Aidan Hartley Aidan Hartley

Wild Life | 18 April 2009

Inside job

issue 18 April 2009

Laikipia

As our farm manager Celestino Sikuku drove home with two other workers last month a gang of bandits waylaid their vehicle. It was an inside job. Somebody had revealed that the car was carrying the payroll. At the first gunshots Celestino halted the car, slipped the others the cash and urged them to run. He predicted the attackers would pursue him, so he sped in the other direction.

They quickly caught him, frisked him and became enraged when they found his pockets empty. When Celestino recognised one of his attackers, the man, carrying a machete, yelled to his better-armed accomplices, ‘Shoot him! Kill him!’ They refused. ‘Money,’ they said. ‘Where is the money?’ They smashed Celestino’s face in with a knobkerrie. ‘In the house,’ he said, playing for time.

Thankfully, Claire and the children were at the coast, while I was in India.

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