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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!!!!