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A few moons ago kuna deree alikwamisha truck Salama on the way down to 001, company policy dictates that truck ikijizima due to your incompetence just pick your belongings from the cabin uingie gizani, gari ya road patrol isikupate hapo and that’s how I found myself in Salama at 1am in the morning with a diagnosis machine coaxing the truck to start, waah! Truck ilitoa error za ajab, code zingine sijawai ona I had to fall bact to the Actros manual, what I found out made my heart sink, Muarabu was gonna blow his top when he heard this and there was bound to be casualties. The Msedes had been taking adulterated fuel for some time na vile air/fuel mixture ilikua wrong ikaanza kuknock, that’s why it had shut down. I cancelled a few errors alafu nikaigurumisha but after three minutes it shut down again (only a trained ear could hear the Knock). Ilibidi niashe kafegi as I made myself comfortable kwa kitanda ili ni contemplate how to pass the news to Muarabu in the morning.
Time: 6:30am
Grrrrrrrr grrrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrr grrrrrrrrr
Me: Hello salaam aleikum
Muarabu: Matako hii uko wapi? (Been with this guy for several years and had never understood why he was always in a foul mood, this prepared me for what was to come)
Me: Bado niko Samburu boss
Muarabu: Hio mkundu yako itafika hapa saa ngapi?
Me: Boss kuna shida
Muarabu: kubabako nugu hii sema haraka, unafikiri ta shinda hapa kiskiza upuzi yako kwa simu
Me: Boss hii gari mpaka ICU (gari ikiknock mpaka ibadilishwe pistons na rings, and in extreme cases sleeves mpaka zikwangurwe pia, yaani gari inafanywa overhaul, in garage lingo ICU)
Muarabu: ………………………………………………………………silence
Me: Hello, Helloooooo (grenade ilikua imetolewa pin, the chemical reaction was happening inside and hell was about to break loose. Lord have mercy on us)
Me: Hello, Hello Boss waniskila
Muarabu: …………………………………………………………………………………………… Loud silence (the calm before the storm) I could hear him at the end of the line breathing heavily. I decided to keep quiet
After a minute
Muarabu: Meria unahakika hio gari ni ICU (first time he had called me by name in 8 yrs)
Me: nina uhakika boss, computa haidanganyagi (Msedes kwenda ICUwould take 350 – 400k all because of a stupid driver who had been selling the good fuel we gave him and topping up with I don’t know what, so I understood his pain)
Muarabu: Hio kumanina ya dereva iko wapi? Mwambie nikimshika tamfira mkundu na maskio kisha nimchune ngozi akiwa hai alafu nimrushe kwenya shimo ya siafu (he exploded, I had to remove the phone from my ear coz he was so loud)
Muarabu (cont.): anaharibu gari yangu kwasababu ya pesa nane na mimi nalipa yeye mshahala, mwambie huyo mburukenge asikanyange Mambasa tena, tamkanyanga kaa kombamwiko na matumbo yake niirushe baharini.
Suddenly his phone went dead and I knew he had thrown it against the wall, I pitied wale watu waliokuwa karibu naye. Vile nilikua nishamwambia nikaanza kuorganise vile nitavutwa hadi 001. Gari kaa ime knock hua niya kuvutwa, if you let the engine run you cause more damage. I also switched off my phone.
It took us the whole day to get to Mombasa and by the time we arrived at 8pm he was there at the yard waiting for us, he demanded to see the diagnosis report for himself, yaani alikua hajaamini, all the other guys slowly melted away tukabaki nayeye, kuangalia hio report he hit the dashboard so hard with his podgy hand nikafikiri ameivunja, akauliza kaa nimeona huyo dereva kasema negative, akaingia kwa Prado yake na vile aliitoa kwa yard ungethania ni safari rally.
Following morning very early with my crew of 4 gari ikaingia ICU, tukainua cabin juu na kazi ikaanza, kufungua engine ya gari ndogo hua ni shida na kufungua ya Msedes hua ni shida mara kumi but we had all the tool and by late afternoon the pistons were out, before I put my hand down the sleeve niskie kaa kuna gloves I said a short prayer lakini mungu hakuniskia juu niliskia sleeve iko na mikurukuru nikajua baaas, hadi block lazima ishuke, hii ilimaliza morale ya the already tired crew and we called it a day. I gathered my pistons kafungia kwa store, didn’t want a confrontation with mwarabu as yet.
To cut the long story short by noon the next day block was out and on its way to the engineer na mimi kaelekea dukani kutafuta rings, one thing about hawa reach guys hujui wanalipana lini, hua I just go there with my order and sign once I get the spares and then leave, hio siku I got everything else apart from rings, niliambiwa had to wait for close to a fortnight, kuskia hivo nikajua it will take a month, muarabu kuskia hivo alifytuka tena but nilikua shamzoea. My crew were assigned other duties na mimi kabakia kwa yard nikihang tu bila kazi ya kufanya. Would report everyday and just sit in my Msedes playing games on my phone. Day 3 muarabu put a stop to this when he called me to his office akanirushia funguo za canter ya mikate iliokua imeletwa service kwa yard yetu, akanishow nitakua na hio gari hadi siku ile spare zitaingia. I drove to the bakery on the other side of town and reported to my new station. (kumbe bakery ilikua ni side hustle yake na sio watu wengi walikua wanajua)
Reporting time huko ilikua crazy, 3:30am ndio by 4am umepakia na umeshika routé yako, wueh. Route yangu ilikua ni one leafy suburb and 3 sprawling estates, used to take like 5hrs to make the deliveries. Sasa hii kuamka mapema ndio ilinirusha mashakani.