When you think you know better

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There are those people with that "I know better than follow your stup!d instructions" mentality, but regrets almost immediately when the instruction or advice given, no matter how innocuous or unwise it may look at face value, tends to have great repercussions.

Take the instance of the author of this book (pictured), a strong headed former military intelligence officer, thought he knew better than his superiors. The first instance was during the six month training in Baringo county shortly after enlisting with the military. Baringo is snake infested, and one of instructions in the training camp was to hang bags on walls or trees as snakes would crawl into them when kept at ground level looking for a warm place to curl in. The ever rebellious man who had been expelled from two schools for leading strikes, went against the instructions one night and used his bag as a pillow, such that a huge snake steals into the tent, goes over his body and into the bag. The scream he gave out violated a cardinal rule of no lights at night as that would give out their position to the roaming bandits. Lights were put on to investigate the reason of his screams and to look for the reptile that in the snake's fashion, had long slithered away. The camp had to be shifted elsewhere deep in thickets the next morning.

Another hilarious recording is of a lady trainee who believed the military instructors are insane for banning use of makeups and applying perfumes, because ladies are supposed to look beautiful no matter the environment they're in. The results of her unwittingly wisdom was almost immediately when they embarked on training when a swarm of bees, attracted by her perfume, thought they'd landed a jackpot of nectar and swarmed hard down on her that by the time they realized the "flower" they were on was from a strange plant species, and departed, she was hardly recognizable with a disfigured face thrice its normal size.

Another of instructions he defied was dating a colleague within same rank, and believing his senior was petty and jealous, and told him to go and jump into the sea of storms. It wasn't long before she was promoted ahead of him and subordinating to her, and getting all jibes from colleagues, including working far from her, such that communication between them became far distant each passing day, that it hit him like an avalanche that the superior was right, and why in military parlance it pays to follow instructions first and ask questions later.

The writer, who was to serve four years in prison and was amongst those who made amphibious landing in Kismayu when Kenya went after Al Shabaab militants in Somalia, says he stepped not on one, two, or three superiors, but almost anyone he was under when he believed he reserved the right to reply back including not obeying orders given like cleaning after his superiors mess. He writes that while stationed at the Department of Defense headquarters in Nairobi, he was guest of State owing to numerous bar brawls and nearly every police station in Nairobi would accommodate him at weekends until he was bailed out by colleagues on Monday mornings to return to duty.

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