As I always say, crime does not pay

DEAR Nephew Milambo

Greetings from this confused city, where sirens and fast motorcades is the order of the day.

My dear son, I hope that the presence of Limatunda has been watching over you and your young family, and that the ancestors led by Chief Mirambo have protected you from calamities.

I also hope that the people of my beloved Ukumbisiganga are all doing okay, and that the ancestors in their peaceful place have been busy providing divine protection to all of them.

Here in the city life is still the same my dear boy, with hopes that soon the gods of rain are going to bless us with some much awaited showers, and some terrible heat most of the time, but not that we are complaining, I believe it is the will of the superior beings.

My dear boy, I have to inform you that a few days ago me and your aunt decided to go to Zanzibar, that place which is famous for its coastal Taarab music, and where veteran Bi Kidude reigned supreme.

It is now two days since me and your aunt returned from that place where people seem to be in no particular hurry, and the way people speak sounds like music to the ears.

It was a very good experience for me and your aunt my dear boy, and because your dear aunt is somehow crafty, she took me to places which, for a curious observer, might think that we were in our honey moon……..like dragging me to Nakupenda Beach in stone Town.

We also went to a place called Cannibal Party somewhere called Pwani Mchangani, and for a moment I nearly cursed the gods for my few teeth remaining in my mouth, because there was plenty of meat to chew, but I only ended up chewing on several soft pieces…..for hours!

Anyway, we had fun my dear boy, and now we are back in this confused city, and sometimes the heat is so intense I feel like stepping into the refrigerator for a few minutes just to cool myself.

But otherwise life is just normal here, apart from the fact that when we came back, we were met with some very sad news, and this was in the form of the untimely demise of your friend, Sammy the Psycho.

My dear nephew, I have all the reason to believe that Sammy was a very good friend of yours, and this is because of the countless times you brought him home when you were here during your visit.

I remember the last time you came with him just before you left for Tabora, and I told you that I was not very comfortable with your friend, because rumour had it that he was a thug. We learned later that he was also a member of ‘Panya Road’, those young rascals who have been terrorising some parts of this confused city.

Anyway son, the young fellow is no more, and he suffered a very violent death, I am sad to inform you, because his life was put to an end in the hands of an angry mob, and not from his evil activities as a rodent.

You see, it happens that Sammy’s father is a very good friend of mine, and when we came back from Zanzibar and we were informed of the death of his son, I and your aunt went straight to his house, and we found him sitting forlornly outside in the compound.

He told us everything that happened to his boy until he met his death, and informed us that his boy fell into the hands of the irate mob after he was involved in a botched robbery.

You see, according to his father, the boy and one of his cohorts were riding on a motorcycle when they attempted to rob a Chinese woman of an unspecified amount of money, but while they were trying to get away, the front tire of the motorcycle hit a stone and sent the two of them flying.

The crowd which had been alerted by the shrill cries of the Chinese woman was soon upon them, and before lynching them they made sure that they administer a serious dose of beating. My dear nephew, the boy’s father is very much affected by the whole episode, considering that Sammy was his only boy in his family, and he had great hopes on the boy, but they are now all gone.

According to the distraught father, it was established that the boy had been involved in so many crimes in and outside our estate, including being a member of the rodent ‘panya’ group, and unfortunately, because they say that a thief has only 40 days, his 40th day came sooner than he expected.

I thank Limatunda that all this has happened while you are safely in Ukumbisiganga with your family as you wait for the birth of your second child, because the sort of company you kept here would have caused you and eventually us some problems.

They buried the boy a few days before we came back, and the father volunteered to take me to the grave of his fallen son, but I gently declined, because that would have been unfair to him.

Anyway, that is life in this confused city my dear son, people opt for very easy means to acquire money, and they don’t care whether they shed innocent blood in the process.

I know the news will definitely shock you, and I know you will take time to grieve for your fallen buddy, but as your elder I have to tell you that if indeed he was involved in crime, then he deserved what befell him, because people are tired of falling victims to such crooks.

Please pass my greetings to all my people in my beloved Ukumbisiganga, and tell them that although I am away physically, my heart remains with them, and I hope that soon the ancestors will allow me to set foot in my village.

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