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Forum => Kenya Discussion => Topic started by: GeeMail on February 03, 2019, 10:05:54 PM
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Testimony of journalist Wambui Mwangi Wokabi after her kidnapping ordeal....
I Wambui Mwangi Wokabi, am a living testimony that God is alive. He is here with us. I was hijacked by armed robbers on Wednesday 30th January 2019 on my way from Kijabe AIC hosp. I was driving a Toyota Premio KBZ 859B metallic Silver.
I had just finished eating mahindi Choma that I had bought on my way. Upon reaching Kiracha area where the Kamae forest begins, I was flagged to stop by two police men who were clad in full police uniform and branded yellow jackets.
They were in the company of another man who was not in uniform, he was in a red T-shir. A navy blue car that was seemingly to be going to the direction I was coming from had also stopped on the road.
I thought they had been stopped by the officers just like me. I innocently obliged and one of them asked me why I was overspeeding. "Madam, kwa nini unakimbia? " I replied "mimi sijakimbia kwa sababu hata hii barabara imejaa mashimo." I am not overspeeding because this road is full of potholes. "Then bring your driving licence." The officer demanded.
I stretched my left hand to get the DL from my laptop bag that was at the back seat. Before I could unzip the bag, I realized that the officer had his hand on the car unlock key, he ordered me to step out of the vehicle saying "You're under arrest" I asked him, over what? What have I done?
By then he was already holding my hand and it is at this point I had a hunch that these were robbers. I asked him to allow me pick my phone and porche. I was whisked to a waiting car and got sandwiched between the two uniformed officers.
The one on my right hand ordered me to surrender my car key which I obliged. He ordered me to explain where the cut off for the car was which I did through descriptions as he handed the car key to the man who was in a red T-shirt. He closed the door and asked me to introduce myself. "madam unaitwa nani? " Naitwa "Wambui" I replied.
On mentioning my name, he immediately changed the language and started talking to me in Kikuyu. "Rîu Wambui rî, ithuî tûtirî borithi. Ithûî túrî mîici na wîra wiitû nî kûiya na kûraga." Now Wambui, we are not police officers. We are thieves and our job is to steal and kill.
I felt a cold shiver down my spine. I started crying and I was scolded with a stern warning that if I will not behave as if we are together and nothing that has happened, I will face the music.
The thief on my right handed me a handkerchief and I wiped my tears and pretended that all was well. By then, the vehicle was being driven towards Kamae where I had come from. They covered my head with a headgear that covered even my face but I pleaded with them not to cover my nose.
They folded it in a way that my nose was safe telling me that they can't allow me to die before they execute their mission. I could tell that the vehicle left the tarmac and we were driving on a rough road. I was ordered to keep my eyes closed even if I had been covered.
They asked for my Equity Bank ATM Pin. I could hear the one on the right side communicate with the thief who was handed my car key. Immediately he finished talking to him, he ordered to tell them where I work without lying. I told him that now that you warned me against lying, I will tell you the truth that I am a reporter and a news correspondent based in Murang'a.
On hearing that, he pulled a pistol from his waist and scolded, "You media people are good at reporting that we carry toys. Is this one here a toy gun? He asked me while cocking the gun and I closed my eyes pleading to him that I am ready to do as he orders and thus I have never reported about robbery.
The one on the left also removed his pistol and told me to behave nicely that my life is based in how I will behave. The caller from the other end would ask for more time to get to his destination. The robber on my right seemed to be their commander in chief.
He would defy his driver's proposal to have me lie on the floor of that car. I remember at some point they quarreled and the commander told the driver, "We can't steal everything from her and then leave her with health problems. That is inhuman!" The driver felt offended and replied to his commander that "I hope you will not let us be deseived by this girl's sweet tongue."
The commander told him to keep driving and I could use my hand to pat him as a way of saying thank you. It reached a point I moved my right hand at the back and held on my spine. By the way, Iwas coming from Kijabe hosp for my clinic with a spinal surgeon. It's a treatment I started on August last year and in all this, I have seen God healing me.
All my health records including the MRI were in my car. Back to my story in the hands of robbers. I narrated my spinal cord illness story to their commander coz the one on the left seemed uninterested and had moved to the co-driver seat leaving me at the back left and the commander at the back right.
We told a lot of stories, at some point we could laugh but my laughter would be cut short on remembering that I was probably laughing my last in this life. My back pain accelerated and I could not relax anymore.
The commander dint raise any alarm. He took it easy with me but the thief on the co-driver's seat suddenly shouted "Wee gathee tiga kwîhe mûhiki ûyû! Úyú agútwîka gîcanjama." You boss! Stop giving his woman too much freedom.
She might cause us some trouble". The commander replied to him, "just let her be. She is very cooperative". They agreed to take me to a tour which I did not understand what it meant. I pleaded with them not to kill me and again, my good and considerate thief told me, "I don't make promises but I promised not to kill you.
So, can you relax!" I apologized. Alas! I smelled a very strong stench of something decomposing. I started vomiting and my good thief gave me a carrier bag to vomit in. He commended me for my cooperation saying am one of a kind. However, he warned me that if I dare trick him with my goodness, they will kill and leave me to rot in the forest.
I told him that he only needs to tell me the guidelines or the do's and donts so that I don't mess up. In fact, I asked him to tell me if he sees me make a mistake or even sit in an awkward position. He told me that he is a good teacher in that and would guide me accordingly.
Then he engaged me in a Q and A. "Are we bad people?" I said no. "But we have stolen from you?" I replied that no earthly material is compared to human life and since they had spared my life, that shows they are good people. "Wambui you are a very wise girl." We all laughed at the joke.
Much of the stories we told surrounded numerous theft they conducted and how the victims behaved. The vehicle stopped at some point and the good commander ordered the co-driver thief to buy me some drinking water since I was still vomiting.
He bought water for everyone in the car but I did not drink mine due to vomiting. The commander apologized for making me go through such ordeal and he narrated to me stories that he is an engineer who is jobless but the robbery job is well paying. He told me that he has heavily invested and his wife who coincidentally is called Wambui like me thinks that the husband is a private investor and an interprenuer.
We all laughed. All this time, we were still on the move. The car stopped severally and one of the thieves would come out and make a call, visit an ATM or urinate. I kept on pleading to them not to kill me. I told them I had a sick child in the hospital and my husband was unwell, so killing or drugging me would be an end to my entire lineage.
I asked the engineer if I could be of help to get him a job and promised that I can help him out but he retorted that once we are done with you today, no more meetings, I insisted that I would like to meet him again, just him and not the others but he objected.
Let's get back to around 1pm when my husband called my number and they all went quiet. I asked them, who is calling me? The good thief who by that time was holding my phone said its written husband. I told him to allow me talk to him since he was expecting me at Murang'a town. He reminded me to behave as if all is OK.
I told my husband all was well and thus I was on my way back. I added that I was all alone because the child had been admitted. When my husband became inquisitive, I told him we will talk later and hanged on... Back to the engineer story. I requested him to pass me a white-rouded container that was in my porch.
He opened it and asked what it was but on seeing a rosary inside the container, he handed it to me very quickly and said, "as you pray, please remember us." The foolish co-driver thief started mocking God and said, "We also pray. Don't think that we are pagans! But your praying won't change any of our plans." I did not respond to him. In fact, I had grown to ignore him and I could only reply to my caring thief who had a human heart.
But I told God quietly, "see how your name is being mocked and prove to them that you are God almighty." The commander told them to keep quiet for the prayers but I told them to continue with their stories as I was to pray silently. I want to be sincere here, I tried to pray but I could not. I couldn't even remember the Lord's prayer. Immediately I prayed the first line..
Our father who is at heaven... All the other lines disappeared from my memory. The devil was indeed at work! But I remembered a few lines in the Divine Mercy, as I had been taught by my dad Charles Mwangi Mbui, where I only kept on repeating the same thing, "For the sake of his sorrowful passion... Have mercy on us and on the whole world." I repeated that as I touched my rosary beads.
After I finished, I did not return the rosary to its white container. I put it on my neck. The rude thief was still interjecting even during my prayer session and I could tell God, please shut his mouth. It reached a point the one who took off with my car made a long call and my good thief had to talk outside the vehicle, probably not to give me too much information or even a clue as to where they were taking my car....
After driving for sometime, my good thief briefed me with a chilling message. "It has come a time that we say goodbye to you Wambui." Tears fell on my clothes and by blouse actually got wet.
https://www.kenyan-post.com/2019/02/shocking-kidnapped-journalist-wambui.html
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Credit:Story as Narrated and written by Wambui.
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This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
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Precisely.I think what save people in such situation is not god - but a bit of luck and utmost cooperation with the thugs once they have you.
This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
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This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
It depends on the thugs. If they are religious, it might work with them. The key to survival is to find a way to make your survival compatible with the heist they are carrying out.
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This is a case where the journalist knows she owes her life to God. Those who were not there have no business offering an alternative universe in which godlessness saves a person's skin in such harrowing circumstances. It might be more worthwhile telling us how Jubilee's employment programs are helping prevent graduate engineers from engaging in crime.
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Criminals are criminals no matter such factors. Even popes! Presidents! Priests! Nuns! have over history been proven to be hardcore criminals.
Joblessness is usually a simplistic theory on explaining crime. No matter how many jobs Ruto has, he is a hardcore criminal (even if he was a teleevangelist he would be a thug just like Kanyaris or Ng'ang'as). No matter how much Kenyattas, Odingas, Mois accumulate primitive they remain hardcore thugs stealing at any chance!
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Criminals are criminals no matter such factors. Even popes! Presidents! Priests! Nuns! have over history been proven to be hardcore criminals.
Joblessness is usually a simplistic theory on explaining crime. No matter how many jobs Ruto has, he is a hardcore criminal (even if he was a teleevangelist he would be a thug just like Kanyaris or Ng'ang'as). No matter how much Kenyattas, Odingas, Mois accumulate primitive they remain hardcore thugs stealing at any chance!
I think the absence of legitimate options does create criminals from people who would otherwise not be criminals. Our kind engineer in the story seems like he would sooner take up gainful employment in Silicon Valley, if he could, than go around frisking terrified women for ATM cards, just to feed his kids.
The same logic could also explain the Rutos, Mobutus and others. In another place they may be Vanderbilts, Henry Ford etc. Exceptions of course include folks like the Trump family who seem to have only made it by cutting very rough corners in the land of opportunity.
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Criminals are criminals no matter such factors. Even popes! Presidents! Priests! Nuns! have over history been proven to be hardcore criminals.
Joblessness is usually a simplistic theory on explaining crime. No matter how many jobs Ruto has, he is a hardcore criminal (even if he was a teleevangelist he would be a thug just like Kanyaris or Ng'ang'as). No matter how much Kenyattas, Odingas, Mois accumulate primitive they remain hardcore thugs stealing at any chance!
https://hivisasa.com/posts/1050-when-uhurus-mother-refused-to-sell-land-to-mzee-kenyatta
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Incredible. Amazing.
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Incredible right, when the thieves despite living under the same roof are not sharing their databases :(
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While studying 'the concubine" by Elechi Amadi, in High School, we learned to accept different explanations about life happenings. Scientific explanations are very recent. Just like Africans accepted many gods, they also accept many paradigms of explaining or understanding the world. For example, when a luo person dies in a car accident, the luo people do not dispute the scientific explanation of the cause of death, they just offer another explanations which is not contradictory to the scientific explanation. Christians can also do the same. Yes, Wambui's cooperation with the thieves saved her her life, but why does that have to be the only explanation, why can't her Christian faith explanation of why her life was spared be dismissed just because you do not share her faith. I think Wambui understands that her cooperation was key to her survival, but she gives credit also to her Christian faith, teachings, discipline for making it possible to be hopeful and therefore cooperative with the thieves. Let us not be narrow mindedly scientific.
Precisely.I think what save people in such situation is not god - but a bit of luck and utmost cooperation with the thugs once they have you.
This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
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While studying 'the concubine" by Elechi Amadi, in High School, we learned to accept different explanations about life happenings. Scientific explanations are very recent. Just like Africans accepted many gods, they also accept many paradigms of explaining or understanding the world. For example, when a luo person dies in a car accident, the luo people do not dispute the scientific explanation of the cause of death, they just offer another explanations which is not contradictory to the scientific explanation. Christians can also do the same. Yes, Wambui's cooperation with the thieves saved her her life, but why does that have to be the only explanation, why can't her Christian faith explanation of why her life was spared be dismissed just because you do not share her faith. I think Wambui understands that her cooperation was key to her survival, but she gives credit also to her Christian faith, teachings, discipline for making it possible to be hopeful and therefore cooperative with the thieves. Let us not be narrow mindedly scientific.
Precisely.I think what save people in such situation is not god - but a bit of luck and utmost cooperation with the thugs once they have you.
This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
At a personal level, I don’t see a problem with that sort of thinking. However when interpreted as advice by an impressionable party, then questionable behavior, eg driving under the influence might be mitigated by saying a prayer before taking off.
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While studying 'the concubine" by Elechi Amadi, in High School, we learned to accept different explanations about life happenings. Scientific explanations are very recent. Just like Africans accepted many gods, they also accept many paradigms of explaining or understanding the world. For example, when a luo person dies in a car accident, the luo people do not dispute the scientific explanation of the cause of death, they just offer another explanations which is not contradictory to the scientific explanation. Christians can also do the same. Yes, Wambui's cooperation with the thieves saved her her life, but why does that have to be the only explanation, why can't her Christian faith explanation of why her life was spared be dismissed just because you do not share her faith. I think Wambui understands that her cooperation was key to her survival, but she gives credit also to her Christian faith, teachings, discipline for making it possible to be hopeful and therefore cooperative with the thieves. Let us not be narrow mindedly scientific.
Precisely.I think what save people in such situation is not god - but a bit of luck and utmost cooperation with the thugs once they have you.
This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
At a personal level, I don’t see a problem with that sort of thinking. However when interpreted as advice by an impressionable party, then questionable behavior, eg driving under the influence might be mitigated by saying a prayer before taking off.
I think human beings intuitively dichotomize the spiritual world and the scientific world and the concern that people will be confused is unfounded and unsupported by any evidence. The fact that a drunk driver is praying not to be caught is proof that they know that if they are caught, there will be no excuse either in law or in christian belief where praying before commiting a sin does not absolve one from the sin. Some Pilots or astraunauts pray before they take off, some Surgeons pray before they perform complex surgeries and when the flight or the operation goes well they can give credit to both their due diligence, intelligence and scientific training or to their ritualistic religious discipline, without any contradiction. Human beings are able to naturally decompartmentalize the spirutual world and the world of physical science and rarely confuse them or find them mutually exclusively. Its the norm for most people to operate seamlessly between these two worlds and I am yet to see someone who is totally confused of which world they are operating in at any given time. My Problem is with those who insist that we have to pick one or the other.
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While studying 'the concubine" by Elechi Amadi, in High School, we learned to accept different explanations about life happenings. Scientific explanations are very recent. Just like Africans accepted many gods, they also accept many paradigms of explaining or understanding the world. For example, when a luo person dies in a car accident, the luo people do not dispute the scientific explanation of the cause of death, they just offer another explanations which is not contradictory to the scientific explanation. Christians can also do the same. Yes, Wambui's cooperation with the thieves saved her her life, but why does that have to be the only explanation, why can't her Christian faith explanation of why her life was spared be dismissed just because you do not share her faith. I think Wambui understands that her cooperation was key to her survival, but she gives credit also to her Christian faith, teachings, discipline for making it possible to be hopeful and therefore cooperative with the thieves. Let us not be narrow mindedly scientific.
Precisely.I think what save people in such situation is not god - but a bit of luck and utmost cooperation with the thugs once they have you.
This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
At a personal level, I don’t see a problem with that sort of thinking. However when interpreted as advice by an impressionable party, then questionable behavior, eg driving under the influence might be mitigated by saying a prayer before taking off.
I think human beings intuitively dichotomize the spiritual world and the scientific world and the concern that people will be confused is unfounded and unsupported by any evidence. The fact that a drunk driver is praying not to be caught is proof that they know that if they are caught, there will be no excuse either in law or in christian belief where praying before commiting a sin does not absolve one from the sin. Some Pilots or astraunauts pray before they take off, some Surgeons pray before they perform complex surgeries and when the flight or the operation goes well they can give credit to both their due diligence, intelligence and scientific training or to their ritualistic religious discipline, without any contradiction. Human beings are able to naturally decompartmentalize the spirutual world and the world of physical science and rarely confuse them or find them mutually exclusively. Its the norm for most people to operate seamlessly between these two worlds and I am yet to see someone who is totally confused of which world they are operating in at any given time. My Problem is with those who insist that we have to pick one or the other.
While I have no quarrel with your point in general, that there are religious nuts should also not be a question worth debating. For me, as long as the behavior mimics what is empirically known to be correct, the difference is the same whether you say Cthulhu did it or Allah did it.
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This nonsense of god this god that in such situations leaves so many gaps in picking small details which can unlock such cases. Instead of praying can you hear whether the thugs when calling are talking of place names such as the ATMs where they are withdrawing cash from? Are they using police talk -crew, afande? When an opening such as Wambui wife coincidence comes can you probe further tactfully - after all you are a journalist. Four hours and you only tell us about god this god that!!
Religion has really dumbed down our knowledge seeking behaviours.
But who are you guys to criticize how a person behaves in such a scenario, facing life and death? It's very easy to give instructions from the safety and comfort of your office or home as you type, but we'll only know how you'll do when you yourself are staring death in the face, not a moment before. In any case, the woman is alive and sharing her story. Who is anyone to say her strategy did not work for her? She has her life, you guys have theories.
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My Problem is with those who insist that we have to pick one or the other.
Mine too. I have never had to make such a choice, personally, speaking as someone very much open to hard scientific facts. I pray all the time for wisdom when I'm writing, and when I get an insight that makes things make sense, I credit it to God, whether that insight came from a direct miracle or through the ordinary working out of things. It's all ultimately from God to me, whether supernatural or natural, so the natural is never a threat to me.
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Kadame, I'm so touched by what you just said.