It was New Year’s Day and everyone was ready to usher in2012 instyle having prepared delicious meals while others planned to party the whole day.
But Victor, an M-Pesa agent, had planned to usher in the New Year working at his shop. He expected that many of his customers would make withdrawals of cash sent by their relatives who would not make it up country to celebrate with their kin.
While in a conversation with friends, a customer interrupted and asked if he could deposit Sh5,000. That sounded a good start for Victor.
Village stories
Victor and his friends went on with their village stories about Christmas celebrations in Nyalenda village as he served his customer. The customer got attracted to the name of their village while he heard it being mentioned. He told them he came from a neighbouring village. He claimed that he studied at the local secondary school adding that he was the son of the local councillor. Then the customer beckoned Victor aside for a private chat.
He told Victor that he was able to print money real Kenyan currency. However, he said he needed someone who he would trust to partner with so that they can make more money.
He asked Victor to lend him Sh30,000 which he could use in the making of Sh60,000. He showed Victor some chemicals, which he explained was used for making currency notes. He promised to give Victor Sh30,000 as a token of appreciation besides returning his Sh30,000.
Victor got interested in the deal as he started thinking of how he would be Sh30,000 richer.
To make Victor believe that he wasn’t a con man, he asked him to give him a Sh50 note which in about five minutes he had used it to make a replica which looked genuine. He gave it to Victor who marvelled at how real it looked. Victor decided his need for money was solved and went straight into the deal.
Secret deals
Without telling his friends what was going on, Victor reached for his bag and pulled out Sh30,000 which he handed over to his newfound friend.
He had been promised that his cash would be returned the following morning at 7am. He knew by then his employer wouldn’t have come to monitor the business.
Victor imagined how he would purchase some school items as he prepared to join college later in the year.
As the night approached, everything seemed not to move as fast as usual. Due to the anxiety of getting the money, the night seemed longer than usual.
He had to wake up several times at night hoping it was daybreak only to find it was still late at night. But it would take him longer to get back to sleep as he imagined the money he was going to make easily.
When dawn finally came, Victor was deep asleep out of exhaustion. He was, however, able to wake up earlier than usual and rushed straight to shower. He then had his breakfast before he left his house to meet his contact.
Victor opened the shop earlier than usual and waited for his newfound friend. Friends who passed by to say hello to him were quickly but cleverly dismissed since he didn’t want a situation where his deal would be interrupted when his contact arrived.
At the appointed time, his contact was yet to arrive, but this did not alarm Victor because he knows that many people are poor at keeping time.
But 30 minutes later, he lost patience and called him on his cell phone to know where he was. He picked his phone and apologised for being late but promised to be at the shop in the next 30 minutes.
Almost an hour later, he had not arrived and Victor started panicking. He decided to call him again just for updates.
He was shocked when he could not reach him on the phone. He tried several times but the call could not go through.
He started sweating and confusion reigned. He realised that he had been conned. Looking back at their chance meeting, Victor realised he even did not verify that he was the son of the councillor he claimed was his father.
Auditing accounts
His employer was to arrive from Nairobi later that day to audit his accounts. He didn’t know how to explain the loss of Sh30,000 from his float. He revealed his folly to some of his friends.
When his employer came, an embarrassed Victor told him the whole truth. Since it was the first time he had lost money since he was employed, his employer was convinced but he decided that the money would be deducted from his salary for several months until it was fully paid.
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