The Ephramite

WHATS WITH THE MANY THEFTS??

Thefts have been more rampant lately in my neighbourhood. Are Kayihura’s boys sleeping?? First we had someone sneaking into our offices, the boss’ office particularly and making off with his laptop computer. It had very many relevant documents. If he is reading this I will have him know that I feel so bad that such a thing had to happen to him. Am sure there are others more deserving of such an act of depravity than him. Then one of my very close friends, Chris, after helping another friend with some software installations at the friends place, left, forgetting his phone behind, and it was taken. The friend whom he had visited had no idea how such a thing had happened. Chris, if you are reading this, I am also very sad that it happened to you, I know what that bad boy meant to you. The things you did with him, they could build a nation. Not the kind of things funny funny kids of this day use their phones for, like excessive selfies, and unproductive social media. That guy was like a work companion to you. I hope the data is at least retrieved. Whoever did this, may lightning strike you down.

I am still mourning the losses incurred by my boss, and my good friend, and the mourning is interrupted with another peculiar theft in my neighbourhood.  Someone was robbed before his eyes and he could do nothing about it, so this gentleman leaves his home for a normal work day as usual, let’s call this chap tony. Tony is a friendly guy, talks to everyone, greets when he has the chance, and wastes no opportunity in wishing you a goodnight if he bumped into you in the night.  He works late, and is walking the hill that leads to his place. He meets a group of three men, ok, one in the party was about seventeen, but he carried a gas cylinder of 16kgs, so he is a man. They carried a box like side board, a fan, among other things that their hands could hold.  Tony, being the charming guy, greets them, off course he could not make out their faces, and asks, ‘eh, nga mwe mu ssengukka kiiro’ Meaning, ‘as you guys are shifting in the night. These guys simply said, ‘anti emiriimo’ meaning that work had held them up the whole day and they had to shift in the night.

They move on to their different directions. Tony reaches home, it’s about nine thirty in the night. He finds his door shut, but the lock had been tampered with. He did not need the key to access the place. He opened the door, turns on the light. He clears his eyes, hoping he was wrong, but it was all before him. An empty house. All that was left was the set of saucepans in the kitchen, and the bed without a mattress or bedding. He is in shock, confused, startled. He screams out loud, some of his neighbours come to his place. It is hard to console a mature man, laughing and crying, or screaming you know.

Tony had met the thieves that took his things. He kept saying ‘nabalabye, nbalabye,’ meaning, ‘I saw them, I saw them’ laughing at the irony himself and yet in evident pain from his loss. Turns out that the three guys he had met were his assailants. He had greeted the men that were shifting. All he did not realise was that they were shifting with his things, not theirs.  The fact that he had even met these guys brewed mixed sentiment in me. I knew not whether to feel sad or treat this event as humour. So, I laughed at the irony of the situation, then sympathised.