This happens a lot in our country.
Mums do collabos with their daughters for various reasons.
In 2019, I almost got caught in one. How?
I was a first-year campus student, renting a small mabati house. I had grown up humble, minding my own business and generally keeping my nose out of people's affairs.
Then campus happened. I started trying to break out of my introverted self because, in ghetto, it's all about survival.
As a man, I used to hunt. I'd get my prey, and sometimes it would escape, just as a lion gets or loses its catch. I'm one of those "away from home" types. I go hunting away from home.
Little did I know one of my neighbours had four fine daughters. One was married but always at home, two were in college, and one was in Form One.
The family was always in survival mode. Out of the three younger ones, two became my friends. Whenever I was around, I'd give them something to eat at my place. In return, they'd do the dishes, wash clothes, and I'd pay them.
Strictly friends.
Mostly because they had already seen the girls I brought over.
Then there was the youngest.
She was well-built, and honestly, you wouldn't look at her and immediately think, "Form One kid."
I used to warn my boys whenever they started salivating over her.
One day, one of my friends saw her and said she looked familiar. Apparently, a few weeks earlier, there had been an incident in there area where she had been caught with a man, and the man was allegedly told to pay KSh70K or face jail.
I dismissed it.
I thought maybe he had confused her with someone else. These were church people, after all. I even used to see Catholic Jumuiya members coming to their place. Surely, I thought, this couldn't be that kind of family.
Boy, was I wrong.
A few weeks passed, and I slowly became the target.
The girl started being sent by her mum to my house to borrow small household things. Eventually, she asked for my number, saying that if she needed anything, she'd just text me.
I hesitated.
I told her, "Your sister's have my number. Just ask her and she'll text me."
Then one night, around 11 PM, I received a message:
"Nakuja..." I was like "and who is this??
"Sister ya Xxx"
As an introvert, my door is basically Fort Knox. If you didn't inform me earlier, you're knocking until your ancestors get tired.
So I didn't open.
While she was standing outside, one of my long salivating neighbours coming from work spotted her.
I heard his voice saying.
"Eh, uko poa? Huyu hayuko... si twende kwangu."
And just like that...
The man entered the trap.
Five minutes later:
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"FUNGUA!"
Then screams.
"Unafanya nini na mtoto wa shule?!"
The girl started saying the man was forcing her.
Then came the mother.
"UUUIIIIIIIIIIIII! UNATAKA KUKIHARIBIA MTOTO WEE MKISIIIII!"
At that point, the whole neighbourhood had received the notification.
People came out.
Chaos.
Me?
I didn't dare leave my house.
I was comfortably behind my window, peeping through the curtains like a Discovery Channel cameraman.
Eventually, they carried the guy away.
The man reportedly had to cough up KSh100K so he wouldn't be taken mbele.
Weeks later, I invited one of the sisters over while having a drink and asked her what actually happened that night.
She looked at me and said:
"Uko na bahati, khaiiiii. Wewe ndio ulikuwa target."
Then she explained the whole system.
Apparently, that's how even they had been raised and how their school fees were paid.
It was a money-making system.
They would identify targets, set them up, collect the money, and after getting several victims, they'd relocate to another area.
Then...
The system starts again.
Who's to be blamed?
As a friend if you lose your parent and you donโt tell me but post about it on socials Iโm not gonna come to the funeral ๐๐ฟ Iโm that strict