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Shock as Coast nurses find sick beggar's hidden 'bank' with Sh56,000

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In the spirit of giving, many Kenyans generously dish out cash to the poor and less fortunate in the society. But who would have thought that some of the beggars who receive handouts could actually be financially doing better than their benefactors?

Nurses at hospital at the Coast were left in shock after they discovered that a patient who begs for a living had over Sh56,000 in cash hidden in his pockets.

The beggar had been admitted at the medical facility by well-wishers after he ate contaminated food and developed a running stomach. “He told nurses that he had consumed left-overs in different kiosk near the hospital not knowing that he would later suffer a serious case of food poisoning,” said Mary Wanjiru, a trainee nurse at the hospital.

“He told us he suspected the meat he had eaten may have caused him problems, since the Kibanda owner had warned him that it was almost going bad. He, however, ignored the warning and, like most beggars who have no choice, insisted on eating it is and went on to feast on the entire goat’s head including the eyeballs. A few hours later, he had a severe running stomach,” said Wanjiru.

The man also experienced sharp pains in the stomach and soon he was writhing on the ground prompting passersby to come to his aid and rush him to hospital.

“When he was brought in, he was stinking like a sewer since he had soiled all his already dirty clothing due to the diarrhoea. We had to remove his clothes first before attending to him. But even in his pain, the man kept protesting while clutching at one of the jackets he was wearing in spite of the intense heat in Mombasa. While we forcibly took the jacket from him, cash began pouring out,” the nurse said.

Since the jacket was extremely heavy, the attendants decided to pour its contents on a hospital bed-sheet and this is when they were left astounded.

Astonished medics

Explains Wanjiru: “In came out notes and coins of various denominations. They were just too many that we decided to frisk his other clothes. They all contained money. When we were finally done and counted the cash it amounted to over Sh56,000. All this found on a malnourished man. We were shocked. How could one be all that mean even to himself? Since we had to attend to our patient as the doctors were on strike, we had to wait until the following day to question the man and find out the truth.”

Much later, the man who had recovered remarkably well told an audience of several nurses and community workers that he came to Mombasa from Muranga in 1990 and has been begging on the streets and outside mosques since then.

“I save everything I get since I sleep outside and eat left-overs. I don’t know the exact amount I have at the moment, but I am hoping to save a good amount of money after which I will go back home where I intend to buy a farm and settle,” the beggar told the astonished medics.

He was then asked whether he would agree to return home in the company of a female nurse from Murang’a after being handed his money where he would be linked with financial advisers who would help him invest his savings wisely.

“I came to Mombasa on my own and I will leave that way,” he is quoted to have scoffed as he thanked them for saving his life. The hospital let him go without charging him and he immediately hit the streets to do what he does best.

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