The day I was had by conmen

Obwogi Maranga Cliff was the second runner-up in the U-Report Author of the Year Award 2019.      Below, enjoy his piece about conmen. U-Report is a Standard Digital citizen journalism platform.

                                                                                 *****

Getting fooled can be easy. Sometimes you never see it coming.

I arrived in Eldoret at 6:05 am. It was too early to go to my friend Jane’s house; she had invited me because we had not seen each other for ages.

 I alighted at the bus stop, looked at my watch and decided to grab a cup of coffee at least to warm my shivering lips as a result of the night cold. I had travelled all night from Mombasa.

Walking a pavement along the Eldoret-Busia highway suddenly a guy jerked me from behind and picked up a piece of transparent nylon paper rubbed with a band.

It was a wad of notes. The smartly dressed guy in a black suit and a red tie put the finger on his lips, signifying to me to keep quiet.

Then he slowed down, looked at me then whispered:  “This is our lucky day, do not say a word. Just follow me… we’ll go to a cafeteria and share this silently.”

I ignored him and proceeded to my destination. Several conflicting thoughts were in my mind, some compelled me to follow the guy and others not to follow.

I decided to remain calm, took out my phone, and called Jane. Her phone was off.

 I put it back to my leather jacket’s inner pocket and kept walking for about a minute and then stopped. I looked around and see if that guy was lurking around. He had vanished. I stood for another minute before proceeding.

  On crossing the street, a guy in front of me dropped a bunch of notes wrapped in a transparent nylon paper.

 It was similar to the other one.  As I sunk in thought just staring at it, another guy walked past me, picked it up and looked at me. I kept on walking as he whispered: “If you do not want money, I do. Either you follow me, we share or just stand there and then go your way.”

I was so decisive this time around and decided to follow this gentleman.  In a white long-sleeved shirt with a grey pair of trousers and a black tie, he was too smart to be a con. He asked me several questions, trying to be nice. I responded to them as we kept moving.

I decided to head to a bus stop and board a matatu to a certain destination to wait for Jane’s call. He insisted that we keep walking to a nearby deserted area where he would give me my cut.

Suddenly the other guy, who had dropped the money appeared.

“Guys, please, I dropped some money wrapped in a piece of nylon; it is for my mother’s hospital bill. I asked some guys, and they told me you might have seen who took it,” he said.

My antennae went up. “We do not know,” my “newly acquired” friend responded fast. We kept walking. I was no longer interested in this.

 I told the other guy to enjoy the money.

 “Come on, just remain calm, after all, I just put the money in your bag. If this guy screams, we will be lynched, cool down.”

I exclaimed. I did not imagine being called a thief. I have never stolen anything in my entire life.

As I was deep in my thoughts imagining being called a thief, the other guy came insisting that we had his money. I shivered.

“Look, I do not know anything about your money; this is all I have got.” I took out a two hundred a thousand-shilling note.

The other guy concurred with me. He grabbed both notes and escorted me to a matatu.

As the matatu left, I sunk deep in thought over what had befallen me. “Pesa hapo nyuma!” the conductor yelled.

I put my hands into my pockets to remove money for the fare, and there was nothing. I checked every pocket, nothing. I recalled how I had shown the money to the other guy and how my new friend helped me do that. He had not returned my two notes, and the matatu had already left.

 I laughed at myself. Foolish!