A thief was caught breaking into a shop and taken to court. When the judge inquired of his crimes, the thief said, “I was arrested for doing my Christmas shopping early”. “How early?” the judge asked. “Before the shops opened,” the thief answered. It is now a fortnight since a thief got his way through the wall of a resident, took with him a T.V set, DVD player and decoder. It is difficult to conclude whether this was looting, robbering, mugging, trespassing, shoplifting, burglary, or all of them. His Christmas shopping must have been on high. On one Friday evening, Bayingana got home very tired after a long day’s work. He had his supper while watching the English news on Rwanda television; little did he know that he was watching his beautiful Sony set for the last time. After having supper, he quickly rushed to have a good night sleep in what followed as a very undesirable night. The next day, he was up by 6:00am, and to his dismay, a window like hole had been created on his wall. He must have begged God to turn it into a dream but every thing was real. “So, this is how I get paid for the hard earned savings that enabled me get all these super machines?” he thought to himself. Apparently the thieves used chloroform, a substance that is used to render people unconscious. Don’t ask me where these people get it from. A hand must have been borrowed from an engineer because they had tools and expertise which helped them put his house wall apart and find them next to the TV. And that’s the last time his living room heard of the screen, DVD player, and decoder. This scenario taught Bayingana something so true about a section of our police. My dear friend always heaped praise on our police force. Infact, when he talked about them, you would think these guys walk on water and have a direct line to God. He got to know the truth about the tales the police when he needed them most. They got his emergency call and the best help he parted with was being told to take pictures of the scene as if every citizen of Rwanda is meant to have a camera. They promised him to appear at the scene in an hour, only to appear 3 hours later, with negligence enough to let Bin Laden smoke at one of the CIA headquarters’ balcony. My friend now lives by a new philosophy, every man for himself and for us all. You’d wonder where the moral compass of some people faces when the festive season knocks. The traffic police always do an incredible job at this time of the year, and I wish their brothers took up arms against such lunatics who might try and disrespect the rights of people and their property. The other day he told me how exited he would be, if Afande Kabarebe offered him a place in one of the numerous barracks at his disposal. It’s not because he’s homeless. In fact his landlady for the first time came around in good faith and made ends meet. His wall was put up by mid-day. At least she was more responsive than the police. Watch out for these times of the year when people want to feast. Your property could be a source of funding for other people’s leisure. One ought to be very suspicious with any one who comes an inch next to your property or else Bayingana’s episode becomes a series for you. Ends
