My First Encounter with Cowards (Part III)

Time check is 3.30 am. I'm woken by a strange sound. The door is half open but the house lights are off. The security light from the corridors are however finding their way into our house. This means that the house is poorly lit but it's aiding vision to a big extent.

Sema kimeumana!!!

You know when you're in deep sleep but some sort of sound which I term  strange clicks and you're all awake? This is exactly what happened.

'Daaah'! This is what I heard and immediately I woke up. This is the sound that comes from a socket when you're unplugging an appliance from it. I woke up and since I was facing the wall side, (there are two sides; the wall side and the open space side) I turned and now my eyes are on the open space side. All this while, my friend is deep asleep. Like an angel.

Now, what I saw has never left my mind up to date. An image of a tall dark rounded face man who was dressed in black is what i saw. No mask. No black mask, just a bare face.

On sighting this, I drew two not very loud and sharp screams to at least wake my friend up. She didn't wake up my readers! I was disappointed.

While at it, this guy rushed out quicker than lightning but this time, he left the door closed quater way.

Let me use "Riri" as my friend's name. I love this name because it belongs to my grandmother who I am named after. My "ntagu".

She however is called Lilian. At a rural set-up, people have a tendency of cutting your name into two or even three and now refer you with one of the segments from the three.

The segment that is chosen is now manipulated and even the pronunciation of the entire thing is strange to you.

So my "shush" is supposed to go by the name "Lili" but my people refer to her as "Riri", which is way easy to pronounce though.

"Riri,Riri, tumeibiwa. Laptop imeenda",I said with teary eyes.

"Riri,tumeibiwa! Amka. Tumeibiwa."

She didn't wake up y'all. 

"Now why do I do?" 

"Roll her back and forth, and she will be up".

"Riri, amka, amka basi! Tumeibiwa. Laptop imeenda," I said as I rolled her.

"Ahhh Rose, you're dreaming. Get back to sleep and cover yourself," she said with a sleepy voice while facing the wall.

"Riri, wake up. I'm not dreaming. I saw someone leave the house. What I'm sure of is, the laptop has been stolen.

"What!!!"

It was now sinking in her mind and she was awake. She checked the table which was close to the bed and responded,

"Si I told you unaota. Laptop is still on the table."

"No Riri, that's a mirror. One last time, I'm on dreaming. This is happening in real-time. Wake up, tumeibiwa!"

Wadau, this is the time she woke up for real for real. She arose and sat up.

"Ghai Ghai Ghai Ghai, Rose tumeibiwa. The door is even open!"

"Riri, laptop is gone. I was awaken by the sound of unplugging the laptop charger from the extension"

Then, laptops and phones were the most expensive things we owned. Plus now the money in our parcels.

So losing either of these was a big pinch (crying emojis).

She being fully awake, she was welcomed by the lights from the corridor and at this point the dream perspective was washed out. Her blue handbag was also very close to the exit door. This was a confirmation that we had company for sometime in the house. This thought still melts me. 

I requested that she shuts the door and lights up the house or else they might come back.

"Even you go."

"Please go. I'm shaking and so afraid. I can't move. My knee grease has run out".

"Si you go"

"No, you go"

"I'm also afraid Rose, please  go shut the door"

"I'm shaking and am so weak. Once I get off this bed, I will collapse on the floor."

She accepted to walk to the door area to switch the lights on and close the door.

"Before I do, we should check whether one of these bad guys is hiding somewhere in this house. Let me check under the bed and around the kitchen area as you check the washroom."

"The best I can do right now is to bend a little and check under the bed. Please check the other two places."

"Okay. Perfect."

This time now, the lights are on but the door is still open.

I really appreciate the fact that she stood up straight for both of us at this weak point of my life, well out lives.

"Just the two of us in this house Rose. "

She shut the door and came to bed. We could not hold it. The trembling. We trembled like a chameleon on a feeble twig.  You remember those similies that we used back in the day? That's a throwback right there!

"We should check all that we have lost ."

"Okay, agreed."

First, laptop, charger and mulika mwizi are gone. 

"The handbag at the door means he tampered with it. Check whether you've lost anything", I said.

She picked it and came with it to bed. All the small pockets where she keeps her monies were open. Not even a single coin was left *sad.

However, all the cards were there. 

My God! To say less, this was very sad. Almost 10k drank water like that! Where did humanity go though? 

We can do better as humans.

This money is a whole budget for an entire week. Earned through sweat and sometimes tears. There's no way it's going to be well with you if this is how you make people feel by taking off by force what people are struggling to make!!

Anyways, all her monies in that specific bag are gone.

Note that, my bag which had my laptop is still at the corner and not tampered with. Now, we have lost Riri's laptop plus charger plus money. I lost just the mulika mwizi.

We have conversations till morning as I explained how I was woken up and which house I thought he(the thug) entered. We also discussed how Nairobi is you for you and you alone. This is a big apartment holding like 8 households in that specific floor. None came to our rescue!

Time check 5:00 am. I have the urge to use the bathroom. Before I get there, I have to pass by the kitchen area. 

"Girl, he carried the gas cylinder! He also eat our food!!! "

"For real?"

"Yea,come see."

She came, she saw and she confirmed.

At this point, I'm surprised how all this happened within a time frame of 30 minutes.

We're shocked that he had all that time to tour almost the entire house while we're sleeping pretty on our big bed.

One thing came in mind though. How God loves us. The kitchen area has all kinds of weapons. He could have done something worse than picking up things and leaving. As much as we're sad that we were stolen from this early morning, we were again grateful that God preserved our lives from the jaws of death.

Well, its morning. I'm supposed to travel back to the Lakeside and Riri is supposed to report to work. At this point, it's easier for me to ask for permission and so I can go and report the issue to the police station.

Time check 6-7:00 am. We're at the police station to report.

We make a statement of what unfolded that morning in presence of three policemen. 

This is very important to note my readers, that I Rose was visiting for the weekend. I was the last person to switch off the machine and get to bed without confirming whether the door is closed or not. I was the person who heard everything that was happening and it's me who woke up my host so as to let her know that we had company for like 20 minutes. In all this again, my laptop is still in my bag at the corner. That means it has not been stolen. My cash is in the same bag intact. All I personally lost in this escapade is mulika mwizi.

I am doing most of the talking because I'm at the centre of it and I heard and had a sight of this coward. My friend is chipping in where she can. We put to record all that which we had lost.

One of the those people in uniforms, however thought otherwise. Before an OB was handled over to us, I heard a deep voice.

" Uuhm, so you came to visit, was left watching -not using your machine but hers, slept last, heard the noices, shouted, woke her up to tell her that someone had stolen from you guys. Nevertheless, you just lost a simple phone. If I say you set her up, would I be wrong? In other words, my opinion is, you are our  suspect number one."

Chineke my God ooh! When did we get here? Now I'm the suspect? Never been shaken like that day. How would I do that? For God's sake I was raised better. I take pride in clean hustle. Clean money and clean wealth gives me great satisfaction.

I'm dumb, I cant say a word. All I can do is stare at this guy with disbelief and emotions drawn all over my face.

"Afande, please allow me to say this. I wholly disagree with this statement. We came here for help, not even just for us but to help even those around us. I didn't enhance this and I can never do", I said.

"Mkubwa, come on bro. I do not agree with you statement. All we have come to ask for in this station is help. We were both raised and to these extremes, we can never go. If please you could help us, we will be grateful", Riri said.

Let me tell you guys, in every group of people, one individual always stands up in the right, with all humanity.

"God loves you ladies. This guy(s) could have done worse; hurt, raped or killed. But he just stole. None of you is hurt physically. This therefore means that, you can assemble more wealth God enabling you. Personally I am very sorry you had to go through that", he said to us.

"Afande, these incidences are quite common around this place. Not even one of these ladies aided any suport to the bad guy. I know a suspect when I meet one. Please take their case and see it to completion" he said to his mates.

"Aah ladies, make sure you always shut the door every-time you get into the house, both with a padlock and the lower lock near the floor, again poleni sana."

We leave the station with the OB and we are asked to come back the following day for follow-up.

The nice police officer is not there. I meet with the one who says that our case has been handed over to him. He is tall, brown and has soft hair, which is said to have a faster growth rate. We are quite a number and my chance to face him arrives. He says he has been briefed about he whole situation but before he get hands-on, he needs the box that bought the mulika mwizi, so that he can use that small phone to trace everything else that we had lost plus know the culprit.

Yes guys, the box not of the laptop but of the former and not the receipt!

 Personally, I found this to be very ironical! Like who would keep a mulika mwizi box? Mostly, we give them to kids who most definitely will make better use of them by assembling 'locomotives'. 

To be honest, I turned back and left and that's how we never followed up on that issue again. Henceforth friends, I never leave my door open.  Any time I'm out or in, I lock it.