It is 'Inadvertently regrettable'

I am doing badly. This is my first blog this month. Darn! What was I doing all those days? Well, I have been busy. No wonder I feel this tired…tense muscles on the shoulder and neck. Grrr!

Well, a month ago, I sat in Parliament looking at the Government printer. I had no idea that the story I was going to write would catch the attention of so many people and be etched in the memories of many others for a very long time.

It was a beautiful moment to see the GP ward off questions with a sweet chorus about something being “inadvertently regrettable”. I haven’t made sense of that phrase. Someone help explain that to me. I was at first confused, but then, he said “it was inadvertent and regrettable”, so I got the hang of it.

But just as I thought I had it, he said it again “inadvertently regrettable”. What the hell is that. If something is inadvertent, it is regrettable to an extent, no? Where’s Philip Ochieng’?

So, when a big shot from Parliament stood in front of editors to tell them that he liked the story, and that it reminded him of “the week that was”, Kwendo Opanga’s column back in the day I was humbled.

The fella always reminds me that he’s got the article printed out and he re-reads it at his own pleasure. Well, I banged it on a Friday morning while seated on the sofa. That and the one about Dr Wilfred Machage and his tribulations were banged right from that sofa, as I sipped my cup of soya, with the mute TV on the Crime and Investigation channel.

Yes, the hard part is on the research and thinking. Once you get that sorted, you’re on the roll.

You could be asking why I am raising the matter today, almost a month after the story. But another pair of blessed journalistic hands, in Wachira Kang’aru, passed by my desk this morning and said he remembers the article. I smiled. My boss was standing right there and she actually congratulated me.

Voice of America’s Mwangi Geita also told me that he liked the article and that it was “balanced, informative and true”. The GP is Geita’s neighbour, so I am still waiting for feedback from him. If the GP liked it, then, I guess, I just did my job.

Let me sit down and bang some copy now.

Adios!