After my misadventure as a fake village guide, I learned an important lesson—some mistakes don’t just disappear; they get a front-page feature in Shamakhokho village gossip network.
Mama Atoti, the village’s walking radio station, made sure my failure became breaking news
By sundown, Shamakhokho had several versions of my disaster.
Some said I had led tourists into a swamp, others swore I mistook a cow for a wild buffalo and ran for my life.
The worst version?
That I was actually a Nairobi conman sent to mislead innocent villagers.
"Ule kijana alijifanya tour guide? Sasa ni mkora wa jji!" (That boy who pretended to be a tour guide? Turns out he’s a city fraudster!)
By the next morning, even boda boda riders had nicknames for me.
"Shimonjero mpya safari gani leo? Unatupeleka kwa simba ama kwa chui?" (Our new Shimonjero, what’s the plan today? Are you taking us to lions or leopards?)
I had officially lost my dignity.
But hunger has a way of humbling a man’s ego.
I needed a new hustle and had to get it very fast.
That’s when I turned to Shimonjero’s last known occupation—sand mining.
Now, let me tell you something about sand mining.
For years, young men had waded into the river, shoveling sand under the scorching sun, earning peanuts while the middlemen and lorry owners made the real money.
I knew one thing for sure—I wasn’t about to break my back in that river again.
I had a better plan.
I studied how things worked and here were my conclusions:
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Lorry drivers came looking for sand.
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Sand miners dug it out of the river, carried it to the roadside, and loaded it onto the trucks.
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Middlemen negotiated deals, connected miners with the lorry drivers, and took their cut.
The miners were too tired to bargain, and the lorry drivers hated waiting.
That’s where I saw my opportunity.
What if I handled the deals, found lorry drivers, and gave the miners guaranteed work?
No more sweating in the river—just negotiating and collecting my cut.
It sounded perfect right?
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Recruit young guys to do the digging.
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Negotiate directly with lorry drivers and connect them to my team.
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Take a commission for every successful deal.
Simple, smart, and efficient.
I started by convincing a few sand miners to let me handle the negotiations.
At first, they laughed.
"Wewe hujui hii biashara buda!" (You don’t know this business!)
But when I brought in a lorry driver and sealed a deal in under ten minutes, their laughter stopped.
For the first time, I made Ksh 500 in one go—five times more than what Shimonjero escaped with after leaving me with pain after my first attempt in the river.
My plan was working.
I was in business.
The money was coming in, and my name was starting to carry weight.
I was no longer just another struggling young man in Shamakhokho—I was a businessman.
As you know, success attracts attention.
And in Shamakhokho, not all attention is good.
At first, the miners were happy with the extra work. But soon, some started questioning things.
"Wewe hauchimbi, na unataka pesa yetu?" (You don’t even dig, and you want our money?)
They didn’t like the fact that I was making more than them while they did the hard work.
One afternoon, as I was pocketing my commission, a miner called Barasa folded his arms and said,
"Kijana kama unataka pesa, shuka kwa mto uchimbe na sisi......
TO BE CONTINUED
Continues...
