Thought it is important to share this security alert info with Kenyans : There some con artists on the prowl and the scenario below describes what they are doing.....

1.You meet an old woman along Moi Avenue, around Kenya Cinema ,Railways bus stop or some downtown public spaces..

2. She asks you for help, she wants to call someone for she is stranded.

3. You do not suspects anything, she is an old woman anyway.

4. She makes a call from your phone, it might go through or not, but she hands over you phone. NOTHING SERIOUS or nothing dramatic.

5. She goes her way, you forget about her instantly!

6. You board a Matatu, still oblivious of what is cutting.

8. On the matatu, someone complains that his phone is stolen, he gives another passenger "his" number to beep, then the passenger complies and your phone rings...

9. before you can explain, you could be dead!!



What happens? The old lady, when she took ya phone, beeped the guy, who followed you as you took the matatu, a guy who had memorized your number, then boarded the same Matt with you, then complained about loosing his phone to a pick pocket, who then gave out your number as his...

KENYANS AVOID GIVING YOUR PHONES TO STRANGERS OR EVEN TALKING TO THEM

Aiih!

The fact that some random stranger knows your number does not mean you lose your phone.

Do a simple test, zima simu. The Owner of the phone is the person who has the correct PIN.

Ok.. accomplices plus being caught completely off guard will not work in your favor.

But without accomplices, it will be tricky for the thug to pull it off.

The thug will have to be seated next to you to be credible if acting alone.

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This happened some time back.

A very smartly dressed man was walking in town in broad day light. A woman carrying a baby approached him and started hurling insults at the man accusing him of infidelity, abandoning the family for a young college girl etc. etc. She got physical, started roughing up the man and telling him the kids have been chased from school, there is nothing to eat etc.

She removes the kid from her back and tries to give him to the dude. Tells the dude to go with him to that prostitute he has been living with bla bla bla. A crowd has gathered, the woman puts the kid down and starts roughing up the guy. The guy insists he has never seen the woman. No one listens.

The woman is now totally physical. She wants "money for food and school fees". She's trying to get into his pocket but the man is fighting back. Some women from the "members of the public" join in to help the woman. They overpower the man and empty his pockets of everything and give to the "poor woman" who promptly picks up the kid and disappears in seconds. All this time people are laughing at the dude. The women who were "helping" also disappear in flush.

The man is left there with nothing and in total shock. He swears he has never seen any of those women before. He pleads with the public to pursue the woman and ask her his name, then retrieve his ID from the things they took from him and see if the names match. Too late. The women are no where to be seen. Another day in the life of a Nairobian.

umegonga ndipo

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This happened to my former boss some years back.

Dude is walking in town at around 7:00pm. Suddenly a couple of guys surround him and one starts 'fighting' with him. The others start 'separating' them making sure they call each of them by [fake] name. "Wewe Njoro wacheni ujinga. Hii ni aibu gani mnaleta tao?". "Omosh, Omosh, wachana na yeye. Hii ni story ya kuongea". "Njoro wachaga utiaji...". By the time they managed to 'separate' them, the dude had been separated from everything he had on him and his clothes were in tatters.

i was once approached by a very old woman in a matatu back in 2009, she wanted directions on how she could pick her next matatu to california, eastleigh, she requested that when we drop off, i take her to the matatu stage,
Apparently she had come from meru to see one of the children in nairobi but didnt find her at home and now she was going to see her other child in calif

She even had that ka-gunia which old women come to nairobi with.

i considered taking her to the stage but that story didn't add up,

-what's an old woman doing alone in a matatu past 7PM,
-she came all the way from meru without prior plan,
-and finally i just didnt have a good feeling about this,
-all day long, she hadn't contacted any of her relatives?


so, what i decided was to walk her to her stage but i walked so fast! , maintaining a distance of several metres between us.
when i almost reached the stage for calif mat's, i just pointed to the general direction and asked her to ask others for more directions, wasting no time, i took off,

I've never been sure when the trick was(would have been).....

Now we cant help the genuine ones

There are several con artists who hang around city square, Aga Khan walk, and some even go into Kenya Cinema to do their operations.The most famous line they use as they target guys early morning or evening as guys go home is that they come from such an such a place and need fare to go home...they just need a minimum of 20 or 50 bob...

I have been conned like 3 times by such guys and they are thick enough to approach the same person with the same line more than once in a span of a month,the characters are of varying ages and appearance and most are...male..people who can actually do kibarua and make money..have decided to just con people in broad daylight...

There's one character who actually conned me at the museum and i parted with close to 1k for the fellows fare to siaya..his story goes like...am an orphan and live with my grandma in siaya and my father left a piece of land for us but my uncle has grabbed it and he has kept the title so i came to Nairobi to follow the title and the last time I was in the city my uncle resided in kibera but he is a drunk and cannot be sure if he is still living in the same house...the dude has actually dressed the part i.e. torn shirt,worn out trousers,shoes etc...and to top it up the guy is suffering from epilepsy....

These guys would write great scripts for Hollywood I tell you wazuans....so I give the guy fare back to siaya after feeding him on a heavy lunch within cbd and i give him my number to call me once he gets to his "sleepy village in siaya"...his English was very eloquent by the way...

I never got a call from the guy but also never forgot the fellow...I was proud of assisting an epileptic,orphaned,hungry poverty stricken young boy from siaya...am naturally too generous by the way..

Three to Four months down the line...am hanging around city square waiting for a pal and guess who i see the same dude,with a backpack but now looking very smart...I decide to watch from a distance...I can see him surveying the area and most likely choosing a target and then he strikes...I watch him con a guy or two (I can tell as he is handed money)...I decided to strike as he approaches a young couple and the couple is just about to hand him cash...I did this to actually embarrass him in public...sort of a payback...

I confront the con and remind him of how he conned me pretending to be an orphan etc etc...off course the guy feigns ignorance and try's to churn a story...but I caught him off guard and he is obviously in panic mode but he cant run...If i was a violent guy who keeps grudges etc this guy would have received a physical one...i decide to keep my cool as the young couple who were about to be conned walk off in panic..I give the guy a tongue lash informing him that next time I spot him in town he will cool his heels in jail don't ask me how,and I ask him to vanish...he moves fast and disappears into the evening crowd.....

so guys instead of handing out cash to these thugs just give it to a charity or maybe unless someone is physically challenged and its so obvious otherwise....the audacity of Nairobi thugs is very humbling!!!!