I arrived at the Nairobi Hospital where Susan was on internship without even knowing how I got there manoeuvring through the Nairobi traffic. As it had been agreed the last time we had met, we were to go for a weekend at the Coast. That’s why I had gone to my travel agent and bumped into Kate.
I went straight to the Nairobi Hospital staff quarters and found Susan waiting for me.
Susan was as vibrant as ever. We kissed as though we had not been together four hours before. The kiss was wanting then needing. Smooth and delicate at first then rough; cold then warm. The mint taste of her mouth filled the air around us with her, and as the wisps of her smell rose up like smoke, we lost ourselves into each other’s world. It was the vibrating of my phone that interrupted us and brought us back to earth.
“Ignore it,” she said.
I checked the caller identity. I couldn’t. It was my boss, the MD UniStar Kenya. What the f***.
“I can’t. It’s my boss... job calls. Excuse me,” she stayed on the sofa, watching me and listening to my one sided conversation..
“Hello... yes ma’am. What? When? No. I don’t know anything of that sort. Please. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Really? You better tell me ‘coz I hear it from you. But how? I endorsed nothing. No, no, no, no… Maybe. So what do you want me to do? But I am going to... please don’t do this. The tickets are already... are you sure of what you’re saying? I just can’t. Okay. I’ll come over then.”
“What now?” Susan said once I was through.
“I don’t know, Sue. I’m being called to be told that I need to sign my resignation.”
“What? Why?”
“I have purportedly been found to have endorsed some cheques on behalf of the company that have been found to be fake…”
“But you can’t be called to sign your resignation. It is you who can tender in your resignation. Kwani it was written for you?”
“That’s how it seems. All what I have to do is sign…”
“But you can’t…”
“It’s the company policy, Susan,” I told her. “Once you are accused of anything, even without prior investigations, you have to resign…”
“Yes, but not to go sign a resignation. That’s unprocedural…”
“Susan, there are many things in that company that are not procedural, and the people who run it are very powerful. People whom you can’t fight…”
“So you’re just going to be…”
“These multinationals even control the government, my love. They influence policies, change laws, even put presidents to power. I am a fledgeling, a nothing.”
“You can’t be such a wimp. You know you have not done anything, expose the rot that is…”
“Nothing can be done, Sue. Believe me. It’s not what meets the eye. Either way I would have done it sooner or later. I couldn’t have stayed there.”
Susan wanted to argue more but the look on my face told her not to, not this one. She then said, “OK, we shall get through this together. You might as well turn the other cheek…”
“Please, Sue. Not this one.”
“When they persecute you in one town run away to another one. I assure you that you will not finish your work in all the towns of...” Susan’s sarcasm stung, but I did not lose it.
“Internal politics are at play here, and something else that could bring down the whole company right from Paris and New York. You think they will accept to have their empire brought down by a single man?” I said. “I refused to accept a cheque that was supposedly paid to us by TriStar, a ghost South African cosmetics company, to window-dress our accounts so we could win a government tender. That same day I was approached to sign cheques and LPOs for a bogus company that doesn’t exist. A powerful cartel of businessmen control this economy, and one of their tools is multinational corporations. You can’t just fight them. Things are going to be pretty slick from now on, but I have a plan, trust me.”
“You know better, Ken,” she said resignedly. “You’re the one who’s been telling me not to let emotions come in the way of my clear thinking. Please, don’t make hasty decisions.”
“I promise.”
I drove my BMW at fighter jet speed to the UniStar Kenya offices in Upper Hill where I found the MD waiting for me like a leopard. I knew all was not well from the look on her face.
And yes, my resignation was written for me. What I was expected to do was to sign it. I had proved to be incompetent for my job. Investigations were ongoing of the circumstances under which I tried to defraud the Barclays Bank of Kenya and UniStar Global of billions of shillings.
“I don’t remember doing such a thing if my memory serves me well. Fraud is a crime, and you know that. So is defamation…”
“Not really, Mr. Maina. What I’m saying is that your lack of cooperation is detrimental to the operation of this company. As a matter-of-fact, I cannot allow one individual to jeopardize the operations of this company. For God’s sake, we’ve a good name, Maina.
“UniStar is known world over. We have a reputation to be guarded at all costs. You know that better than anyone else, don’t you? You want to taint that name with purported claims of corruption, racketeering, funding of terrorism, and black market. You have no ground unless you can prove that beyond reasonable doubt. What you have isn’t incriminating yet but we both know what it can do to the company. You do not know what you’re getting yourself into. For your sake, and that of Susan, please back off, lie low and enjoy the fringe benefits the company gives you. This whole thing is more than you think.”
The mention of Susan made my head crack. “You leave Susan out of this, hear me?”
“Calm down, Ken. There is nothing to worry about…”
“So, I am not guilty of anything?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“You. I have already told you, stop poking your nose into where it shouldn’t.”
“Are you finished? And what if I am not about to do that?”
“Then I won’t be able to help you. In this life things aren’t what you want them to be. I can see that dumb head of yours is full of idealistic bullshit. You’re dreaming. The whole thing is a dream to you, but you need to wake up.”
“You know I have heard this for long. You want me to sign the resignation that you drafted for me? I am going to do it. I can’t be party to this.”
“Think about the one who recommended you. Solomon promised me that you’ll not disappoint us.”
“It’s about me, not Solomon, not anyone else. I can’t do this. I am quitting…”
“I can’t protect you while you are out there, Ken. We want you in with us, not out.”
“So this whole thing was a ruse to get to me, to threaten me with God knows what?”
“If it works, why not. You attempted to defraud UniStar Global over Ksh10b. Preliminary hearing would be on...”
“Please don’t tell me we will walk down that rabbit hole. Why don’t you just lay me off...?”
“We can’t just lay you off. A disgruntled employee can cause a scandal we can’t contain. But if you stay, you choose to work for the company, life would be good for you. Money, wealth, name it. If you append your signature on the dotted line, know that you are on your own.”
“These threats…”
“No one is threatening you. Are you ready to pay the price? You should listen to me. I’ve tried my level best, Mr. Maina.”
“You mean it was you...? You’re sending them to me? O my God!”
“Ken, enough of this. I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself. Just do what is required of you to do and everything is going to be alright. The choice is yours.”
I did not hesitate. “You want my answer? The answer is still no, N-O.”
“It’s your loss. It seems you’re still full of glum idealistic thoughts. When I first saw you I knew that that cute head of yours can be smarter than that but it never struck me that with time you’d be dumber. It seems there isn
’t much I can do for you.”
“Yeah, there isn’t much I can do for you too, Monica.”
CHAPTER 71
I sat in the office doing nothing but thinking. It seemed as though I lived in a world of thoughts. I had been in that goddamn office for a year now after a year of being the manager.
Despite the fact that the job had helped me go up in the pecking order of social classes and implanted me in the class of bourgeoisies, it had been a headache to me, and a mistake.
My problems started barely a year in the company. I was approached by a businessman who introduced himself as Samson Ndolo; a businessman based in Nairobi. How could I fail to have known him? He was the sensational Assistant PS in the Ministry of Gender and Culture and the secretary of the Catholic Justice and Reconciliation Commissioners. He specialized in electrical products and had joined Total Nutrition and Living Products (TNLP) network business group once it was introduced to him by his business associate Monica Kuria, my boss, the Managing Director UniStar, Kenya.
TNLP is one of the largest network marketing companies in the world, a manufacturing company with products such as health care, detergents, skin care, and herbal products. It uses the principles of network marketing where if you join, you invite other people to join, and they also invite other people to join and it goes on like that, like a carousel, and ultimately a web. You earn according to the size of your network and the bigger your network the more you earn. However, there are conditions. When you join TNLP, you must use their products and also sell them to get profits. The more you sell the more you earn. The products are quite expensive and this has seen many a people reluctant to buy them.
Samson had talked of TNLP products nonsense and how they helped one become not only healthy but also wealthy. He claimed to have a deal that would make me the most coveted guy by companies not only in East and Central Africa, but in the whole of Africa. The deal, according to him, was simple. I push the proposal up to the MD to have some TNLP products incorporated with some of our products during production, especially the skin care products. Since people are reluctant to use the TNLP products because they are expensive, they are good for health, weight loss and skin care, the products would ultimately get to the consumers but with UniStar brand.
When I thought of it, in this way, we would provide ready market for the TNLP products distributors at the same time compromising the quality of our products. Only a year before it was in the news that TNLP was a scam, a kind of a cabal for money racketeering where one earned hundreds of thousands by doing nothing. When I asked him why he did not go straight to his friend the MD he said that my signature was needed so as not to raise suspicion.
“But that is cheating our consumers,” I said. “I don’t like the idea. One day it will come back to me,” I had said.
“This isn’t black market or racketeering,” he said with all innocence plastered on his craggy face.
Of course. You’re a man of God, and I should take your word for the truth.
I turned him down fearing that maybe it could be hazardous to our consumers once they realized, or maybe the bureau of standards would have grounds to sue the company. It would be the scam of the century and I did not think I would be around to extricate myself from the quagmire. He came three more times and my answer was still no. I talked with the MD and she played dumb or so I thought. She swore she didn’t even know him and thus I was not to do something that might jeopardize UniStar. That gave me more reason to turn the guy down even after offering two million shillings as bribe.
Barely four months later I was transferred (read demoted) to the Sales and Marketing Department. It was then that the man from the production department came. The deal was accepted and they were doing what Samson had told me. What the production guy wanted was me to do all the best in marketing those products from TNLP now bearing the UniStar brand.
“How could I do that? You know the ethics of...”
“Fuck ethics, Ken. All we want to do is make money. This guy is paying well.”
“What about our consumers out there? It could be...”
“Don’t worry about that. Everything is well taken care of.”
That was the beginning of everything. The man who took my position as the manager was not even putting effort to hide it. Unendorsed cheques ended up accepted and paid by the banks, ghost companies paid for products they did not procure and the same money ended up in offshore banks accounts, or in other words the company’s accounts were conduits for monies to unknown accounts in the international market. Turnover, though on an upward scale, was dismal. They used computer software to modify and fake performance index that no auditor could spot.
The new manager and his ilk had camaraderie with people whom I came to know later were behind everything that was going wrong in the country; economically that is. They controlled everything through the Capital Markets Authority, the Nairobi Stock Exchange, the Central Bank, and the private sector.
Since I had vowed not to be corrupted by anything in this world after my stint in crime, I strappingly disapproved these actions though I defended to death their right to do it.
I had been a robber before and I did not want to continue with that life I had left a million miles away. It was one promise I made not only to myself but also to God that day Susan took me to confess to the priest after she was sure I was penitent. Everyone to whom I complained to told me to do myself some good with the opportunity at hand because it would never happen again in life, and that’s when I knew why everything was so sturdy extreme and out of hand.
I became a threat and I had to be removed. I figured that I was the one to take the fall for everything, and that’s why I had to resign and brace myself for trial. If I won the case, I would have the last laugh. But if everything backfired, I would rot in jail where I belonged.
I glowered at the spiral bound papers on my desk and took in a deep breath. What I was expected to do was just to sign and I was through with UniStar. Susan’s voice reverberated deep inside me, “...please, don’t make hasty decisions.”
It was not a decision I was trying to make now. I had made it a long time ago. I was to do it anyways.
It was in the news that evening. My resignation news was headline in all TV stations. A statement from UniStar headquarters in France had mandated the managerial board to straighten things up immediately because the operations of any subsidiary of the company affected the operations of the whole.
We were watching the CTV’s nine o’clock prime news at the Mombasa’s Hotel Sapphire. I was with Susan, the first person I ran to when all hell started to break loose. Now she was mired with me in the mess. She had promised to.
CHAPTER 72
2008;
“How can you be so certain, Samson?” she asked quietly.
Samson stared at her with covert admiration of her primitive pessimism. She was wearing an exquisitely cut skirt suit that showed off her menopausal small bosom and matronly hips. The setting Nairobi sun gave the milieu they were in a skittish neutral glow. He fiddled with his wineglass which seemed to enumerate his point. He had never been uncertain in his life.
“Come on Mona, you don’t mean now you doubt. We’ve undergone too much together for you to be uncertain. Have I ever let you down? Trust me. I’m good at tying up loose ends.”
“Please, don’t do that.”
“Not what you think.”
“If he happens to have an accident it would be too coincidental. We’ll have the public pointing fingers at us. There’re some things that can’t happen so soon.”
“I understand your concern, but just trust me. Up to now the defence has not been able to convince the court that he’s not guilty of those crimes.”
Monica sighed. For one month now she had hoped that this would end. Though she remained calm and composed in the face of the most onerous and rigorous turn of events, she couldn’t help having this strange feeling that something was not on the right track somewhere.
&nbs
p; “Secondly,” Samson sipped his Martini before continuing. “His records. He’s one of the most wanted criminals in the country, a desperado with a string of violent crimes to his discredit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever heard of Mavis gang?”
“No.”
“Arrrrgh! Are you the only one who doesn’t know? Anyway, I’ll tell you.”
Monica listened as Samson narrated everything he knew about this Mr. Maina. Samson had done all he could to dig everything up about him. The man had no ground for his defence.
“And if that’s so, he’s just a suspect. Nothing incriminating was found,” she said once he was finished. “One is innocent till proven guilty.”
“On the contrary, Mona. He’s guilty until proven innocent. I have first-hand info about this guy. Believe me; my sources are impeccable. Still his past life would count against him so long as once he was a hard incorrigible criminal. Thirdly, Mona, the defence has not done anything to convince, beyond reasonable doubt, that he did not commit the crimes.”
“You seem so sure about this Sam, but I’ve got this feeling that we’re losing it. Haven’t you asked yourself why the defence hasn’t introduced any witnesses up to this moment? I fear this is a setup.”
“By whom? Who can conspire against us? Nobody knows about us; plus none of us can jeopardize G8.”
“He knows, Sam. He’s the only one off the hook who knows. He can set us up. He’s clever than you think. And for your information, he’s a degree in criminology and private investigation from the Penn Foster University and now he’s doing his masters.”
Now, that got to his hub. For the first time Samson felt fear, loss, and uncertainty.
CHAPTER 73
Twisted Times: Son of Man (Twisted Times Trilogy Book 1) Page 15