×
The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.
  • Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
  • The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
  • P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
  • Email: [email protected]

When nosy matatu seatmates shamelessly read your text messages

Counties

Being on holiday, I have had time to travel around. Some incidents I witnessed last week have left me in no doubt that Chinua Achebe must have had Kenyans in mind when he lamented about neighbours who cry more than the owners of the corpse. A new hobby among some appears to be peeping over other people’s shoulders as they read or write text messages on their cell phones.

Next time you are writing an SMS in a public place, you may have to cover the phone with the palm of your hand - the way we did in primary school to prevent our neighbours from copying our work.

I was intrigued by this new Kenyan pastime while on a Matatu in Nairobi. A young lady was busy on her phone. Perhaps bored by the Nairobi traffic Jam, which governor Evans Kidero appears to have given up on, she had taken refuge in her China smartphone. It kept on beeping as a flood of messages poured in. A power bank attached to the cell phone ensured that the battery didn’t ‘die’ – oh yes, our phone batteries die and then resurrect! Her fingers literally flew over the screen as she fired a torrent of texts.

Probably egged on by the continuous beeping of the phone, and being bored by the traffic jam too, a lady seated next to her appeared to find relief in reading the text messages that were streaming into her fellow passenger’s phone. We were on a fourteen seater Matatu headed to town. At some point, I observed a smile on her face and at another a look of disgust as she vigorously shook her head in protest over something she had read.

Hilarious incident

When she could no longer keep her emotions to herself, she turned to the lass whose fingers were busy on the Smartphone’s key board. “Wanaume ni mafisi. You mean some people can be that mean,” she exclaimed while pointing at a text message that had just landed. “Seriously, this guy actually invited you for lunch and also invited along another lady?” she asked.

The question was loaded with tones of concern. One could have thought that the two were bosom friends who had been sharing intimate matters. In a reaction that amused me, the young lady after heaving a sigh of relief narrated how she had been good to the guy in question and how he had ‘played her’.

She would have let out much more hadn’t the traffic jam eased and she alighted, after having exchanged phone numbers and a hug with the ‘Matatu counselor’. Then a rather hilarious incident on a Nairobi commuter train. A fight almost erupted when a fellow passenger attempted to correct the spellings of a text a middle-aged woman was writing.

“Madam the correct spelling for that word is ch.....” The infuriated lady could not allow the trains self-appointed English word master to finish his correction. She rose from her seat breathing fire. Alternately clapping her hands and slapping her thighs the way scandalised Naija movie women actors do, she loudly demanded to know what business a full bearded stranger had with her private texts.

The train’s security officers just intervened in time to avert a serious fight. “Those are the kind of men who peep into their wives’ handbags,” observed another equally offended lady.

[email protected]

Related Topics


.

Popular this week

.

Latest Articles