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Comedian and MC Fungututi is a force of nature on stage, combining his frenetic energy and impressive original jokes.
His mouth moves almost as fast as his whirlwind brains, but this was not the case when he first came to Nairobi. As a new college student who had been admitted to Kenyatta University, things were not all rosy for Fungututi.
"That was aeons ago but the memory still is etched deep in my mind. I was a proper newbie, I had never stepped foot in Nairobi before and I was in the harakati of applying for HELB loan," he says.
Armed with his duly signed forms, he made his way to Anniversary Towers in the city centre. That's when things came tumbling down.
"I met some three dudes who from their deep accents you could tell they were from Meru. These guys approached me and played a really clean con game on me," he says.
Apparently the three Meruans quickly hatched a plan and came up with an almost true story claiming they had won Sh200,000 from the charity sweepstakes games, but they couldn't collect cash since they had all lost their ID cards.
The guys were generous enough to offer 5 per cent of their win to anyone willing to bail them out with their ID and Fungututi, being young and ambitious, could not let such a deal pass him.
"I negotiated for a better cut and due to my greed, we settled for 10 per cent. The guys didn't bargain much and they quickly accepted my offer." The four immediately embarked on a journey to go collect the cash. "We walked all the way to Hilton Hotel and they told me that's where charity sweepstakes offices are, but they would not go closer since they didn't have IDs."
The guys stood a few metres away as Fungututi proceeded to collect 'his' money.
"Before I left, they stopped me and told me since I have their money which they had won, they need me to leave with them my wallet and phone so that I don't run away," he says.
Fungututi fell for the prank, left all his possessions with the guys and briskly walked to the nonexistent office. It didn't take long before the security guards broke the news to him that he had been duped.
