By Pkemoi Ngenoh
A man in Kericho County who was caught with stolen chapatis was forced to eat them.
The rib-tickling incident occurred at an eatery in the popular Nyagacho Estate, a slum on the outskirts of the town, last week. According to the hotel owner, the youthful boda boda operator in the estate checked in alone at around 3pm for late lunch, but he was not lucky since most of the foods listed on the menu were over.
“He arrived alone and ordered ‘ugali mix’ which we didn’t have considering the time of day, so he settled for tea and chapati as he read the day’s newspaper,” said Onyango, the hotel owner. Minutes later, he was done. He dipped a hand into his pocket and removed Sh100, but Onyango had no loose money forcing him to rush to the next shops for change.
Since he was operating the eatery alone and there being no other customers, he left the boda boda operator buried in the pages of the newspaper unaware that his client was up to something. “When I handed him his change, he appeared not to be in a hurry, which was unusual because he should have been rushing to net customers,” narrated Onyango.
When he eventually rose and walked out, something caught Onyango’s attention. The man had changed his working style! But when he was about to step outside, some of the chapati, which had been tactfully hidden in his private parts, started trickling down his trousers.
Noticing that his plan had aborted, he tried to dash outside quickly but Onyango raised an alarm, quickly raising a crowd in the congested estate before the man could zoom off on his motorbike. Onlookers were shocked to hear that the man had grabbed six chapatis from the kitchen and stuffed them in his underwear.
“Ni aibu sana mtu aibe chapati na ako na piki piki. Sasa lazima tufunge hii boda yake mpaka alipe (It’s shameful for a man who owns motorbike to steal chapatis. We must confiscate his bike till he pays),” shouted one of the onlookers.
Onyango and other onlookers were still deliberating on how to take him to the nearest police station when one man suggested he be forced to eat them in public, an idea that received unanimous and raucous approval. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the man, who was by now surrounded by a mob armed with crude weapons, ate the six chapatis one after another.
“Tafadhaili msishike piki piki, mimi niliajiriwa tu (Please do not confiscate the motorbike. It is not mine. I am only employed to ferry passengers),” he murmured amid chomps to laughter from onlookers. Luckily his boss who had been called arrived to take his motorbike and paid for the stolen chapatis before relieving the man off his duties. Satisfied that justice had been done, onlookers left the scene one by one, as the man who had been set free melted into the slum.
