The Reluctant Urchin by Patrick O. Ochieng

I first saw him from across the parking lot at Bank Square in Kisumu. Hands folded on his chest, he kept shifting his weight from one leg to the other, the hood on his red windcheater fluttering in the morning breeze. He stood out from the other four boys, his manner less aggressive. Each time a car angled into the lot’s marked spaces, and before the driver could roll up his side window, one of the boys would rush to its side and say, ‘Sir anything even a shilling. I haven’t eaten in two days’.

This story has been selected for the annual StoryTime anthology African Roar 2012, please go to the African Roar site for more info.

The Reluctant Urchin was written by Patrick O. Ochieng.


Copyright © Patrick O. Ochieng 2011.

Patrick O. Ochieng was born in 1961. He attended school in Nairobi then studied abroad, and holds a degree in Economics and Law. He was short-listed for the 2010 Golden Baobab Prize and published in the Munyori Literature journal. He lives with his wife and two lovely sons a few meters from the Lake Victoria, and practices law in Kisumu.