Salma did not call Mawimbi Groundworks & Haulage until Ambassador Kenga arrived at the school.
She wanted someone else to hear her questions before the answers could be turned into one side’s story.
They sat in the small records office. Jengo was teaching, Rukia had gone to find a larger tarpaulin for the tents, and Amina was in Kiswahili class.
Salma placed Doto’s quotation and the photograph of the delivery tag on the desk.
“The numbers match,” Kenga said.
“Yes.”
“But we don’t know when the tag came onto the site.”
“Yes.”
“Or whether the quotation was accepted.”
“Yes.”
Kenga looked at her. “You’re turning me into you.”
“That is a good thing.”
Salma dialed.
First ring.
Second.
Third.
A man answered.
“Mawimbi Groundworks.”
“Hello. My name is Salma Kito, from Upendo Ridge Secondary School in Mawimbi.”
A brief silence.
“Yes?”
“I’m verifying the record of work carried out on our compound two nights ago. We have a quotation bearing your company’s name and a delivery tag with this telephone number.”
The man did not answer immediately.
“What do you want?”
“The name of the person who was on site and the job reference.”
“That is client information.”
“Who is the client?”
“I don’t know who you are over the phone.”
“That’s fair. Can I send a written request to the company email address?”
“The email is on the quotation.”
“Can you confirm quotation reference MGH-Q-118?”
The man breathed out.
“Send the email.”
The call ended.
Kenga said, “He didn’t deny the reference exists.”
“He didn’t confirm it either.”
Salma sent the email immediately. She attached one photograph of the delivery tag and the page of the quotation showing the reference, not the full collection of site photographs. She asked the company to confirm five things: whether the quotation was theirs, whether the work had been accepted, the mobilization date, the client or paying account, and the name of the operator or subcontractor who had been on site.
She did not use the words *illegal demolition*.
Kenga read the message before she sent it.
“Good.”
“What would you have written?”
“‘Who ordered you to come and destroy a children’s school?’”
Salma stared at him.
Kenga laughed. “Which is why you are sending it.”
An hour later, while Salma was counting files recovered from the damaged cabinet, a reply arrived.
**Quotation MGH-Q-118 is ours. Please direct further questions to operations.**
Below it was a name:
**Hassan Pori — Site Operations**
And another telephone number.
Salma felt her pulse quicken.
The first real person inside the chain.
She called Kenga again, but the mediator had already left for another meeting. Over the phone he told her, “Don’t push him toward a conclusion. Ask what he saw and what instruction he received.”
Salma called Hassan.
He answered after a while.
“Hassan Pori.”
“Hello. This is Salma Kito from Upendo Ridge. Operations gave me your number regarding MGH-Q-118.”
Silence.
“Who gave it to you?”
“An official Mawimbi Groundworks email.”
“All right.”
“Were you the operator at our site?”
“I drove the excavator.”
Salma sat straighter.
“Hassan, I don’t want to tell you what anyone else has said. I want you to tell me the job you were given.”
“I was sent to clear the rear side and open an access strip.”
“Clear what?”
“Old masonry and structures on the line.”
“What time did you arrive?”
“At night. Around ten.”
“Why at night?”
“That was the slot we were given. They said the school would be empty.”
“Who said that?”
“Dispatch.”
“Who instructed dispatch?”
“I don’t know.”
“When you arrived, did you see classrooms?”
Hassan paused.
“I saw buildings.”
“Did they look abandoned?”
“I could see desks through one side.”
Salma tightened her grip on the pen.
“What did you do?”
“I asked the site contact if those were the structures.”
“Who was the site contact?”
“His name wasn’t on the delivery note. I was given a number.”
“Do you still have it?”
“It might be in my call log.”
“What instruction did you receive after you asked about the desks?”
For several seconds Hassan said nothing.
“Ms. Salma, I am an operator. I don’t manage land disputes.”
“I didn’t ask about the land dispute. I asked about the instruction.”
“He told me to continue with the rear side first.”
Salma’s pen stopped in midair.
It was close to the phrase Amina remembered hearing: *finish the rear side first.*
But Amina’s account had not yet been formally recorded. Salma did not tell Hassan about it.
“Were you on speaker?”
“No. I was holding the phone.”
“Could anyone else hear?”
“Maybe my helper. He was nearby.”
“Can you preserve the call log and delivery note until the mediator contacts you?”
Hassan sighed.
“I don’t want to be dragged into a family case.”
“I understand. But the machine you operated was already on the site. We want the work record. We are not trying to make you the culprit.”
“I did what I was told.”
“That is why the instruction matters.”
Hassan said he would send a photograph of the delivery note to the school email if operations authorized him.
After the call, Salma did not run to Rukia.
She wrote first.
**Hassan Pori states he operated excavator. Says scope was rear clearance/access strip. Says desks were visible. Says he called site contact and was told to continue with rear side first. Identity of site contact not yet established. Call log may exist.**
Then, in capital letters:
**DO NOT MATCH TO AMINA STATEMENT UNTIL BOTH ACCOUNTS ARE RECORDED INDEPENDENTLY.**
That was the most important line on the page.
Rukia returned at midday with news of her own.
“I found someone who knows Mawimbi Groundworks.”
“We’ve already contacted them.”
“And?”
“The operator confirmed he was on site.”
Rukia’s eyes widened.
“Then we’re done.”
“Done with what?”
“The contractor.”
“The contractor is not necessarily the person who gave the final instruction.”
“But the quotation came from Doto.”
“The quotation copy was sent by Doto. We still need the payment trail.”
Rukia drummed her fingers on the desk.
“A man could confess in front of you and you would still say, ‘We need the trail.’”
“The operator did not confess to a crime. He said he operated a machine under instruction.”
“And who gave the instruction?”
“Still unknown.”
Rukia walked to the window.
“Parents want an update.”
“Tell them we have verified the contractor’s identity and are continuing to verify authorization.”
“They’ll ask for the name.”
“You can say Mawimbi Groundworks has confirmed it was the contractor on site. Do not say Doto ordered them until we have evidence.”
Rukia turned.
“And if you’re wrong?”
“We correct the record.”
“And if you’re right but too slow?”
Salma looked toward the tents outside.
“That is why continuity cannot wait for the investigation.”
That evening, another email arrived from Mawimbi Groundworks.
**Attached: copy of field delivery note, subject to verification of client billing records.**
The delivery note was dated the night of the demolition.
Operator: **Hassan Pori.**
Equipment: **1 excavator.**
Scope: **rear clearance / access preparation.**
The client reference did not say Doto.
It read:
**KITO HARDWARE — PROJECT HOLD**
Salma sat still.
Kito Hardware was Doto’s business.
But *PROJECT HOLD* could mean several things. Work suspended? Billing pending? An internal account reference?
She refused to guess.
She emailed operations:
**Please clarify what “PROJECT HOLD” means in your billing system and whether this delivery note was billed/paid.**
No reply came that day.
Instead, at six in the evening, Doto called.
“You spoke to the contractor?” he asked without greeting her.
“Yes.”
“On whose authority?”
“Their equipment entered the school compound.”
“I gave you that quotation in the interest of transparency, and now you’re using it to build a case against me.”
“I asked the contractor about its own records.”
“What did they tell you?”
“If you want a mediation update, Ambassador Kenga will provide the same information to both sides. I’m not giving private evidence briefings over the phone.”
Silence.
Then Doto said, “Kito Hardware did not pay for the demolition of classrooms.”
Salma said nothing for a beat.
She had not mentioned Kito Hardware.
“Why are you saying that?”
“Because I know what you’re looking for.”
“Have you seen the delivery note?”
“The quotation came from my account.”
“The delivery note has a client reference.”
Doto exhaled.
“Salma, my business requested a site-preparation quotation before the standstill. That is not a secret.”
“Did your account pay?”
“Ask the contractor.”
“I’m asking you.”
Doto ended the call.
Salma immediately wrote down the time and the words she could remember. There was no recording, so she labeled the note:
**Contemporaneous note by Salma; not audio record.**
The next morning, operations replied.
**“PROJECT HOLD” is an internal flag indicating work should not proceed to final billing until client authorization is confirmed. Field mobilization occurred before billing clearance.**
Salma read it three times.
It did not prove who had given the go-ahead.
But it made one thing clear: even inside the contractor’s own system, authorization had not been straightforward.
A second attachment contained a draft invoice.
Bill-to:
**Kito Hardware & General Supplies**
Status:
**PENDING / NOT FINALIZED**
When Rukia arrived, Salma showed it to her without commentary.
“This is the payment trail,” Rukia said.
“No. It is a draft invoice. It does not prove payment.”
“But the bill-to is his business.”
“Yes. We can say that.”
Rukia sat down.
For once, she did not argue.
“So what do we have now?”
Salma turned her notebook toward her.
“Contractor verified. Operator verified. Equipment and date verified by the delivery note. Draft bill-to is Kito Hardware. Payment not yet verified. Site-contact identity not yet verified. Authorization chain still open.”
Rukia read the list.
“And Doto?”
“He is now concretely connected to the account.”
“But it isn’t the end.”
“It isn’t the end.”
Rukia breathed out.
“I’ll tell the parents that.”
Salma looked mildly surprised.
“Without adding anything?”
“Don’t get used to it.”
They laughed.
At midday Hassan sent a photograph of his call log.
There were two calls on the night of the demolition.
One at 10:07 p.m.
Another at 10:19 p.m.
The site-contact number was the same both times.
There was no name attached to it.
Salma entered the number in the evidence log and checked it against the school contacts, the family mediation contacts and the cooperative list.
No match.
A name outside the family had led them to the contractor.
Now an unnamed number sat inside the authorization chain.
Salma copied the digits carefully onto a fresh page.
The contractor was no longer a mystery.
The person behind the instruction still was.
---