It was like any other normal day – Tuesday last week. The wheather was muchu-muchu (neither hot nor cold) and Jane Nyakairo, a Kenyan lady who has been residing in Sweden for more than ten years, was at work. At around 11.00, Nyakairo received a phone call from a Kenyan male friend whom she has known for a long time and whom she regards as a brother. The Kenyan wanted to know where she was and what she was doing.
”I am at work” Nyakairo said. The Kenyan then said that the main reason that he was calling was to find out if Nyakairo knew that the Tonny-Lissa wedding was taking place on Saturday September 15th. Nyakairo said that she knew about it and that she had also received an invitation card. The phone call, which sounded normal, ended amicably. Little did Nyakairo know that she had received no ordinary phone call. The contact was part of a scheme to find out her whereabouts so that a special operation could be set in motion in her flat at Flemmingsberg.
Nyakairo lives with a Kenyan in her flat. The Kenyan is a new entrant in the Kenya-Stockholm scene and a saved Christian who studies Swedish For Immigrants (SFI). Minutes after Nyakairo’s phone contact with the Kenyan, her house mate also received a call from the same Kenyan asking where he was and what he was doing. True to character, Nyakiro’s mate said that he was in school studying as usual. That was the only information the Kenyan needed to make his move.
The next thing that happened is that the Kenyan went to Nyakairo’s flat at the 10th floor at Flemmingsberg, opened the door smoothly and gained access to the flat. According to Nyakairo, she does not know how the Kenyan got her keys and she only came to understand that the Kenyan had duplicated her house keys after the guy had slipped into the flat in her absence. In Sweden, all doors have a minimum of two keys designated for two locks – the general key that opens the upper lock and the ”Police key” which opens the lower lock.
A copy of the police key is the last key you can give anybody (even if the person is renting your flat) because it is regarded as the ”security key” that gives the house owner the privilege of locking the house at will especially in a moment of crisis.
The Kenyan had both keys and to date, Nyakairo has not yet recovered from the shock arising from her failure to understand how the Kenyan got copies of her keys. ”It remains a mystery to me and I am very afraid”, she told KSB which had been waiting for two days for her to recompose herself so that she could tell the story.
Late last year, valuables began to disappear from Nyakiro’s flat mysteriously. For example, she lost her gold rings and gold necklaces under circumstances which she has never understood. At about the same time, she also lost her Passport, prompting her to report the matter to police. She talked to close friends and informed them about the mysterious disappearance of valuables from her flat. She refused to suspect her house mate whom she knows very well. She was convinced that her co-habitant was not responsible for the disappearance of valuables in her flat because she knows the guy from Kenya. After reporting the losses to police, she took it easy and life continued as usual.
BURGLAR BROKE CUPBOARD IN BEDROOM READY TO EMPTY CONTENT
As the Kenyan burglar was in the middle of his operations in Nyakairo’s flat, an abrupt twist of events turned the tables upside down and messed up the whole plan. Nyakairo’s house mate, who had been at school on the material day and who had received a call from the burglar returned to the flat abruptly because he was not feeling well. When he opened the door, he was shocked to find that the same guy who called him earlier a few hours ago was in the flat. The guy emerged from the bed room as Nyakiro’s room-mate tried to figure out what was happening.
By then, the burglar had already broken a cupboard in the bed room and from information gathered by KSB, it looked like the burglar was just about to begin emptying the house of valuables when he was caught, not on camera but red handed.
Before Nyakiro’s mate could begin enquiries, the burglar chipped in and said that he was in the house because he was Nyakairo’s boyfriend. ”I usually come here from time to time”, he said. Nyakairo told KSB that he has never had any relationship with the guy.
The guy is a well respected personality in Stockholm, married with children. If his identity is revealed, many Kenyans will simply go to sleep because they will not understand what is happening with certain members of the society in Stockholm. The Kenyan must have been caught unawares because her cover up strategy was very poor.
”My relationship with Nyakairo is secret and you don’t have to tell her that I have been here”, the burglar warned the house mate.
The burglar reportedly took his time to try and organize the guy psychologically not to say anything to Nyakairo because such information could lead to a crisis whose consequences, the burglar said, might come back to haunt the guy. However, the strategy did not work out.
As soon as the guy left the flat, the house mate called Nyakairo and reported that he had found the guy in the flat and that the cupboard in the bedroom was broken although nothing had been stolen. Nyakiro acquied the cupboard last year from another Kenyan called Elizabeth after her valuables began to disappear from the flat mysteriously. She told KSB that she needed to lock her stuff.
After she received the phone call from her house mate, Nyakairo rushed back to the flat to witness what had happened. After understanding the seriousness of the situation, she reported the matter to police who are now investigating the case.
Nyakairo is very upset and disturbed that the burglar might have been in possession of her house keys for more than a year without her knowledge and without any explanation as to how he might have gotten the key.
”This is something which could happen to anybody and I am going out with this story to alert other Kenyans and to try and warn them that this kind of thing is possible”, she told KSB.
The news has shocked many Kenyans in Stockholm. ”How could somebody you know so well here in Stockholm duplicate your house keys secretly, get into your house, break your cupboard in readiness to steal?”, posed a Kenyan who called KSB. ”This thing needs to get out because the Kenyan community needs to wake up to the reality that some people among us are thieves”, she said.
The lady sounded very concerned about the matter. The Swedish police have confirmed that they have received the report although they could not go into details only saying that the matter is being investigated.
Okoth Osewe
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