Once upon a time, I was a guest of the state - albeit for half an hour. It's an experience I wouldn't wish upon my worst of enemies :-). {P.S don't judge me, if it may not be as bad as others' experiences lol}
Kanjo pipos pounced on us on a lazy & sunny Friday afternoon while we were happily distributing brochures for the college I worked for as a Computer Lab Assistant in Westlands. It was during my initial months at the college & since I was pretty much still on probation, any extra duties done definitely earned me Bonga Points. So when my colleagues from Front Office floated the idea of tagging along for the brochure distribution I gladly obliged. Most Friday afternoons were not as busy in the Comp Lab, so I embraced the idea cause then I could kill two birds with one stone - earn bonga points and kill boredom LOL.
We picked as many brochures as we could and off we went chatting animatedly as we smiled and gave them to passers by. Two of us were freshers in this brochure distribution manenos so we had no idea that we had to look out for Kanjo pipos & vamoose the second you spot some mean looking characters with that beat up van of theirs. We had barely been at it for twenty minutes when some two characters, mean looking & clearly hungry - their cracked & dry lips sold 'em out - approached us and said hi. As naive as we were, we smiled and handed them a brochure trying to "sell the courses offered" {oh the bliss of naivety lol} while one of our colleagues - the veteran hurriedly moved away and took to her heels. Before we could wrap our heads around what was happening, they had seized all the brochures and were asking us all sorts of questions and they never even gave us a chance to respond. In a split second, three more gathered around us and started harassing and shoving us back and forth. For a moment I thought I was day dreaming & any moment I would snap out of it but reality dawned when they summoned the van driver to come take us to the station. *Sigh*
As we were violently shoved into the van, our colleague who had run away mysteriously showed up and started pleading with the Kanjo pipos to let us go but they were not budging, not without some "KK" {Kitu Kidogo}. Her pleas of "wahurumie tu sina pesa hapa" {have mercy I don't have any money}fell on deaf ears. They ordered her to stop wasting their time and gave her 10 minutes to rush back to the office and get the money otherwise we will spend the entire weekend in the cell. Spending an entire weekend in a cell seemed like a real nightmare and we were so sure that our boss wouldn't allow that to happen so we relaxed. Ten minutes passed, twenty minutes passed and our colleague was nowhere to be seen so the Kanjo van started making its way up Waiyaki Way and onto James Gichuru and we found ourselves at Muthangari Police Station. As we were rudely ordered to disembark at the police station and get booked we knewisht had hit the fan and we started sobbing LOL.
If you have ever been a guest of the state then you do know that once in a while you will find mean officers at the booking desk who will taunt and make fun of you. The ones we got seriously taunted us how we would spend the weekend with them and had no mercy shoving us behind the desk to write down our details. It was almost 6 O'clock and they maintained that past that time, they will not allow us to be bailed out which depressed us and made us sob even more {Picture two grown ladies sobbing like babies lol}. They were however kind enough to lend us their phones to make a call to anyone we knew could bail us out in half an hour. Since our colleague had proven unreliable, I decided to call big brother - #BigBrotherToTheResuce - I thank God for my big brothers they always come through *Wink* :-). He was there in like 15 minutes - I have no idea where he was but the way I sobbed saying I don't want to spend the night in a cell must have made him "fly" to come get me lol.
Once Big Brother said he was coming through, the phone was taken back and we had to enter the cell. The experience of having to remove one shoe and remove my belt and earrings still sends a shiver down my spine. The cell was dark, dirty & smelly and tough luck, we found some other ladies fighting over the corner space. We were freaked out and so we huddled together as we continued sobbing. After what seemed like an eternity {actually less than 15 minutes lol}, the officer called out and said we had been bailed we can leave and he came opened for us. Never have I been glad to see the light and smell the cool fresh air than when I stepped out of that police cell :-). #ICherishMyFreedom
We picked as many brochures as we could and off we went chatting animatedly as we smiled and gave them to passers by. Two of us were freshers in this brochure distribution manenos so we had no idea that we had to look out for Kanjo pipos & vamoose the second you spot some mean looking characters with that beat up van of theirs. We had barely been at it for twenty minutes when some two characters, mean looking & clearly hungry - their cracked & dry lips sold 'em out - approached us and said hi. As naive as we were, we smiled and handed them a brochure trying to "sell the courses offered" {oh the bliss of naivety lol} while one of our colleagues - the veteran hurriedly moved away and took to her heels. Before we could wrap our heads around what was happening, they had seized all the brochures and were asking us all sorts of questions and they never even gave us a chance to respond. In a split second, three more gathered around us and started harassing and shoving us back and forth. For a moment I thought I was day dreaming & any moment I would snap out of it but reality dawned when they summoned the van driver to come take us to the station. *Sigh*
As we were violently shoved into the van, our colleague who had run away mysteriously showed up and started pleading with the Kanjo pipos to let us go but they were not budging, not without some "KK" {Kitu Kidogo}. Her pleas of "wahurumie tu sina pesa hapa" {have mercy I don't have any money}fell on deaf ears. They ordered her to stop wasting their time and gave her 10 minutes to rush back to the office and get the money otherwise we will spend the entire weekend in the cell. Spending an entire weekend in a cell seemed like a real nightmare and we were so sure that our boss wouldn't allow that to happen so we relaxed. Ten minutes passed, twenty minutes passed and our colleague was nowhere to be seen so the Kanjo van started making its way up Waiyaki Way and onto James Gichuru and we found ourselves at Muthangari Police Station. As we were rudely ordered to disembark at the police station and get booked we knew
