BY PKEMOI NGENOH

ROBBING THE POOR: Places where one would take a breather after hours of hustling are quickly becoming attractive to conmen and women out to swindle struggling city dwellers of their valuables and cash

Though there are many seating areas within Nairobi town’s Central Business District, the smooth stone structure outside Hilton hotel is mostly associated with jobseekers.

This is where many of them will kill time from dawn to late afternoon, catch a breather after knocking doors from one office to the other  and staring at No Vacancy signs.

 Many Nairobians will argue, and rightly so, that it might be the largest Jobless Corner in Nairobi if not Kenya.

Though the unemployed in Nairobi can be found in any other city spot, at the Hilton Hotel Square they are a common characteristic.

Reading minds

Not only will you find Nairobi’s unemployed here but you will also come across students, preachers, people waiting for their dates and office workers who might not have money for lunch whiling away their time. But of late, according to investigations by The County Weekly, the place has become an attraction for conmen and women.

For con men and petty thieves the place acts as a humble environment with many potential victims. They find their place here and look around reading innocent people’s minds, moves and communications before approaching their ‘prey’.

Once they have identified a victim they will pretend to ask for direction or to borrow a mobile phone claiming that their’s has run out of battery charge.

Ann Mwende is one of the victims who vividly remembers how she recently fell into this kind of trap  at this location.

Kencom bus stage

“A middle-aged woman approached me around ten in the morning to borrow  my phone claiming hers had run out of battery and she was looking for his son to accompany her to Kenyatta National Hospital. Because of her age and innocent looks I gave her only to discover 20 minutes later that I was confused and she had vanished, I am sure she used some ‘medicine’ on me, my expensive phone had gone,” she says.

Directly opposite Hilton square is Kencom bus stage where also all kinds of people gather especially whenever a raindrop hits the ground.

Some of the folks here spend the whole day whiling away the time, others spend weeks and even months ‘reporting’ here on daily basis.

Though the street preachers are common here trying their best to capture passengers attention few people give them attention due to the noisy environment from touts, people and sometimes generators from companies.

Dangerous places

A combination of all these and other recently reported cases including the use of certain powder to confuse target people completes an ample environment for pickpockets and other crooks.

“Recently  a man came pretending to be blind asking for a certain building in town, when I took him he turned out to be a dangerous thug but I managed to escape unscathed” says Patrick Mutua a security guard around Kencom.

Not to be forgotten is the recently built Bus Station, here the city council constructed permanent seats for passengers to rest, it is known for men who pretend to assist people to carry their luggage only to vanish with it.

Other notorious places are the area around Ambassador Hotel opposite Kencom, Co-operative House, former OTC area down town, General Post Office area on Kenyatta Avenue, Machakos country bus, Parking behind Kenya Re building, Uhuru park and Afya Centre among others.