality in living anew.

As we read through the poem "Do not stand at my grave and weep" by Mary Elizabeth Frye below, we know Peter is in a better place:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the star shine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there. I do not die.

Goodnight Peter Kaiganaine. Well Done! Rest in Peace.

Michael Ndero, Your childhood friend