By Anil Bakari
Let’s admit it folks, we are a nation of unfit people. Here, I use the word unfit with lots of respect. Truth is, majority of us can hardly run for two minutes non-stop, despite feeding well on chips, ugali and pizzas. Why this conclusion?
The scene was at a famous middle-income estate in Nairobi. It was around 6.30pm two weeks ago. Most of the residents were returning home after breaking their backs in corporate, Government and individual-owned institutions. Among them was a young woman dressed in high-heeled shoes and a black short dress to match. Her black stockings completed her ‘hot’ look. As expected, the young, well-endowed woman was making heads turn.
Some men stumbled as they turned their necks trying to have that ‘last look’ before they continued walking on. Her mobile phone rang. She extracted it from her huge purse, pushed her hair back from her ear and started to talk animatedly.
Laughing
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From the look of things, she was talking to her boyfriend because she kept on giggling and laughing on top of her voice as she made calculated steps.
As fate would have it, tragedy struck. Two young men emerged from nowhere (I think I was too busy not to have seen them) and attacked her. One of them went for a plastic bag she was also carrying and the other for her fancy mobile phone. It happened in a flash.
They then ran across an open field towards a nearby slum. As expected, men (about five of us) gave the thieves a chase, running as fast as our legs would carry us.
Bread
Two of the men — panting and sweating profusely — gave up the chase after running for about 50 metres. For the three remaining, one ran for about 70 metres, another about 100 metres and the other for about 110 metres before our bodies could not take it anymore.
We then held our knees and watched as the thieves disappeared into the informal settlement.
“You really tried,” the three who had not gone beyond 100 metres came telling us. Then we all began complaining how crime is fast rising in the area. It took us about ten minutes before we fully recovered our breathe and walked back to the robbery victim.
Luckily, she said the phone was the only valuable thing she had lost since the plastic bag contained only a loaf of bread. Her boyfriend would buy her another phone, she said as a matter of fact. Well, the incident made me realise why many of us need to exercise, crime or no crime.
