Dispatches from the Sporting Life by Mordecai Richler Page B

black woman clerk toted up the items and handed Bush a considerable bill. “I’m the vice-president of the United States,” said Bush. “Don’t I get a discount?”
    “No, you don’t,” she replied.
    From African Heritage, it was only a short stroll to the famous Thorn Tree Bar at the New Stanley Hotel, an obligatory stop, even if you pass on the impala stew. Ensconced on the terrace, I asked a settler at a neighbouring table about the abortive airforce-led coup of last August 1. “What, in fact, happened to the air force?”
    “They were, um, disbanded.”
    “Do you mean…liquidated?”
    “Quite.”
    Kenya, independent since 1963, is a one-party state with a population of some fifteen million, maybe fifty thousand of them white. The autocratic successor to the great Jomo Kenyatta, President Daniel arap Moi was staunchly supported by the local press in 1982. On November 13, the page-one headline in the
Daily Nation
proclaimed, “THUGS IN POLLS RACE, SAY MOI”:
    “Some political
majambazi
[thugs] have joined the race for the Nakuru North parliamentary seat,” President Moi said yesterday.
    The President said this when he conducted a harambee funds drive at Ol Kalou, Nyandarua District, Central Province. A total of about Sh. 3.5 million was collected.
    President Moi, who spoke in Kiswahili, said he did not mind anybody being elected. But he urged the electorate to vote in a Nyayo man.
    He said he did not take pleasure in detaining anybody and added that some political
majambazi
had rushed to enter the race in Nakuru North street.
    He also asked the electorate not to elect
wakora
[hooligans]. He said he was not interested in any group and warned people not to blame him if things went wrong.
    A story on page four noted that bargain hunter George Bush might cut short his African tour to fly to Moscow for the funeral of President Leonid Brezhnev, whose death had been announced the day before. And, on page seven, there was an interesting letter to the editor from George Wanyoike of Nairobi:
    During the recent Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia, I noticed that while all countries fielded national teams, the United Kingdom fielded hers on tribal lines.
    There were tribal teams from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. What should we expect next time: Eskimos and Quebecan Canadians being fielded as separate teams or Luos, Kikiyus and Kalenjins being fielded as separate teams? This should be discouraged.
    A Moi supporter, Raphael Obwori Khalumba, surfaced in the letters column of Nairobi’s
True Love with Trust
magazine:
    I congratulate President Moi, the government and the Kenya Army, GSU and Police for suppressing the insurgence by the KAF rebels on August 1, 1982. The episode shall remain a dark and unforgettable mark in the Kenya history. Theperpetrators of the attempted coup should be hunted down and punished severely. If it were not for our loyal forces, we don’t know what shape Kenya would have assumed by now.
    God is with the government of Kenya. There is no leadership as dedicated as that of our beloved President Daniel arap Moi in the whole of Africa. God bless Moi, our country Kenya, the armed forces, and all the people of Kenya.
    Back at the Norfolk my telephone rang and rang, but each time I picked it up the line was dead. I finally took my problem to the clerk at the front desk.
    “You go back to your room,” he said, “and the operator will ring you.”
    “But it’s no use, don’t you see? The line is dead. I can’t get a dial tone.”
    “You go back. Operator will ring you.”
    I did. She did. The line was dead. I returned to the front desk.
    “Your telephone doesn’t work,” said the desk clerk. “It will be fixed.”
    “Thank you. When?”
    “We must get an engineer from the post office.”
    “When will that be?”
    “Unfortunately, he just left. He will return, if he has a car.”
    A couple of hours later I confronted the front-desk clerk yet again.
    “If the