Editor,

I am a resident of Kigali and I would like, through your paper, to warn the public against a conman on the rampage who employs very rare tricks to fleece people out of their money.

He is young, energetic and wears neat clothes. He usually sits under shady trees by the roadside around Kimuhurura, Kacyiru, Remera and Kimironko and other places where you can find middle class working people.

His major targets are women because they are probably more sympathetic than their male counterparts. The, seemingly, decent fellow puts a jacket over his head, probably not to reveal his identity, then he goes on to feign terrible stomach-aches; twisting and gripping his stomach to suggest great pain.

Passer-bys then develop sympathy and surround this ‘dying’ man who then goes on to ‘painfully’ explain how he was on his way to work and got the terrible stomach upset and how he doesn’t even have any money on him to go to the doctor.

In sympathy people gather some money and a motor bike, apparently of his accomplice pulls up from nowhere. He, the motorist, urges the crowd to collect the money and on his part, he pays he’ll provide a lift to the nearest clinic. Off they go and the money is shared shortly after.

I fell prey of this conman’s trick and gave him some money but I was shocked to find him in another place shortly doing the same stunt.

Watch out or you could be conned. Police should move quickly and apprehend this guy before he rips off thousands of people.

Kimihurura