Always sisters, forever friends

• Twins Sheila Kageni and Shilla Makena share such a strong bond that they hope even when they get married, they will be next-door neighbours.

Their graduation from the Catholic University of East Africa in Karen last month was a milestone in the lives of twins Sheila Kageni and Shilla Makena, whose lives have been marked by stiff but friendly competition.

It was a moment of pride for the sisters as they as they marched just a few steps from each other in the queue, thanks to the narrow difference — less than a point — between their final marks. It was not the first time the two have been so close to each other in academic rankings.

Competition between them began in primary school, with each working hard to beat the other in the end-term examinations.

“It is not that one of us was brighter than the other, but we wanted to keep the difference in marks between us narrow because there was some comfort in that,” says Shilla, the bigger of the two who, ironically, is younger.

So when they sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary School Education (KCPE) finals, there was only a two-point difference in their marks. Due to this stiff competition, whenever either of them performed badly in a certain subject, they would both be punished.

“Dad always found a plausible reason to punish us both. For instance, if one of us made a ‘serious’ mistake, he would look for something wrong the other person had done to justify punishing her as well. This curbed jealousy between us and made us feel he was treating us equally, besides encouraging us to work hard,” says Sheila of their father, Moses Naivasha, an engineer.

Meanwhile, their mother, Violet Muthoni, who was a teacher, ensured they were disciplined.

So as they received their Bachelor of Commerce (second class honours) degrees, with family and friends applauding, it was a dream come true for the 23-year-olds, who have had a passion for the subject since their high school days at Kyeni Girls’ High School in Embu.

They both loved commerce but were in different streams, so when one felt her teacher was not as good as the other’s, she simply took advantage of their resemblance to attend her sister’s class.

Major disadvantage

Their fellow students and teachers had a difficult time telling them apart, and teachers had to refer to the class list to tell which of the two they were teaching.

“We would answer to whichever name we were called, which only added to the confusion,” offers Shilla, the more talkative of the two.

But she quickly adds that their resemblance was a major disadvantage when it came to paying for each other’s mistakes. She says a fellow student would give Sheila something, for instance, but would come to demand it back from her.

“Convincing her that I was not the one she had given the item was a problem,” she says.

Given their love for commerce, it is not surprising that they took the same course at university. “It was a foregone conclusion,” Sheila says.