It was Sunday 9th of March 2008 and I was off to Church.
I took a matatu that was to go to Mombasa Road. I was seated in the second-last row. The matatu stopped outside Imara Daima to get more passengers. Two young men crossed the road and came in.
One sat in front of me, but the guy he had come in with sat next to me on my left. i noticed that coz usually when people come in together, they sit together, but whatever. Another guy crossed the road and got in too. I noticed him coz he was wearing shorts and was a little bit fat. i thought he looked like a big baby. The seat next to the guy who was in front of me was still vacant, but the fat guy did not take it. Instead, he went and sat in the last row and directly behind me. I noticed that as well coz usually guys don't like sitting in the last row. I thought Kwani guys don't want to sit with this guy? Then the guy sitting next to me took a bag or something from the seat next to his pal. I though maybe that bag was the reason guys were not sitting there, but I did not give it too much thought.
The fat guy behind me started talking on his phone (was he really?) rather loudly. When he finished, he started singing/humming along the music that was playing in the mat.
When we had driven along a while, the fat guy behind me tapped the guy in front of me and said something like "Ndio hao." Panic! Activity! Frantic movement! Apparent searching for seatbelts! "Kwani ni nini?" i asked my seatmate.
"Conductor amesema kuna polisi hapo mbele." Ai! I didn't hear the conductor saying anything, but not being keen on being arrested again, I decided to belt up. So i stared looking for my seatbelt as my seatmate also was frantically turning this way and that. "Yako iko hii side," Fat Guy offered. Meanwhile, I caught glimpses of the guy sitting next to me covering his hand that was between us with the bag he had gotten from his pal, but I didn't think much of it (I can be slow, eh?).
Eventually I belted up (actually I think Fat Guy gave me the missing part of the belt) and calm returned. Then i realised what the game plan had been. The guy on my left had been trying to pull my wallet out of my jeans pocket. He had actually moved it a bit. apparently, I had not taken Fat Guy's tip to look for my seat belt to my right and had thus foiled their plan.
I was tempted to tell the guy next to me something like "Nice try. better luck next time", but I didn't.
Was glad I didn't lose the money. Would have been unable to go to the Safari Walk as we did that afternoon.