My Confession- How I was Conned by some very crafty men in Nairobi- A must read for all Kenyans

I used to think of myself as a shrewd man of business. I believed that the sun would freeze before any conman got a cent from me. This confidence was deflated one lazy afternoon when three men came to my office posing as clients. Two of them were Kenyans and the third was a foreigner or may be his strange accident was the work of many years of practice. I will never know.

It had been a tough time in business and a client drought was ranging. The visitation by the three men couldn’t have come at a more opportune moment. The chief conman told me that they had been referred to me by a Mwangi. Given the desperation I was in I didn’t even bother to ask them which Mwangi was this in any case I knew of many Mwangis.
To cut the long story short the guy’s narrative was that the foreigner was from Botswana and wanted to invest in the country and they therefore wanted to imbibe from my fountain of knowledge. They were clients seeking consultancy services. It was a prayer answered.

Before we could discuss they said that they had a small matter that needed to be sorted so that we can begin work proper. Apparently they had imported some gold and it was held up by customs at the Namanga border point as they couldn’t clear the import duty due to shortage of funds. After building their case as convincingly as they could we agreed to meet the following day at a city hotel.

We spoke over the phone and agreed where to meet and then choose a hotel where we could transact. Upon our meeting we proceeded to the hotel. It is when we were seated that one of the guys opened a bag which he was carrying. It was full of money. This is was the money that was to pay for the import duty but it was not enough.

That is when I was convinced they meant business and I gave my contribution of KShs 3,000 and promised them to look for more when we meet the following day. Fortunately I had no money to give and I abhor borrowing. When I called them to inform that I hadn’t gotten the funds yet the phone was like “the mobile subscriber cannot be reached.” The rest as they say is the stuff of history.

Questions may be asked as to why one can be bitter about losing KShs 3,000. Well this was the only amount that stood between me and poverty. It was all I had so I had literally lost everything. Today I think of the incident and smile at my foolishness. Yet if I had given them a tidy sum I would probably not be alive to reminisce about the folly of that moment. As you laugh at me or with me remember that even the most experienced of businessmen get conned from time to time. That is why the Milimani Commercial courts are yet to run out of business to transact

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