They came out in their Sunday best; their fabrics shiny to match the shiny new Maendeleo Chap Chap office whose opening they were present to witness at Kim’s Court, a residential development on Lenana Road turned into office space.
They milled around patiently as the organisers worked to secure a banner, with Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua’s face on it, off one of the terraces.

They remained patient as a security guard worked to clean the premises, a desk was carried in and as purple, blue and red balloons were hang over the door and ribbons tied into a bow stretched across it.

Then it was time to get them ready. The Master of Ceremony had them stand shoulder to shoulder in two lines across from each other all the way from the gate to the Maendeleo Chap Chap Nairobi branch entrance. Then he got down to warming them up, they would after all need to be amped up to pull off a rapturous welcome when the time came. “Even in death there are rehearsals,” he said into a microphone.