Barter Trade
“You can frown all you want but I know you liked it. It's all you think about all day you Lakeside slut," Steve Ndegwa said with a mischievous grin across his face. He stretched his right hand and loudly spanked her naked buttocks. She recoiled away from him and wrapped herself with the dusty, thick blue blanket.
Steve grabbed a faded green and damp rug of a towel full of holes then left for a quick bath in the common bathroom. Unlike other tenants, Steve Ndegwa, the 5ft 7, light skinned and vulgar 25-year old gang leader never queued. After ten minutes, he walked out fresh and clean, returned to his 10x10 single room then wore a blue T-shirt with an image of John Cena and a pair of black jeans.
“I thought you had already left," he mocked her. “Why are you still here yet you were complaining last night? When will you leave?" He scoffed as hot tears welled up inside her pair of large, beautiful conspicuously white eyes. Captivity silently tore down her soul like a deadly cancer. Steve lit a cigarette, grabbed his trademark red cap from his worn out brown couch and left for a new day at 8:30 AM. Lois Awinja slowly crawled out of Steve's bed, sat on the edge and sobbed loudly out of bitterness and depression. She cried until she ran out of breath and lay naked and helpless on the muddy looking bed sheets that were once white.
"Ndegwa, how are you?"
“I’m still alive and kicking you son of a bitch!" Steve bumped fists with a short, dark skinned lad armed with a bow and quiver of arrows strapped across his back. He exchanged greetings with 18 young men aged between 17-28 years. Members of the Mount Kenya mafia. They all hailed from Central Kenya, home of the prestigious and snow capped Mount Kenya. The outfit was in charge of security within the Kikuyu, Meru and Embu sections of the vast Mathare slums valley. The Kikuyu section began from the left side of the main bus stop and stretched 4 square kilometers down the slope towards the distinct, murky and over polluted Nairobi River. Steve and his gang barricaded the main entrance path into their ethnic community using six steel drums filled with sand.
Two tall, dark skinned men armed with bows and arrows were spotted about twenty meters from the gate. As they drew closer, their Luo physical characteristics became visible and caused a heightened state of alertness among Steve's men.
"Stop right there! What do you want?" Steve raised his hand authoritatively like a traffic policeman.
“We were sent by Owino. He wants to talk to you on the phone if you don't mind," a man with wide nostrils in an orange T-shirt responded.
"Talk about what?" Steve asked with his nose cringed contemptuously.
“Let me call him then he will tell you himself."
The man in an Orange T-shirt took out his battered, black Nokia 1200 then called Owino. He immediately handed his phone over to their rivals' foot soldiers. Steve's mouth was contorted on one side, an open display of skepticism as he reached for the phone.
“Hello," he answered curtly.
“Steve, my brother from another mother. How are you?" Owino greeted him. He had a deep voice yet a calm demeanor.
“How dare you call me your brother you uncircumcised fool? What do you want?"
“I understand you have one of our women held hostage in your territory. Her name is Lois Awinja. I'm requesting you to let her go out of respect," Owino replied.
“I don't know what you are talking about. I personally made sure all your filthy people are either dead or fled back to Lake Victoria," The Mount Kenya mafia don replied with an air of pride.
Owino cleared his throat and replied, “The lady sent a text message to her mother three days ago. Listen to me Ndegwa, we've shed too much blood already. Just let her go and I will spare your fellow Kikuyus in my community."
“Okay, no problem. You can have her back."
“Thank you Steve.”
“Let them in," Steve ordered his men and they stepped aside for the two armed Luo men.
Owino’s men were barely past the barrier when Steve suddenly halted them. He turned to a couple of his men and said, “Take their weapons then take them to my house." They obliged and walked further accompanied by two men armed with long, razor sharp machetes and intimidating bloodshot eyes. Steve waited until they were past the steep left corner that snaked inside the mud shanties.
“Go teach those stupid uncircumcised monkeys a lesson," he ordered. His men immediately dashed down the dusty path then caught up with Owino's men at the common dumpsite.
“This way," A tall, chocolate skinned stout man with a stray left eye pointed towards a narrow and dingy path on their left. Two of Steve's men led the way and the tensed Luo men followed sandwiched between the first pair and the other men that had just caught up with them. The Mount Kenya Mafia members halted abruptly and turned to face their potential victims. Their menacing stone faces revealed their hidden sinister intentions as the Luos stared back, wide eyed with fear registered all over their faces.
“You think you were just going to walk in and out of here in one piece?" The man with a stray eye sneered.
“Hey...hey...there's no need for this. We are sorry for being so dumb," The wide nosed man in an orange T-shirt begged for mercy. His arms were stretched outwardly in surrender.
“Take off that T-shirt and kneel down!" The defiant Kikuyu ordered and instantly smacked his victim's face with a stiff backhand.
Sensing imminent danger, the Luo's comrade pretended to kneel while he secretly reached for a concealed penknife inside his black Caterpillar boot. With incredible swiftness, the cornered Luo lunged forward and deeply slashed the right arm of the Kikuyu behind him then went for his attacker’s throat. Unfortunately, his opponent grabbed his wrist and delivered a vicious head butt to the attacking Luo's wide nose. As the victim cupped his bleeding nose with both hands, one of Steve's men quickly took out a long black whip made from hardened rubber. He ruthlessly landed powerful lashes across the victims’ exposed backs and left fresh, swollen welts with each lash of his whip. His fellow Kikuyu foot soldiers also pulled out similar whips tucked in their waists while the injured comrade with a profusely bleeding right arm bitterly stomped down his attacker's face.