In the video, French YouTuber Yves Kino is charged a steep price for an ugali matumbo dish at the sprawling Kibera slums and has to spend a drearily long time trying to reason with the food seller who is, obviously, ripping him off.
To better understand the context, we replay a little snippet of the conversation.
Yves:Â How much do I owe you for the ugali and matumbo?
Seller:Â One thousand Sir!
Yves: One thousand?
Seller: Only only…
Yves: Really? That’s really the price you say?
Seller:Â Normal, normal.
Yves: Because just before you told me this (matumbo) is 200. So ugali is 800? So everyone who pays for ugali pays 800?
Seller : Yes
Yves: You’re really sure? I’ll give you 500 because I think that’s already very much overpriced….
The YouTuber proceeds to hand the seller Ksh. 500 but the seller insists on an extra Ksh. 200.
The two now engage in a rather cringe conversation as the white client futilely attempts to explain that he does, indeed, know that he’s being ripped off even as the sellers continue haranguing him and pestering him for an extra Ksh. 200.
Exasperated, Yves finally gives in, albeit with apparent disappointment and hands him the extra Ksh. 200.
As he prepares to leave, the clearly disappointed YouTuber makes his thoughts clear, expressing his dismay at the daylight robbery.
“You’re nice, I’m gonna pay you but you’re cheating me. It’s your right, you can do it but you’re giving a bad image of the people here. It’s not this price. I’m not stupid but thank you, ” he says as he leaves, dejected.
After being shared on X (formerly Twitter), the video has now been viewed over 720k times as well as attracting thousands of comments and ‘LIKES’ too.
While a few people are siding with the food vendors, majority of Kenyans have been deeply incensed by the flagrant robbery, with many expressing their lack of faith in the Kenyan people and systems, comparing the fraudulent traders to our national leaders.
While expressing her disappointment, one X user @SharonJebitok said, “This guy has been traveling by road using a bicycle he entered Kenya through Ethiopia and has been to Nanyuki, Nyeri, etc on his way to Nairobi so he actually knows the prices!”
Another user got a little more serious with the matter, even pulling in a legal angle, saying, “We shouldn’t be joking about this to be honest. We should call upon this guy to return back the money to the French YouTuber for overprice. The Kenya penal code, Section 300, outlaws extortion. Can @DCI_Kenya have a look at this incident. This portrays Kenya badly in the international community; they can’t trust Kenyans.”
One German epidemiologist Mudge Rulf was particularly displeased by the entire encounter, taking to her X handle to thoroughly berate the extortionate food vendors while also terming the majority of Kenyan traders as ‘thieves’ no different from our politicians.
“This is one of the reasons why some Caucasians in my circle refuse to go back to Kenya. Honestly speaking I also prefer leaving them behind when I visit because I am tired of this thievery all the time. I need to enjoy my holiday without scammers activating their scamming antennae because they have seen a Caucasian or a mixed race child!” she bitterly ranted.
“Anyway, a majority of you are thieves like we see on this clip, why do you expect your politicians to be different? Could it be that you deserve some of your leaders?”
Yves Kino is a notable French YouTuber from France who has been travelling across continents while cycling his way from one country to another.
Kino started his journey in France, through Europe, and then the Middle East. He recently arrived in Kenya, covering a staggering distance of approximately 9,521 kilometres by road.
