March 18 2015
06h37
I groggily woke up and found myself tied up to a tree in some forest. I had no idea where we were or how we got there. There were four men sitting by the fire, it was still early morning as the sun was just coming out. Their voices were inaudibly but there were strained.
I heard a few words "illegal, murder, money and shut up." When one of them realised that I was awake he motioned for his colleagues to keep quiet. The men were obviously not locals; there was a high probability that they were mercenaries fighting for any of the rag tag rebel groups that had decided to fight the Juba government. Or maybe they were Joseph Kony's man. That was not as important as finding out why I was in their hands and why was Mikuyu working with them?
Again I do confess that I cannot totally blame Mikuyu for what was transpiring after all I participated willingly in the disappearance of opposition figures and I had also been part operation that had led to the assassination of an opposition figure back home.
Our operations in Juba were not always about peacekeeping. We got involved in nefarious activities.
One of the men in military fatigues came and stood by my side. "My friend we need we need some information from you, then we will return you to your people." There was no threat or menace in his voice it seemed like a genuine request.
"We know that you have been working with Samiya, whose father was a commander in the Islamic Courts and we know that you have been providing information to them so that they could launch a war against the people of South Sudan."
"I do not know what you are talking about Samiya was an aid worker..."
"My brother, please understand we have no quarrel with you or your country. All we want is information that will help us locate Samiya's father. He is a wanted fugitive in this country; he was one of the leaders who instigated a dark period in our country. We hope you will willingly assist us."
I did not understand what he was talking about. But then this is what we did when we captured people who did not agree with government activities. We made them confess to crimes and relationships they knew nothing about. It was routine it was something we did to get promotions. I thought that is what he was doing.
Until they brought out a badly beat up Mikuyu and threw him on the ground in front of me. "This man, you see the blood all over his body was resisting giving us information but we have convinced him to tell us about your clandestine operation."
"I do not know what you are talking about, this man was going to kill me last night and I don't know how you came to have us in your custody."
"Do you not report to this man?"
"I did but that was before..."
"Were you not sleeping with a terrorist?"
"Samiya was not a terrorist; she was an aid worker..."
He backed away and went back to he went back to his comrades. They whispers for a few minutes before he returned pointed a pistol at me before shifting his hand swiftly and firing on Kikuyu’s comatose body. I was horrified. They let the moment linger for a few minutes before dragging his limp body out of sight.
"Now, maybe you were afraid of your friend. I hope that has solved your problem, you can trust us implicitly Mr Mangisa. We will share what we know about you, your handler and Samiya."
The fantasy he told me sounded like a movie. They showed me records and pictures of meetings between Samiya and Robert. It seems Robert had engineered my relationship with Samiya. He armed her with the information that led her to seek me out in the first place. Samiya would have never known that I existed if it had not been for the manipulative nature of Mikuyu.
She had a grudge against me and had sought out to settle a score. Everything we had gone through had just been part of a game to her. I did not have problems with the fact that she was pretending after all I had been lying to her as well. Our relationship had been too good to be real.
Mikuyu was not just a smooth talker. He is a strategist but this time he had chewed more than he could swallow and he was dead. The matrix of what was happening was not lost on me. It was obvious that people in my government had colluded with officials in Juba in some dubious deal and Samiya's questions had made them jittery.
The leader introduced himself as Major Dominic Ayok, furthermore he informed me that he was acting on behalf of the Juba government after they had learnt that I was about to be smuggled out of the country without giving account for my crimes.
I didn't know whether to thank him for momentarily saving my life or to curse him for complicating it. "We will release you back to the authorities as soon as you give us an answer."
I looked at him and I knew I had to lie. He was not the only one who could spin a tale. I admitted that I was a double agent working with Samiya's group to infiltrate the military and cause a coup. I further informed them that I could not give them the exact location of Samiya's father but I could work with them to locate him in Somalia. I did not think that they would agree to my plan but they did. They agreed to let me lead them to their desired asset.
But they did not take me at my word. They spirited me out of Juba and delivered me to the heart of Mogadishu. This is how I found myself in Somalia, hunting for a man I did not know and wishing that they had shot me instead of Mikuyu.
06h37
I groggily woke up and found myself tied up to a tree in some forest. I had no idea where we were or how we got there. There were four men sitting by the fire, it was still early morning as the sun was just coming out. Their voices were inaudibly but there were strained.
I heard a few words "illegal, murder, money and shut up." When one of them realised that I was awake he motioned for his colleagues to keep quiet. The men were obviously not locals; there was a high probability that they were mercenaries fighting for any of the rag tag rebel groups that had decided to fight the Juba government. Or maybe they were Joseph Kony's man. That was not as important as finding out why I was in their hands and why was Mikuyu working with them?
Again I do confess that I cannot totally blame Mikuyu for what was transpiring after all I participated willingly in the disappearance of opposition figures and I had also been part operation that had led to the assassination of an opposition figure back home.
Our operations in Juba were not always about peacekeeping. We got involved in nefarious activities.
One of the men in military fatigues came and stood by my side. "My friend we need we need some information from you, then we will return you to your people." There was no threat or menace in his voice it seemed like a genuine request.
"We know that you have been working with Samiya, whose father was a commander in the Islamic Courts and we know that you have been providing information to them so that they could launch a war against the people of South Sudan."
"I do not know what you are talking about Samiya was an aid worker..."
"My brother, please understand we have no quarrel with you or your country. All we want is information that will help us locate Samiya's father. He is a wanted fugitive in this country; he was one of the leaders who instigated a dark period in our country. We hope you will willingly assist us."
I did not understand what he was talking about. But then this is what we did when we captured people who did not agree with government activities. We made them confess to crimes and relationships they knew nothing about. It was routine it was something we did to get promotions. I thought that is what he was doing.
Until they brought out a badly beat up Mikuyu and threw him on the ground in front of me. "This man, you see the blood all over his body was resisting giving us information but we have convinced him to tell us about your clandestine operation."
"I do not know what you are talking about, this man was going to kill me last night and I don't know how you came to have us in your custody."
"Do you not report to this man?"
"I did but that was before..."
"Were you not sleeping with a terrorist?"
"Samiya was not a terrorist; she was an aid worker..."
He backed away and went back to he went back to his comrades. They whispers for a few minutes before he returned pointed a pistol at me before shifting his hand swiftly and firing on Kikuyu’s comatose body. I was horrified. They let the moment linger for a few minutes before dragging his limp body out of sight.
"Now, maybe you were afraid of your friend. I hope that has solved your problem, you can trust us implicitly Mr Mangisa. We will share what we know about you, your handler and Samiya."
The fantasy he told me sounded like a movie. They showed me records and pictures of meetings between Samiya and Robert. It seems Robert had engineered my relationship with Samiya. He armed her with the information that led her to seek me out in the first place. Samiya would have never known that I existed if it had not been for the manipulative nature of Mikuyu.
She had a grudge against me and had sought out to settle a score. Everything we had gone through had just been part of a game to her. I did not have problems with the fact that she was pretending after all I had been lying to her as well. Our relationship had been too good to be real.
Mikuyu was not just a smooth talker. He is a strategist but this time he had chewed more than he could swallow and he was dead. The matrix of what was happening was not lost on me. It was obvious that people in my government had colluded with officials in Juba in some dubious deal and Samiya's questions had made them jittery.
The leader introduced himself as Major Dominic Ayok, furthermore he informed me that he was acting on behalf of the Juba government after they had learnt that I was about to be smuggled out of the country without giving account for my crimes.
I didn't know whether to thank him for momentarily saving my life or to curse him for complicating it. "We will release you back to the authorities as soon as you give us an answer."
I looked at him and I knew I had to lie. He was not the only one who could spin a tale. I admitted that I was a double agent working with Samiya's group to infiltrate the military and cause a coup. I further informed them that I could not give them the exact location of Samiya's father but I could work with them to locate him in Somalia. I did not think that they would agree to my plan but they did. They agreed to let me lead them to their desired asset.
But they did not take me at my word. They spirited me out of Juba and delivered me to the heart of Mogadishu. This is how I found myself in Somalia, hunting for a man I did not know and wishing that they had shot me instead of Mikuyu.