had a relaxed and jovial manner and apologized for my lack of getting assistance at the front desk but explained that my visit to the police station was not one of the usual kinds .
He then informed me that the young man in custody had been found spread eagled in the middle of the street in front of the parliament by police officers reporting for the morning shift at six , two days earlier . Efforts to remove him were resisted hence he was arrested .
The young man had no identification documents and as he was not communicating nor eating , they were unable to get any meaningful information from him until a smart officer asked him to give them a number to call so that they can get his favorite food delivered .
That is how they got him to scribble a number down and on calling it , a lady picked it up . He assumed that it might have been the young man ’ s mother since as soon as he began to explain the reason he was calling , she started to cry then gave them a number to call .
The inspector then took me to a cell where a disheveled man who was still wearing the now filthy hospital pajamas was crouched and cowering at one corner . His wild vacant look was emotionless and he did not respond when I called him by his name .
I called his father affirming that it was his son at the police post suggesting that it was prudent for him to call the hospital and have the medics pick him up in an ambulance . I doubted he would cooperate with anyone . He is twenty-two .
Scenario Three
Isaac had just ordered a beer at his golf club ’ s bar after another disastrous round of golf that morning . He was simply tired and unable to concentrate that morning since last night he had arrived back home at three thirty in the morning and the tee off was at seven .
Isaac had earlier arrived at his house at eight and was in bed by ten o ’ clock since he had an early morning game which meant that he needed to be up at five thirty to be able to leave the house at six thirty . No golfer worth his salt is ever late for a game .
At around midnight his phone had rang and it was his son ’ s phone but an unfamiliar voice was on the other end asking if he was Brian ’ s father . Such a call would have elicited a sense of panic previously but in this instance , Isaac calmly asked if there was a problem .
The man on the line introduced himself as a member of the security personnel at a popular night spot in the city and it appears that his son , Brian , had run up a bill of around fifteen thousand KES and had refused to pay and that he was drunk , disorderly and violent .
Isaac told the security man , better known as bouncers , to contain the young man as he slipped out of bed , careful not to wake up his wife , dressed up and taking his night watchman to assist him drove to the night spot .
He arrived only to find that the friends that Brian was with had paid the bill but Brian was nowhere to be seen . He was actually locked up in a small office with his hands bound behind him and cursing loudly in unprintable language .
Brian had just returned to the country six weeks earlier , having spent three months in South Africa in a rehab and had only returned through the intervention of Isaac ’ s wife who had assured him that Brian was now dry and did not need to still be under supervised care .
What had caused Brian to be sent to the rehab in the first place was exactly what was happening now . When Brian drank alcohol , he would become hyper , talkative and excitable . Then he would become argumentative , abusive and even violent .
What his friends explained to Isaac was that the problem started when Brian disputed the bill that had been presented and from that moment the situation went very quickly south as Brian ’ s temper and language got progressively out of control .
You could see the apparent discomfort and embarrassment that Brian ’ s friends felt to have to explain to Isaac , whom most called ‘ uncle ’ respectfully as they had grown up with Brian in the same residential area and went to the same schools .
The bouncers released Brian who had become contrite on seeing his father and with the help of the watchman had half carried the young man to the car and he passed out in the car and had to be carried to his room . Brian is twenty-three .
Scenario Four
It was eleven thirty when Mwangi ’ s wife said that she was not happy with their granddaughter ’ s temperature and she felt that she needed to take her to Gertrude Hospital which fortunately was not too far away .
The reason why the grandchild was with them was because their daughter ’ s marriage had collapsed after five years due to the much-quoted irreconcilable differences and she had custody of the girl who was five .
The daughter was an HR Regional executive and the job involved a lot of travel and at the moment she was in Ethiopia and the standard practice was that when she travelled , she would drop the girl at her parents .
Her ex had promptly remarried and his new wife had a two-year old and although the separated couple had a cordial relationship and he had access to his daughter , she was more comfortable leaving the daughter with her parents .
When she got to the hospital there were three patients in front of her and she couldn ’ t help but notice that two of them were grandparents . Was this just sheer coincidence or were more grandparents currently looking after their grandchildren .
Since its easy for people with a common problem to strike a conversation Mwangi ’ s wife soon established that the other two grannies that had brought in their grandchildren had a more or less similar story as to why they were the ones there .
One child was the daughter of an Air Stewardess who had found it difficult to sustain a relationship with a guy her own age as the men found her peripatetic lifestyle too glamourous and difficult to sustain .
She ended up in an unwise and risky affair with an older and married man and the result of their illicit affair was the child who now lived with her grandparents as the daughter resumed her career to provide for the child .
The other grandchild , also a girl , was the daughter of a lady caught up in a messy court case where the baby daddy , as they now call them , who she termed as a deadbeat dad and who , although financially capable to provide for their daughter had neglected to do so .
What made this particular case untidy was the fact that as soon as the lady hauled the offending baby daddy to court , there appeared another three ladies who claimed
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