(All my hekayas are true life lived experiences,and I can table proof if called upon to do so.).
In the course of my early employement life,for the guys following so far, we used to clear lots of used imported vehicles from Japan and UAE and park them at coast car park. ( Coast car park was and is still behind mombasa nssf plaza).
This means we had to deal with a lot of guys asking for the on road delivery jobs. We used to make sure that atleast we had several cars on fridays, saturdays and sundays…The delivery business was very lucrative. You would be paid sh1500 to deliver a vehicle to Nairibo. However, you would also carry passangers on the way, fare being sh500 to Nairobi…So if you add up the maths, the larger the seating capacity of the vehicle the higher the demand. The rosa and civilian buses were in high demand then. We would sometimes on weekends do trips every day and make alot of money. Them days their were no speed checks…you would find a driver doing 200km on the road .leaving mombasa at 4-5am…we would deliver the vehicles in nbi by 11-12pm…either book a 2pm return bus to mombasa or have fun in nbi till 10pm night buses departure
Leaving mombasa on several occassion of 5 to 10 convoys, I would be behind for obvious reasons…what uses to bafle me is by the time we stop over at voi, I would find some drivers already drinking, and I had to whip them to continue on the journey.
i used to warn them and urge them to drink once we have arrived and delivered in Nairobi.
So at one time on arriving at Mutito Andei…(half way to and from Msa-Nbi) I couldnt locate five drivers…I waited for them and was very agigated…we had to make a U turn with my car to go back en-route and try and locate them.
On reaching voi, we found a scene made from hell. From what I gathered later, this is what happened.
Some ladies from Tanzania had rented some lodgings and had been servicing drivers on short time basis. When you went in for service, after finishing your business, on paying the sh200 you had agreed on, they would tell you in kiswahili.
“Sawa tu kaka, lakini utarudi hapa hapa”
That was a veiled threat that the naive drivers wouldnt understand. On driving for like 2km the drivers would feel the urge to urinate, stopping on the roadside, zipping down…and walla…nothing, ka put…no machine…flat skin…
Urge to urinate is overwhelming, and no Githugumii…hahahahahaha…it was hilarios to say the least. According to my drivers, thats exactly when the ladies words rung on their minds…" utarudi hapa hapa".
Going back, the ladies were demanding sh2000 from each driver. So this is the scene that confronted me on arriving back at voi…
I had to negitiate and pay sh500 for each driver, remember they had paid sh200…so paying sh700 for short time then was unhead of and damn expensive.
My mandate was to deliver vehicles and I was upset timewas running out, but i was assured by the locals that wamechokeshwa na tabia za hao malaya…
So off we went and somehow managed to deliver without any more dramas.
On the subsequent weekend delivery I intentionaly stopped over at voi to make sure non of my drivers mad any more blunders.and was told that actually the DC had to intervene and depot the ladies back to TZ. I was informed the issue had blown out of proposions and the truck drivers and the locals had ganged up ready to lyench the ladies…
Wonders of this world…in my hay day, we delivered vehicles to far flang areas as Kampals, s sudan, kigali…Congo…wawawa…things iv seen with my eyes…more coming.
N:B…typing on phone on arrival from a long journey…E.&O.E (legends will understand)