Hide my Identity: My Encounter with Babu Owino

Hey Edgar

Please hide my ID. I am a very private person and I prefer for it to remain that way.

Here is a story of my encounter with Babu Owino last year. This guy is evil. I have stared at the face of the devil himself. Let me start. I rent an apartment in Kileleshwa that I Airbnb. I had never taken offline clients to this day and it was not intentional.

On that fateful Saturday, a guest had checked out that morning at 11 am. My guests are instructed to self-checkout with the security desk and leave the key and key card with the guards.

I received a call from the caretaker shortly after my guest had checked out, the caretaker asked to rent out my house for 1 night to a couple. I said no since I was not comfortable with the idea. However, she convinced me that this was just a politician who regularly stays at my neighbor’s apartment (I am friends with the neighbor and he also Airbnb’s his apartment). The caretaker said the guy was trustworthy, had never caused any problems and he just needed some privacy till 5 pm. I figured this was a mpango wa kando meet up and I still wasn’t okay with this. Long story short, the devil got into my head and I got convinced. Well, he wanted the house for a few hrs till 5 pm and was willing to pay the full rate, so what the hell.

I offered to send my cleaner in the next 30mins as the house had not been cleaned. By the time the cleaner got there, the “guests” were already inside my apartment and the doorbell was going unanswered. When the guards called them through the I intercom, they said they didn’t need cleaning.

I told the cleaner to just leave and that she should come back at 6 pm to check the status of the house and collect the keys when they leave. Fast forward to 6 pm, my cleaner calls and tells me the guest is still inside and it sounded like a full-blown party in there with a couple of people inside. I DO NOT allow parties in my apartment. Let’s start with the fact that my carpet is brilliant white. It can’t handle alcohol spillage or vomit from drunks aki. Woi I panicked, called the caretaker to go handle the situation.

The caretaker calls back after a few mins and informs me that either my cleaner is lying or heard the noise for another house and that the guest meant he would leave at 5 pm and apologized for the miscommunication. Sawa, since I don’t want drama I agree as long as they check out at normal time since I had check-in at 11 am. I tell the cleaner to leave.

The following morning (Sunday) the drama began at 9 am, my cleaner calls, this time frantic that the guests were still inside and that it was loud with screaming and music, I could hear the noise myself (I have a home theater, I didn’t even know it could get that loud) I check the apartment WhatsApp group, my house number is being anikwad all night because of noise and disturbance. I almost had a heart attack.

I jump into my car and drive there like a maniac. On arrival, I met my next-door neighbor and her small kids getting into the lift and she looks at me daggers, doesn’t even bother responding to my “good morning”

I meet my cleaner at the door and I ring the doorbell repeatedly as they kept ignoring it (they were probably peeping through the keyhole and could telling wasn’t one of them). Just as am about to give up the lift door opens and 2 strange guys with 3 very young drunk girls that looked barely 18 come out they head over to my neighbor’s door but then my apartment door is opened by some guy, who promptly ignores us and peeps and shouts a name, that’s when I realize the group is headed to my place. I try talking to the person who opened my door and he ignores me so I had to follow the group in quickly with my cleaner right behind me. So once I get in, this is the scenario I meet:

About 15 to 20 people in my house, bulk of them women.

Broken and dirty plates, glasses and bottles all over my open plan kitchen floor and sink, sheesha bongs on my white carpet with majivu all over, the carpet was now black, spillage of alcohol and puke on the floor, drunk disoriented women and men Lounging on my couch with loud music and noise, my Alexa was on the floor, my house was trashed and smack in the middle of the mess is Babu Owino himself, he had pulled out one of my dining seats and was sitting in the middle of the room surrounded like some god. So my cleaner and I are standing on the hallway speechless. It’s also at this moment that we realize who is in the house. Man! the only other time I had “seen” Babu Owino was on TV either throwing stones or insulting the president or other politicians and I never thought much of him other than he is the usual political clowns we see in Kenya.

Now I walk towards him and request if he could turn down the music so that we could talk, these women sitting in my living room, drunk as skanks with cheap heavy makeup, barely in their 20s have the audacity to respond instead telling me to chill and that I could say what I want without turning down the music. It took all my will power to keep ignoring them. So I ask Babu Owino if he could checkout with his guests so we can clean up for the next guest. (At this point I knew there was no way I could host there at 11 am and made a mental note to put up my guest at a restaurant as we clean up, I also knew I would need at least 3 more people to help). Babu Owino commands me to listen to the drunk women, sit down and have a drink, he even sends one of his goons to pull up another dinning seat and put it next to him so I could sit right next to him. Jesus

I ignore that and ask him again to leave. He then says I should refer to him as “honorable Babu Owino” and that I should respect him as my mum voted for him. (The nerve, my is an educated intelligent woman, my mum wouldn’t even dare). He probably thought I was the same age as the little girls he moves around with as I am petite but in my 30s.

I keep ignoring his rude remarks, he says he is not leaving my house until I refer to him as he wishes and has a drink with him. He also insisted I should produce a title deed to prove the apartment belongs to me. I just stared him down.

Then all hell broke loose. I tell Babu Owino I don’t drink. Suddenly he starts shouting insults in my face, calling me ugly and that I was not attractive (smh). Then he hands over to his goons, 2 men sprint towards me, 1 has a gun. At this point I calmly instruct my cleaner to get out and run, not to look back till she gets to the ground floor and get help. I then dial my last call which was the caretaker’s and let it on so that someone can hear in case I get shot. One of the guys grabs me by hand and manhandles me out of my apartment the entire time slapping the back of my head, meanwhile these women are thoroughly entertained now laughing and cheering. I don’t fight back as I know better. I simply let him throw me out. He follows me out and starts pushing me towards the lift while shouting that I was disrespectful, I know he wants a reaction so I stay silent, he puts me on a chokehold. These guys are 6ft arrogant goons against a 5″4 slim lady. Unarmed, unprovoked.

Luckily, my neighbor (who I met at the lift while coming in) hears the commotion and opens the door. This prompts him to let go of my neck.

She comes out thinking the drunk party people are now fighting.

The guy goes back inside the house, my neighbor now asks what’s going on and I tell her the story from the beginning, starting with the day before.

Now she tells me they had not slept all night, her husband was out of town and groups of people kept coming in throughout the night mistaking my door for theirs, at some point, they would bang her door and shout or just keep running the handle, her little girls were scared and couldn’t sleep, they barely slept that night.

The caretaker had hung up after a few mins and was now calling frantically. I pick up and explained. what happened, now the caretaker tells me to wait so she can come to handle the situation. Meanwhile, Babu Owino is shouting from inside the house saying that I can take him nowhere and that no police station could dare even if I reported the matter. (I had not even mentioned the police at this point) The caretaker gets there and I tell her to just refund the guy all money so he can leave(he had paid her since I was not comfortable giving out my number for Mpesa to some politician). I just wanted him and his people out. She goes inside the apartment, comes out a few mins later and says Babu Owino says I should go in and apologize or he won’t leave. At this point, I am drained so I tell the caretaker I am going to the cops and she will also be in trouble. She goes back and I can only imagine how much begging she did. They start living In groups of 2 and 3. As they are leaving, can you imagine another group arrives! They are told they too have to leave. As they leave, the caretaker and I are standing at the stairs/lifts hallway.

Lastly, Babu Owino comes out with the 2 of his security details, instead of heading to the lift he comes to me and stands nose to nose with me. His words “I will not forget your face, I will find you and you will apologize ” I stared him down, didn’t even flinch. But my heart was racing Edgar, his eyes are dark and I know he meant it. Basically it’s like looking at evil itself, darkness. Luckily I was dressed in my home tracksuit, which is baggy and I had a cap and my glasses, no way he can recognize me anywhere in my normal attire. He didn’t even see my hair. So I go inside the apartment thinking everyone has left. But then I hear a commotion inside one of the bedrooms, there is a girl past out totally and the guy who physically assaulted me and another one is trying to wake her up with loud slaps. Since Babu Owino has left, he is not as brave so when he notices me lurking, he quickly grabs the girl, hauls her over his shoulder, and hurries out. I cannot even start to tell you how much I spent to recover my house, all my glasses and plates were broken, puke, sheesha makaa and majivu all over the place, drugs left behind, broken bottles, my carpets were destroyed. It took 3 days to get the house back to normal. I had to book another apartment for my guest and had to pay more to get her an equally good place as it was a last-minute booking. Luckily the guest was totally understanding. When I watched DJ Evolve’s feature on NTV last night, I cried, I cried because I have met the person who shot him, I have looked into his dark eyes, I have been threatened, by the same person, am sure his aim was to kill him and lie about it. He simply did not know that there was a CCTV camera there. (My caretaker later explained to me that his 1st question the 1st time he took an apartment in the compound was if there were CCTV cameras) . At that point we had none. They were later installed.

So he probably did not think there was a CCTV in that club. Felix from the videos I have seen was such a handsome jovial talented individual, he is so strong to be able to tell his story in his state. I want to help him just like so many people but I don’t know-how. Tweeting about it is not enough.

I don’t think I am the only one who has encountered Babu Owino. I am sure so many people have. Please encourage them to come forward, tell their stories, maybe if people hear more about this monster, they will stop voting for him and unfollow all his social media platforms. Maybe it will take away the few supporters he has.

I don’t care how many roads, hospitals, or churches he builds. He can’t kill and maim our brothers. He can’t be God. I apologize in advance for any typos. Your followers have PhDs in English and I just needed the story out. No time for grammar and spelling checks.