By Charles Ng’eno

A woman in Ogilge area, Nakuru County, recently escaped being arrested by Kenya Power personnel by pretending to be illiterate.

The woman, a retired primary school teacher, was found to have an illegal electricity connection without the power company’s meter.

Although Kenya Power could identify individuals who had illegal connections, they, however found it hard to nab them because every morning, the culprits would remove the cutouts.

But after stealth monitoring, officials discovered that these individuals used power through out on Sunday since they knew that company’s staff do not report for on Sunday.

They resolved to set up an ambush on Sunday.

Knock

Several arrests were made in the area. When Mama Phyllis, heard a knock on her door, she opened thinking that the caller was a neighbour.

She was shocked when she saw a man in a Kenya Power white coat. She ushered him in as she quickly engaged her mind.

When asked why she was using power without consent, she asked in broken Kiswahili, “wapi sitima?”

The power man told her to stop playing games. He went to the switch, pressed it and the bulb came alive.

Upon seeing this, she thanked him in broken Kiswahili ‘bringing’ power to her house. She then mumbled to herself in her mother tongue how she could have forgotten to remove the cutout and described the man seated before her in unflattering terms.

Daughter-in-law

The man threatened to call the police but Mama Phyllis quickly accused him of ‘bringing’ her power then turning around to accuse her of stealing electricity. She walked out promising to go to the head office to thank the manager for connecting her.

The power man told her to call her daughter-in-law who was cutting Napier grass across the fence so at least he could get a reasonable conversation going.

But hailing her in mother tongue, Mama Phyllis told her daughter-in-law, “This devil wants to arrest us for illegal electricity connection!” then added, in broken Kiswahili, “but come and thank him for bringing sitima.”

She was, however, shell-shocked when the bemused power company official asked, in her mother tongue, why she was pretending to be illiterate. Flustered and embarrassed, she apologised profusely and sought forgiveness.

Her prayers were answered. He took the cutout and warned her of dire consequence if she was caught making an illegal connection again.