SWEET& SOUR

I am sure you know this picture, if you do; you are a client of Kenya’s biggest coffee house. In my world, nothing beats a hot Mocha on a cold Nairobi evening; make it a double in fact!
In recent days though, it has not been easy enjoying my favourite cup at the Java Koinange where I have almost become part of the furniture.

I love my coffee, but, I do not like paedophiles.

I don’t usually watch the NTV news at 9, I prefer another channel, but on this night, I had to bear with Basset Bayuka for a while, I was waiting for their headline news, a breaking news story about a Nairobi Business man arrested for child abuse, and step by step, Robert Nagilla narrated as if it was a Mexican soap, complete with sound tracks and blank screen with time text on it. The man, was Jon Wagner, CEO of Java Coffee House, my heart started to falter.

I have met Jon a couple of times, on official and personal basis, and I must admit I liked him, the big burly American with an equally big attitude. I found him very attractive, with a cocky sense of humour. His style? Always in black T shirts and blue American jeans, and if ever you see him dressed differently ask me for 1,000 bob! (Apart from the court hearings perhaps).

We talked about his coffee house, his coming to Africa, back in the day when he was 16, young and eager to catch on Nairobi life. I would not call him an African, but any man who knows Modern Green Bar when he was sixteen can only be classified as a Kenyan, he told me about his son, about 8 yrs old at the time, and some children he assists from time to time, from politics to searching for a wife; we had a great laugh.

So when I see on TV that he has been accused of child molestation, I panic. But I keep watching, waiting to hear what really happened, two girls both below 13 direct police to Jon’s house in the wee hours of the morning, claiming he had repeatedly abused them for a weekend or so. I am a woman, and those are stories that send the chills down my spine.

In the days that follow, the press is full of it, “American tycoon in child sex case” and I coil inside, I go for my Mocha, and send him a text, just to say hello, he responds, he says I have been quiet for a while; I cannot ask him about the stories. My coffee mate, Nimo, has since asked me to start drinking at Savanna, saying else I am supporting a paedophile, I am confused. Should I boycott the java? In this case Jon is guilty until proven innocent, when many times it is the other way aound.

We like to listen to the media, and have learned to believe in them, but I still have questions. Two women of legit age supposedly brought the girls to Jon, they were arrested, but the two girls, the young ones were new to Nairobi, how did they know the direction to Jon’s house in the middle of lavington at 6.00am in the morning?

Could there have been something we don’t know? Could he have been fixed by some individual we don’t know? Or did he rape those kids, am looking for answers, which I can’t find in the press…it’s in court now, and I pray for God’s sake that Jon was not a fool enough to molest those little girls, and if he did, may he pay the price!

Like the picture; Life is SWEET, and sometimes, SOUR!