There are genuine street beggars who need help. However, how others use the handouts leaves a lot to be desired. They misuse these proceeds from public sympathy by ‘living large’. Also, some are not genuine paupers; they are actually conmen who have used handouts from poor Kenyans to, among other things, buy plots and build houses, but still beg for a living without their benefactors being any wiser, Crazy Monday has discovered.
It is unfortunate that this sad state of affairs has lured more and more crooks, especially in Nairobi, into abusing Kenyans’ generosity. They now act up, complete with fake limps, pretending to be disabled to win sympathy, and masquerade as full-time beggars. And they are making a killing out of it.
Pray, why would a crippled beggar, like a certain Muchiri who is normally stationed along Nairobi’s Tom Mboya Street, opposite Imenti House, don the latest fashion and chains? Or have the coolest and, of course, expensive haircuts, complete with chemically relaxed hair? Or, better yet, own a smart phone which he, once in a while, whips out of his pocket to check the time or reply to text messages? This is a scandal?
Man eateth where he worketh
Well, it is said ‘man eateth where he worketh’, but stumbling upon a well-known beggar having a ball, treating himself to an expensive meal and quaffing choice drinks and wines doesn’t sit well with many people.
You see that beggar you give handouts to on the streets, he could actually be a proud owner of several parcels of land or plots. In fact, he could be that landlord of yours whom you’ve never met, and only pays rent through an agent.
What’s more, unlike you, poor sod, perhaps only ‘covered by the blood of Christ’, don’t be surprised to learn that some of the ‘beggars’ with whom you, out of generosity, share your hard-earned money have an insurance cover!
Point is, it might annoy some Kenyans to learn that some of the ‘beggars’ they help on the streets, daily, actually lead better lives than them. Painful but very true. But folks, as Mario Puzo would put it, it’s nothing personal, it’s just business.
One Joseph Waweru, a Nairobi-based beggar, cannot do with a simple breakfast like the majority of Kenyans. Courtesy of his unsuspecting benefactors. Waweru boasts to a tipster who worked with this writer on this report that he starts his day with “a heavy breakfast”.
Kenyans willing to sympathise
“This job entails talking all day. And if you don’t take a good breakfast, my friend you will run out of saliva and do a shoddy job,” says Waweru playfully, yet in a boastful manner to our informer. This lifestyle, he says, is not about to end any time soon, so long as Kenyans are still willing to sympathise and bless him with a few shillings every day.
Curious Kenyans must be asking who the hell is this Waweru? Well, Waweru was once a notorious carjacker who terrorised motorists mostly along Thika Road at the beginning of this millennium. During his days as a gangster, together with accomplices, Waweru used to steal cars and sell them in Tanzania.
One day in mid-2006, they were ambushed, trying to break into a stationery car at Ngara and beaten by a mob. In fact, one of his colleagues died, but together with another partner in the crime Waweru escaped.
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