By Sylvia Mwesigye
I remember the day like yesterday. My friend was all smiles and giggles. She was in love. She had finally met the tall, dark and handsome man of her dreams. To sweeten the deal, her beau was rich. I asked her what he did and she answered honestly that she had no idea. Now, this was not a teenager, she was a young woman with a sensible head on her shoulders. I asked why she was not bothered by her future husband’s source of income but she had no answer for me. I knew she was lost to reason and did nothing to wake her from her dream.
Ten years into the marriage, she comes again this time her feet firmly planted on the ground with the weight of the world she seemed to be carrying on her shoulders. The dark knight as we had come to refer to him had been arrested for fraud and she needed money for bail. He had handled all their finances and without him, she had no access to their accounts which had been frozen anyway. She felt like she had had enough.
Over the years, she realised she had fallen for a well orchestrate trap. While she felt like the gods had blessed her with her dream man, it turns out he had been looking for someone exactly like her; a good girl from a good family whose image would give him respectability and stability. His source of income was fluid; he did a bit of this and that to earn money. Sometimes he played with the big boys sometimes he dealt with omuntu wa wansi.
Over the years, he had mastered his craft and raked in millions. Sometimes, the deals went south and he found himself behind bars. Thing is, it was now happening more often and my friend felt scared for her family, especially her young children’s lives and future. “I wish I had known he was playing me from the beginning,” she said.
As an observer I had noticed this from the beginning but I did not want to rain on her parade as the saying goes. The dark knight was as fake as they come and did not even have the courtesy of trying to hide it. Now my friend has become a specialist at spotting fakes and she shared her wisdom with me. Click to read more…
