The Shadow Side

The dead man does not know the value of his coffin. This episode comes to us from Mind Your Own https://lemonadamedia.com/show/mind-your-own-with-lupita-nyongo/! Mind Your Own is a storytelling podcast navigating what it means to belong, all from the African perspective. Join Lupita Nyong’o as she shares tales of her own and dives into the lives of real people finding their way in new worlds of every kind. Listen to and enjoy Mind Your Own https://lemonadamedia.com/show/mind-your-own-with-lupita-nyongo/ on any podcast platform! This episode contains strong language and graphic imagery. Sensitive listeners, please be advised. “Comeuppance” 12-year-old Lupita’s split-second playground decision haunts her for years. Produced by Regina Bediako & Marisa Dodge. Original score by Clay Xavier. “Graveyard Shift” John Kibera has found the hustle to end all hustles in Nairobi. The shillings pour in. But one day, a job goes very, very wrong. Thank you, John, for sharing your story with us. Produced by David Exumé. Original score by Lalin St. Juste and Sam Law. Translation by Salome Nduku. Voiceover by Ndungi Githuku. Special thanks to our fixer Michael Kaloki. Original Mind Your Own theme song by Sandra Lawson-Ndu AKA Sandu Ndu x Peachcurls ft. Ehiorobo. This episode also featured the song O. T. T by Rouge. Executive Producers: Glynn Washington and Mark Ristich Managing Editor: Regina Bediako Director of Production: Marisa Dodge Series Producers: David Exumé and Priscilla Alabi Music Supervisor: Sandra Lawson-Ndu Story Scouts: Ashley Okwuosa, Fiona Nyong’o, Jessica Kariisa, Lesedi Oluko Moche Editors: Nancy López and Anna Sussman Engineering: Miles Lassi Operations Manager: Florene Wiley Story Consultant: John Fecile Graphic Design: Jemimah Ekeh Original Artwork: Mateus Sithole Special Thanks: Allan Coye, Jake Kleinberg, Samara Still, Sarah Yoo, Warner Music Group, and Afripods Mind Your Own is a production of KQED’s Snap Studios, with sales and distribution by Lemonada Media. Hosted and produced by Lupita Nyong’o. Join Snap+ https://snap.supercast.com/if you aren't already a member! Get bonus eps, an ad-free stream and more. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

• 0:07Speaker 00

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• 1:07Speaker 01

  Snappers, today we're taking a little detour down a very special road. Something different. I want to hand the Snap Wheel over to a dear friend to introduce a series we made in partnership with Lemonada Media. It's a show with heart, with soul, even a taste of the shadow. And it comes to us from the voice, the vision and the wonder of Lupita Nyong'o. You may recall Lupita from the stage, from the screen, the Oscars, the whole constellation. In fact, the fancy people are celebrating her turn as Helen of Troy in Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey. All of that, but... But here at Snap, we know Lupita as a storyteller,

• 1:53Speaker 01

  as a 3 a.m. texter, as a gift giver, a host extraordinaire with a destination in mind. Lupita Nyong'o, take it away.

• 2:04Speaker 02

  This episode contains strong language and graphic imagery. Sensitive listeners, please be advised. I don't know one Kenyan who would rule out witchcraft. Juju, Urogi. Ah, no, it doesn't exist. I feel in some capacity, every Kenyan has a little belief, a hidden belief in Urogi. In my family, it was very much, "The Lord is our shepherd and the blood of the lamb will cover me and protect me." But also, watch out for that dude. Watch out for that corner.

• 2:48Speaker 02

  Just err on the side of caution. Today, we're going to get into all of that. Superstition, Urogi, Juju. We're crossing into the shadow side. I'm Lupita Nyong'o and this is Mind Your Own.

• 3:44Speaker 02

  When I was in year seven, I was hanging out in our field at school. I'd finished my activities and I was waiting for the late bus. Me and my friends were gathered at the edge of the playing field. We were lying on the ground. We were chatting amongst ourselves, just kicking it. And there was a group of boys, I think they were like in year five, running around the field. But for some reason, they decided to run in our area. They were running around us and one of the boys decided to jump over my legs. Over my legs.

• 4:28Speaker 02

  And I was like, so shocked. Because that is such a bad thing to do in my culture. There's a superstitious belief that if you jump over someone's legs, you stunt their growth and you could make them barren. The way you undo it is he has to jump over you again. So I'm like, "Come back here, you come back here. Jump over me. Why could you do that?" So he comes, he jumps over me and now he's giggling. I'm like, "You shouldn't be jumping over us. There's a whole field. Go play elsewhere." Me and my friends are huffing and puffing. They're like, "Ah, why are they doing this to us? Shame on them." They were so irritated, these small boys, you know?

• 5:12Speaker 02

  And then I decide, okay, if he does it again, man, I'm gonna have to have a word with him. He does it again. All my purchases are falling on deaf ears. I swear to God, next time this boy comes my way, I'm gonna trip him. I'm just gonna kick my leg up casually, the way I have been doing, and trip him. So, you know, I get back into conversation, but now my attention is fully on these boys. I'm pretending to engage in this gossip session, but no, I am like, listening to the pitter patter of these boys' feet, waiting for them to approach.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  And I lift my foot and it catches his and hoo dah, he falls. Yes, did it. But just as soon as I rejoiced, I recognize, almost like in retrospect, that the fall didn't sound right. It was a pah, kah. And so I'm like, "Wait, what?" I get up. All my friends get up. We're looking at the boy. He sits up, cradling his hand, and he goes, "Ow." And he looks down at his arm.

• 6:46Speaker 02

  I look down at his arm and I see that where it's supposed to be brown, there is something white jutting out. And no sooner have I seen that white thing jutting out blip, blip, blip, blip, blip of blood. His hand is facing the wrong direction. And then he starts to scream. I broke someone's arm. I don't know what to do.

• 7:30Speaker 02

  There is panic all around me. My friends have run to call the receptionist. The teachers have shown up. In no time, there's an ambulance there. You know, I just wanted him to trip and maybe have a little graze on his elbow. That's it. You know, a little whoops. I didn't want him to like, I didn't want him to end up in a hospital. He's put on a stretcher and he's carried away. The teachers that are left behind are trying to figure out what happened. And I feel like everybody knows that I did it on purpose. I'm hearing the boys that were running around,

• 8:15Speaker 02

  they're telling the teachers, "Oh, we were playing, we were playing and then he jumped over, he jumped over their legs and tripped." I realized that nobody knew that I had done it intentionally. And so I chose not to say anything. I was crying and crying. And I remember like my teacher saying, "Why are you crying so much? You're fine. Can't you see that the boy is hurt? You need to have sympathy for him." Surely they would find out. Surely he would say something.

• 8:58Speaker 02

  I wanted to find out what hospital he was in. But then I realized that if I take too much action, they might figure it out and then I might get expelled? My parents might have to pay the hospital bill? At that point, things were tight financially and I, I knew that. He was out of school for a while, maybe a week or two. We were asked to write him a get well soon card and so I signed the card. And I was just so sure that when he got better and came back to school, he would come for me.

• 9:41Speaker 02

  When I heard he was back, that day, I didn't hear anything my teacher said in those first sessions of, of class, man. Because all I could think about was like, I'm gonna see him. I'm gonna run into him at recess. He was going to point a finger at me and yell at the top of his voice, "It's her fault, it's her fault, it's her who did it." It was break time and very unceremoniously, he just passed me by. He had one hell of a cast on. He saw me, he said, "Hi."

• 10:24Speaker 02

  I said, "Hi." And he just went on. It was like he didn't even recognize me. Like, he didn't equate me to his accident at all. At first I was perplexed because here I was and I saw his face every night. And so to see him so unburdened by me was really quite surprising. And then I thought, that means I'm really in the clear.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  I felt relief.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  And I just kept the guilt.

• 11:20Speaker 02

  I didn't get suspended. I didn't miss one day of school. And I didn't get socially condemned. If I didn't tell this story, nobody'd know. But I would. So what constitutes getting away with it?

• 11:39Speaker 01

  Shadow Side continues after this short break. Stay tuned.

• 11:57Speaker 01

  We'll come back to Snap Judgment, The Shadow Side from Mind Your Own, already in progress.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  Welcome back. You're listening to Mind Your Own. At some point or another, we've all had a scheme. Maybe it's a gamble that you're sure is going to turn out in your favor.

• 12:21Speaker 02

  And it does. And it keeps working for you. It's almost too good to be true. Well, I can tell you with certainty that you have never heard a scheme quite like this one. Today on Mind Your Own, we're taking you to Kenya to meet John Kibera, the man who disturbed the dead.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  I hope you're listening.

• 12:55Speaker 02

  John Kibera knows a lot about the thief manual.

• 13:03Speaker 03

  You know, a thief is not wise. A thief's money is spent quickly, runs out quickly. When you are a thief, you have to be a hypocrite. You have just to pretend that you have no idea what is going on.

• 13:18Speaker 02

  Since age 11, crime was the only way he knew how to survive. He had been caught several times, served some time, and went back to robbing banks and carjacking. One day, it nearly cost him his life.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  We were at a place called Kawangware. We accosted this particular victim as they were driving into the compound. We did not know that the police were laying in wait.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  I heard the first gunshot, the second gunshot, and the third gunshot. And everyone scrambled. We had gone as a squad of six people. The police gunned down two of them.

• 14:07Speaker 02

  John made it out alive, but this was his last time doing armed robbery. He realized he wanted to find a better, safer hustle.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  I really sat down and thought, what kind of crime would not bring me trouble with the police? What kind of crime would not give me trouble with the public?

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Attending the burial of one of his friends who was involved in the carjacking was a brutal reminder of why he had to change things up. And at that funeral, he noticed something.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  In the cemetery, I noticed that the rich were being buried in very expensive coffins. And this is where I got the idea. How could I steal these coffins?

• 15:10Speaker 02

  John imagines it would be like any other heist. You find a buyer.

• 15:14Speaker 03

  I found a coffin shop and talked to the owner.

• 15:18Speaker 02

  Put together a small team of reliable men.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  Two of them, we had been locked up together.

• 15:24Speaker 02

  And yes, there was that one grisly detail of handling dead bodies, but John had a solution for that, too.

• 15:34Speaker 03

  Like three beers and then smoke some weed. Even thieves use drugs, too, to sort of escape what awaits you.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  All that was left was to do the job. Luckily, John knew a spot that was just 10 minutes away from where he lived in Nairobi. In January of the year 2000, John Kibera and his band of misfits headed to Langata Cemetery for their first heist.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  Langata Cemetery is divided into three sections. There's a section for burying the very wealthy. There's a section for burying the millionaires. And the last section is for burying the poor.

• 16:23Speaker 02

  They got there at 2:00 a.m., so there were no guards around to watch them sneak into the wealthiest section of the graveyard. They picked a grave at random and shuffled off the top layer of soil. Underneath was a concrete slab.

• 16:40Speaker 03

  The rich plastered the sides of the grave, and then they put the slab on top. The slab made the work easier, because all you needed to do was just put it aside.

• 16:52Speaker 02

  After moving the slab aside, the team saw what they had come for: an expensive coffin. They hoisted the coffin out of the hole and set it on the ground. And when they opened it up...

• 17:10Speaker 03

  He had on a suit, a golden ring, chain, goob shoes. I was ecstatic.

• 17:19Speaker 02

  John and his team pulled the body out of the coffin, which was less foul than he thought it would be.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  The kind of corpse we are talking about is a rich person's corpse. It was very well preserved. It was like a sculpture.

• 17:35Speaker 02

  Turns out, even in death, the wealthy sleep better than the poor.

• 17:42Speaker 03

  So together with my team, we removed the suit. We removed the shoes. We removed the jewelry. Then we dumped the body back without any of the clothes or jewelry and without the coffin. They put the slab back so that people would not catch on. We were fulfilling the scriptures that say...

• 18:07Speaker 03

  A human being comes naked to the world, and they should live naked. And by 4:00 a.m., I had taken the coffin to the businessman who owned the coffin shop, and he paid me my first 70,000 shillings.

• 18:25Speaker 02

  70,000 shillings. That could get you something nice, like a top-of-the-line computer or television. And then John took the chain, suit, and shoes to a secondhand market called Gekomba for some extra cash.

• 18:44Speaker 03

  And from there, I felt business was really good, because now I had found the shop, and my work was now to bring in the coffins.

• 18:55Speaker 02

  But John is not even 20 years old at this point. And like a lot of people his age, he went through that cash fast.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Ah, you know, you're in a bar, you need a drink, you know, a woman comes in. You need a woman. You don't want to embarrass yourself in your own local club.

• 19:22Speaker 02

  John knew he had a good thing going. He just had to think more strategically.

• 19:28Speaker 03

  I used to buy the newspaper every day to read the obituaries. And if the obituary was a full page or a half page, I knew that the disease was coming from a wealthy family. In the obituaries, they must state that the meeting is taking place at 6:00 p.m. at this specific place. That's where the meetings to plan the funeral are happening.

• 19:51Speaker 02

  John and his boys would put on suits to blend in, head to the funeral preparation meeting, and listen. The bigger the budget of the coffin, the more money they would make when they stole it.

• 20:05Speaker 03

  Most days, I could attend two meetings where people were mourning.

• 20:10Speaker 02

  But they couldn't go to the graveyard until nightfall. So during the day, John and his guys would just hang out.

• 20:18Speaker 03

  We would go to bars.

• 20:23Speaker 03

  Like one in River Road in Nairobi and another in Uzuro.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  I love playing pool, so we always would play pool, just waiting, waiting for time for us to do our work. It was our game.

• 20:38Speaker 02

  One of these nights when they were out at a bar, John met someone special.

• 20:46Speaker 03

  Her name was Margaret Wanjero. We met in a bar in Nairobi. We were having fun and enjoying the one-man guitar show. She used to work in bars. In the course of our conversation and getting to know each other until the point of getting intimate, that's when I told her about what I did. And she understood.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  She didn't just understand. No, no, no, no. Margaret invited herself into John Kibera's team, and she was in 200%.

• 21:22Speaker 03

  When the priest or the pastor would be saying, "It is time to lower the body," Margaret would be there and would really cry a lot. Some of the coffins were not sealed with nails, but hard locks. And in that crying, she would take an opportunity to take a photo of the lock to help us know how to open it later. The lady was hardcore.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  John's team grew to have eight people total. And over the next year, they would make around 150,000 shillings every time they dug up a coffin and sold the valuables. That was enough to buy a brand-new car. And John's original hunch was right. This was much safer than holding a person at gunpoint or stealing a car.

• 22:16Speaker 03

  It was a lot better than armed crime or armed robbery. The corpse wouldn't ask you any questions.

• 22:22Speaker 02

  It's true. A corpse wouldn't give you the same heat. A living person would. At least, not most of the time.

• 22:33Speaker 03

  One time, we went to steal from a grave in Nyanza province. And when we tried to, we all started trembling and we couldn't do it. And this is the first time I started suspecting that corpses could have evil spirits. I only used to hear about it, but I never used to believe it.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  More, right after the break. Stay tuned.

• 24:03Speaker 01

  Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the shadow side from mine your own, with Peter Nyongo. Please drop us back into the story.

• 24:14Speaker 02

  The team wasn't even able to get the coffin out of the grave. That's how hard they were trembling. And over the next few days, John started to see visions, of whom he could only assume was that poor soul that he was trying to rob.

• 24:39Speaker 03

  When I went to sleep, I would see this person, like literally, I would see this person. And when I felt that this dead body, this corpse, was tormenting me, I spoke to one elder and told him what was happening to me. And he told me that I had to find 50,000 shillings and go back to that community and ask for forgiveness. So I did, to free myself from this problem.

• 25:07Speaker 02

  Well, a restless spirit and an anonymous donation was not enough to stop John from keeping this operation going. Not when the money was so good.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Now, I had money. I built an amazing house, a seven-story house in the neighborhood.

• 25:35Speaker 03

  I bought myself a Pujot 504, which was renowned in Kenya. I could pay to sleep in a nice hotel, I could visit different parts of the country, I could go to Mombasa, to the coast. I was at the peak of my life.

• 25:53Speaker 03

  It was like...

• 25:56Speaker 03

  A London lifestyle.

• 25:59Speaker 02

  Not only was John's wallet happy, but he realized he kind of liked being the boss. This was a level of security and comfort John had just never known.

• 26:11Speaker 03

  So for each job we did, I had to get more money. I loved it.

• 26:19Speaker 03

  It was a patron. They wouldn't go on any operation without me. It felt good to be the boss, who many people depended on.

• 26:28Speaker 02

  John Kibera could finally enjoy the little things in life, like dates with Margaret.

• 26:36Speaker 03

  She was the first person to just take me somewhere where we could relax, like a recreational place, like one where there was lots of entertainment with Kikuyu musicians, whom I loved. She was beautiful. I loved her heart and I respected her.

• 27:00Speaker 03

  She used to make me feel like a man. She really used to encourage me and tell me, you know, be strong, love.

• 27:10Speaker 03

  I did this work until it got to a point where the corpse was really nothing to me. We just kept on doing our thing without fearing anything.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Which made John and his team more ambitious. They wanted to think bigger and bolder about their heists. Like when they went after the grave of Ibrahim Akasha, a drug kingpin who operated out of Mombasa.

• 27:40Speaker 03

  He was a drug lord in a coffin worth 1.2 million shillings. When he was shot and buried, we got the coffin. After two days, word went around that Akasha had been exhumed, but no one knew who had done it.

• 27:57Speaker 02

  They had picked too big a target. News was starting to spread around Nairobi and other parts of Kenya that people were indeed stealing from graves. But the names and faces were still unknown. John and his associates continued to disturb the dead and tempt fate. Fearless, rich, and a little sloppy.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  I remember it was a Saturday around 1:30 AM.

• 28:38Speaker 03

  We had gone to steal a coffin at a place called Giduguri.

• 28:42Speaker 02

  Everything had been going as planned. They found a grave, dug out the slab. But before they could get the coffin out, a local spotted them.

• 28:57Speaker 03

  And they started screaming, thieves, thieves! We ran away and they started chasing us. My four colleagues and I took off. And when we got to River Sagana, it was everyone for himself. At least I could swim.

• 29:23Speaker 03

  I jumped into River Sagana and I swam for about 500 meters. I got out of the river and onto the road.

• 29:31Speaker 02

  John hailed down a vegetable truck that gave him a lift back to town. He rented a hotel room and tried to lay low for the night.

• 29:42Speaker 03

  I was lucky to have gotten away, but I kept thinking, what about my colleagues? I was taking tea in the hotel when I heard it announced on the news.

• 30:03Speaker 03

  Thieves had been burned in Maragua when they were trying to steal a coffin.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  Some of John's guys had been caught by angry locals who wanted justice. They were taken to Maragua and executed. As the other hotel guests shook their heads at the news, John, for his own safety, played along and pretended like he didn't know anything.

• 30:31Speaker 02

  He knew he had to stay as far removed from this news cycle as possible, which meant he couldn't even go to their funerals.

• 30:44Speaker 03

  I did think about it. I would have wanted to. But the fear that I could go there and, you know, then the suspicion, people would say this guy was with them, or they used to be together.

• 31:02Speaker 03

  That fear stopped me.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  And this isn't like that gang shootout that got John into grave robbing in the first place. No, this time, John was the boss. John had spent time with them. John had brought each of them into the fold.

• 31:24Speaker 03

  They had families and I knew their families. I knew their wives, I knew their children. So I was really sad that I had brought them into this kind of tragedy. I was heartbroken. I felt like I had no strength.

• 31:46Speaker 03

  I would wake up and go to a pub. I would play pool. I would play from like 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM at night. And then I would go back home.

• 32:00Speaker 02

  John and his team lay low, not daring to approach another grave. But after a few months, the money started running out. A few of John's men approached him and said...

• 32:16Speaker 03

  When the cooking stick breaks, that is not the end of cooking. Like you don't stop cooking because the cooking stick has broken. So they said, let's get back to work.

• 32:28Speaker 02

  John agreed to continue the grave robbing spree. After all, it was the only source of income, not just for himself, but for his old team. And they'd all gotten used to that London lifestyle. But before he could plan another heist, he had to tell a certain someone that it just wasn't worth the risk anymore. That person was Margaret.

• 32:55Speaker 03

  I mean, she loved the work. But you know, when I looked and saw that trouble was starting to crop up, I felt, no, there is no point for both of us to die. And that is why I asked her to step aside from this.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  After a long and difficult argument, John agreed to give some of his earnings to Margaret so that she could step out of the coffin stealing game and start a business of her own.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  You do this and let me hustle.

• 33:31Speaker 02

  That marked the last time he and Margaret ever spoke. And John kept hustling, kept unearthing coffins, and kept tempting fate.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  We are Boxing Day, 2004. It was Boxing Day of 2004. We were at Langata Cemetery. And we had dug this particular grave and we had taken the coffin out. But the vehicle that was supposed to come and collect the coffin was late. You cannot carry the coffin on your back. You cannot put it on a motorbike.

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Daylight was approaching and the team did not have enough time to put the coffin back where it came from. John knew that if they got caught with this coffin, it would be Maragua all over again.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  In a snap decision, he resorted to a skill he had sworn off what felt like a lifetime ago.

• 34:36Speaker 03

  To hijack.

• 34:37Speaker 02

  Carjacking. And the first van they saw wasn't just any van.

• 34:44Speaker 03

  A van belonging to the Nation Media Group.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Probably the largest multimedia production company in all of East and Central Africa.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  I switched off the van and grabbed the key. Meanwhile, one of my teammates pulled the driver out of the van.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  The team left the newspaper employee on the ground and went back to the cemetery.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  When we got to the cemetery, the coffin couldn't fit because there were still newspapers in the back of the van. So I quickly got into the back of the van. I removed all the newspapers. I dumped them on the ground. And they handed me the coffin.

• 35:32Speaker 02

  After John pulled the coffin into the back of the van with him, his teammates closed the door and locked it from the outside. There were no windows, no screens to see the road or the driver's seat. So all John could really see was this golden coffin that they planned to sell. He heard his teammates get in the front and felt the van start moving. Now, Langata Cemetery is very close to Nairobi's Central Business District, like 10 minutes stops. Surely, they could get there, sell the coffin, and ditch the vehicle. At least, that was the plan.

• 36:14Speaker 02

  John was sitting in the back of the van, in the dark, when he heard.

• 36:22Speaker 03

  That's when the shooting started.

• 36:25Speaker 02

  John was thrown against the wall as the van swerved and then came to a screeching halt. He desperately tried to find shelter as bullets punched holes through the van's walls.

• 36:37Speaker 03

  The van was like a sieve.

• 36:39Speaker 02

  With the doors locked from the outside, John had nowhere to go. But daylight was bleeding through those bullet holes and it was shining a light on his one saving grace. John Kibera cracked open the lid of that golden coffin, slid inside of it, and closed it shut.

• 37:04Speaker 03

  After about three minutes of gunshots, there was silence. My colleagues, from the number of gunshots, I would not expect they had survived. So I knew they were dead.

• 37:20Speaker 02

  John lay silent and sweltering in the heat, but he could hear voices approaching. Police.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  I heard the door of the van being opened.

• 37:32Speaker 02

  Someone must have reported the carjacking.

• 37:35Speaker 03

  Police discovered that there was a golden coffin in the back and they wondered what it was for. One of the police officers was asked to check what it was for. I lay completely still. I stiffened my body and opened my eyes wide and fixed them. In that panic, I cut off a piece of cotton wool from the side of the coffin and I put it in my mouth so I would look truly dead. And I just prayed for God to save me any way he could.

• 38:11Speaker 03

  When the police officer opened the coffin, we saw each other face to face. My eyes were wide open, but they were fixed, trying to put on the look of a dead person. I played dead as best as I could. The officer slammed the coffin shut. He got out of the van and told the other officers that there was a corpse inside the coffin and it was sweating. I could hear them discussing among themselves what to do. They agreed that the corpse needs to be taken to the city mortuary. So they agreed that they would carry the coffin and put it in the police land rover.

• 38:54Speaker 03

  So six of the officers lifted the coffin and they were carrying it on the tarmac of Kenyatta Avenue.

• 39:02Speaker 03

  That's when my heart told me, don't be slow. So just as they were about to put it in the land rover,

• 39:14Speaker 03

  I smacked the coffin loudly. The moment I hit the coffin, the police officers dropped it. I jumped out and I saw a crowd of people. Everyone ran away, seeing an evil spirit had been seen in Nairobi. People were running, jumping into their vehicles and trying to get away. Remember, there were three other corpses and no one knew which one would get up next. A lady asked, what is happening? And I'm the one who answered, can't you see a corpse is running?

• 39:50Speaker 02

  Amidst the chaos, John took off. He knew that the police would not treat him any more kindly than they had treated the three corpses in the van.

• 40:02Speaker 03

  And I just felt time was up for this kind of work. Ahead of me, I saw Kamukonji Police Station. I ran there and talked to the OCS, the officer in charge. I turned myself in and I said, I was the one in the coffin on Kenyatta Avenue. They took me to Makadara Court, where I was charged with exhuming dead bodies. That is when the police put my name in the newspapers.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  John served six months in prison. After he got out, he tried to move back home to Kaangware. But he wasn't just John Kibera anymore. He was John Kibera, Kenya's most notorious grave robber. He found out that the papers and tabloids had been spreading his story all over town. A man who made a killing from digging up the dead. And that reputation followed him everywhere he went.

• 41:10Speaker 03

  When someone hears that you deal with corpses, they definitely fear you. This kind of crime is one of a kind worldwide. If I walked into a bar, someone would see me and recognize me and they would panic. If I interacted with ladies, they didn't want to associate with me. They were really scared of me.

• 41:38Speaker 03

  I needed new places, new places where people couldn't recognize me. I gave away my house to a school for orphans. As for the cash money, I donated it to Langata Women's Prison. But the blankets and supplies, I've never gone back.

• 41:59Speaker 02

  After that, John basically just attended church, did some volunteering and kept it low-key. Maybe he thought he might be able to live a normal life now. Maybe his past was finally behind him, which could leave him room to build a future with someone.

• 42:24Speaker 03

  I met this girl in 2005. She was an Ayesha in a church that I used to go to.

• 42:34Speaker 03

  Our wedding was to be in 2007. But on the wedding day, the father of the bride came with a newspaper showing me as a criminal.

• 42:48Speaker 03

  And he said he cannot allow his daughter to marry a criminal. So.

• 42:57Speaker 03

  He took her away when she was still in her wedding dress. They got into the car and they left.

• 43:16Speaker 02

  John Kibera, thank you so much for telling us your story. These days, John is a preacher in Nairobi, as well as a motivational speaker telling kids that crime does not pay. For more about John, check out our show notes. And thank you for listening. It's been good to have you. I've really enjoyed going with you to Langata Cemetery. In the middle of the night, we looked left, then we looked right. The coast was clear.

• 43:51Speaker 01

  Until it wasn't.

• 43:54Speaker 02

  Time to play dead. We'll see you the next time you mind your own. Until then, here's a song from the continent. OTT by Rouge.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  Mind Your Own is hosted and produced by me, Lupita Nyong'o. This is a production of Snap Studios at KQED, with sales and distribution by Lemonada Media. The executive producers are Glynn Washington and Mark Ristich. Our managing editor is Regina Bediako. Our director of production is Marisa Dodge. Original music in my story, Come Up, was by Clay Xavier. The story Graveyard Shift was produced by David Exome. Translation by Salome Nduku. Voiceover by Ndungu Giduku. Original music by Laleen Sanjust and Sam Law.

• 45:25Speaker 02

  Special thanks to our fixer, Michael Kaloki. Our Mind Your Own producers are David Exome and Priscilla Alabi. Our story scouts are Ashley Okwuosa, Fiona Nyong'o, Jessica Carissa, and Lesedi Olukomoche. Our editors are Nancy Lopez and Anna Sussman. Our story consultant is John Fasil. Engineering by Miles Lassie. Our music supervisor is Sandra Lawson Ndu, also known as Sandu Ndu. She also created the Mind Your Own theme song with Peach Curls,

• 46:09Speaker 02

  featuring vocals from Ehiorobo. Graphic design by Jemima Eke. Original artwork by Mateusz Sitolet. Special thanks to Alan Coy, Jake Kleinberg, Samara Still, Sarah Yu, Warner Music Group, and Aphropods. Make sure to follow Mind Your Own and listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, go out, get together, and

• 46:49Speaker 01

  Mind your own bodies!

• 47:01Speaker 01

  That was the shadow side from Mind Your Own. Thank you, Lupita Nyong'o. Big love and thanks to our partners Lemonada Media, Aphropods, the Warner Music Group, Snap's home station of KQED, Normal Login, CAA's Josh Lindgren, all of Team Snap to each and every person as well who put love into the show. There is so much more where this came from. Stories that can make you laugh, make you cry, and let you look through someone else's eyes. Mind Your Own is on every podcast platform.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  Oh, yes. If you missed even a moment, even a moment, know that an entire world of Snap storytelling awaits on the Snap Judgment Podcast. What? And some stories are best lived vicariously. That's right, better to experience danger while sipping on a cold drink. Look up, and you might see Snap's opening Hall of Justice from KQED in San Francisco. And big news. At long last, we're opening up the curtain. Snap Plus is now available. Subscribe for bonus Snap episodes, special Snap meetups, more. Snap Plus, the world of Snap awakes at snapjudgment.org on Team Snap.

• 48:31Speaker 01

  The union represented producers, artists, editors, engineers, and members of the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, Communication Network of America, AFL-CIO, Local 51, please tell SkyNet that no Snap Studios content may be used for training, testing, or developing machine learning or AI systems without prior written permission. Snap is brought to you by the team that has nothing to hide. Except the uber-producer, Mr. Mark Ristich. He has plenty to hide. And there's Nancy Lopez, Pat Mercedes Miller, Anna Sussman, Renzo Gorio, John Fasil, Shayna Shealy, Taylor Decot, Flo Wiley, Beau Walsh, Marissa Dodge. My name is Glynn Washington, and this is not the news.

• 49:16Speaker 01

  No way is this the news. In fact, you too could escape gunfire by hiding in a coffin and pretending to be a corpse. And you would still, even then, not be as far away from the news as this is. But this is P-R-X.