Yesterday,a young woman named Peninah Wanjiku Muiruri dropped a bombshell. Heavier than the US Senate Expose on the CIA. A popular voice on Kenya’s most popular radio show had been exposed as a con,swindler and a fraud. His name is Wakanai. The Classic FM loudmouth. And Maina Kageni’s most favorite caller…..
(Writer’s Note; This story is still developing. Updates will be added as they happen. Wakanai’s side of the story is yet to be heard. He has been ignoring phone calls since Yesterday.)
You all know Wakanai. Or,atleast,have heard his cantankerous voice on Classic FM’s super popular Morning show hosted by the charming buddies,Maina Kageni and King’ang’i. Wakanai calls into the radio show almost every morning…His huge voice in tow,yapping and grovelling allover the radio waves ceaselessly. Wakanai’s a typical Kikuyu male-chauvinist…Or atleast,his radio character is.
He is the controversial voice that almost always sides with Maina Kageni in almost all controvertible topics. In in almost all cases,he defends Men and tenaciously bashes women…Ending his boisterous phone calls with his signature line “Kari Kii…” or “Tondu ni kii…” a line Maina Kageni relishes and loves to readily repeat. A regular contributor to most of the sleazy Classic FM Morning topics,Wakanai’s voice is a household voice. Atleast to the millions of avid listeners of that show.
Well,Your favorite radio/caller will not be so favorite to You after You learn of his money-swindling ways in a few.
On the first week of November,via Whatsaap,Wakanai messaged his friend Peninah Wanjiku Muiruri who resides in Lebanon asking her for immediate monetary help. Using his native Kikuyu and swahili and English,too,Wakanai implored Peninah to send him around 20,000 via any Money-sending agency from Lebanon.
Wakanai convinced the naive Peninah that he had was stuck in Mombasa and that he had some luggage stuck at the port for which he needed urgent cash to release. Wakanai further told Peninah that he had been short of cash even after a Maina (Kageni??) had sent him some more cash to help in the processing of his luggage.
In a series of messages,Wakanai urged Peninah to send him the money quick as he was in a “very bad place”. He went on to promise her that he would refund the money in 2 weeks’ time without fail. After much convincing,Peninah agreed to send him the 20k after he promised her that he would refund the cash with a 5,000 extra.
But before agreeing to send him the money,Peninah told Wakanai that she actually did have money but that she had intended to use that money to renovate her Mother’s house back in the village and that she was afraid of using the cash for other purposes. Wakanai,however,convinced her to still send him the money telling her that he respected parents and would never fail to return money that anyone had set aside for their parents.
Convinced,Peninah agreed to send him the cash. Elated,Wakanai told her,”That’s good,wacha nikimbie Malindi nikachukue draft ya customs tutaongea baadaye”
Again,he texted her,”That’s great. Nitaongeza tano za kurudisha asante,but in two weeks hope it will be fine with You…”
All this is after he had texted her,”Nilikuwa nimejipanga na 640k but nimepata duty iko 720k nataka 20k via mpesa nimeget hizi zingine nishapata from Maina zaa hii utaweza then nikurefund na tano juu afta two weeks..“
After much lobbying and begging,Wakanai finally managed to convince poor Peninah to Mpesa him the money. With a faulty promise of receiving it 2 weeks later…And with a 5 thousand shilling interest.
The agreement was,after 2 weeks,Wakanai was to MPESA Peninah’s Mum the money since Peninah had meant to send it to her Mum anyway for purposes of renovating her house. And in a strange twist of plot,Peninah actually sent Wakanai 600 dollars. That is,51,439 Kenya Shillings instead of the initial 20,000 that Wakanai had been begging for.
And on the Money sending documents,It is clearly indicated;
SENDER : PENINNAH MUIRURI.
RECEIVER: NELSON MUNGAI KANAI.
The money was sent on 15th November 2014 AT EXACTLY 01:19PM. And as it is with all Western Union transactions,there was required a test question and answer. The test question was HELLO. And the answer was HELLO as well. And the Western Union Agent in Lebanon that Peninnah sent the Money through was CLASSIC S EST.NABATIYE-HASBAYA on GHASAAD ABOU HAMMAD BUILDING.
It is not clear when Wakanai withdrew it,though.
Two weeks later,Mr. Wakanai went mute. And after Peninnah messaged him and called him and bugged him wondering when he was intending to send the money to her Mother as agreed,Wakanai claimed that he had received a bouncing cheque and that he would refund the money on the 8th of December. 8th of December came and still,no word from Wakanai.
And after Penninah bugged him too much,wondering why he was not refunding the money or even talking ,Wakanai did the classic conman game; He BLOCKED her mobile phone. And blocked her on Twitter. And on Whatsaap too.
He blacked her out. And sat back,convinced that he had won. And that she would never find an avenue to reach him again. Or bug him.
Exasperated,Peninnah took to social media to air out her grievances. Posting the story,his photos and the transaction slip. And that is when the drama started on Facebook.
After her story on Facebook started attracting much attention,and after her friends started posting the story on Maina Kageni’s wall and My inbox and Ghetto Radio’s Facebook wall as well,Wakanai decided to call Penninah up and ordered her to pull down the story,threatening to “tarnish her name” on social media. After realizing that his threats weren’t working,Wakanai yet again called Peninnah and promised her that he would send her the money soon as she deleted the damaging social media posts she had made about his scamming ways.
Convinced,Peninnah agreed to delete the posts and clear his name from her Social Media handles. And,expecting that he would cooperate,Wakanai pulled a fast one. Again!
He then called her and told her that she was NOT talking to the right Wakanai and that she was confusing him with “The Real Wakanai” WHAT NONSENSE!
And,just like that,He blocked her again! Phew! Now that’s stupid!
I spent close to an hour calling up Wakanai with the Official Ghafla Phone yesterday. And for that whole time,He declined to pick up the phone. Attempt after attempt after attempt. I simply gave up! And went ahead with the story.
Well,this is crazy. Peninnah is 22 Years Old. Do all 22 Year Olds act as naively and are all 22 Year Olds as gullible as Peninnah?? Or why would You send someone 51,000 Shillings just like that?? Who does that?? Who seriously does that??? I feel for poor Peninnah. But her actions have shocked Me!
As for Wakanai,His days,believe Me,are numbered. Watch this space!
My head is buzzing. Hard.
