Amina chose a small café near Ubungo, a place where the music was low and the tables had enough room for documents. Juma arrived with an envelope of receipts, but he did not greet her with a smile.
Amina looked at him. “You have come like an auditor.”
“You gave me Charles’s number.”
“I told you what I knew.”
“You told me he had helped someone get a placement.”
“He helped my sister enter the interview process.”
“And you received a referral?”
Amina fell silent. Juma placed the receipt on the table. A referral code had been printed above the company account number.
“I did not know the code would be on your receipt,” Amina said.
“But you knew there was a code?”
“Charles told me there was referral support. I did not know it was a commission.”
Juma opened the folder and took out a screenshot of an old chat.
“You said not to tell Rehema until the process was confirmed.”
Amina frowned. “I said family members bring fear. I did not tell you to lie.”
“You advised me to keep it secret.”
“Because you were asking whether you should continue. I thought if you told Rehema before you had an answer, she would stop you.”
“And now?”
“Now you have taken a loan?”
“Seven and a half million.”
Amina leaned back in her chair.
“Juma.”
“You knew more about this than Rehema did.”
“I did not know how much you were paying.”
“Did you ask?”
Amina did not answer. She opened her phone and searched for Charles’s chat. Juma saw voice notes and screenshots listed in the conversation.
“I sent him a first payment too,” Amina said.
Juma had not expected that.
“You paid him?”
“For a small service. I wanted him to review a document. Charles said that if he got more clients, my process would move faster.”
“Did it?”
“No.”
“Did you ask for a refund?”
“I received half after I complained.”
Amina produced an old receipt. The amount was smaller than Juma’s, but the recipient account was the same.
Juma placed his two receipts beside it.
“So you lost money too.”
“Do not use that to make me innocent. I sent you to him.”
“And you received a referral?”
Amina looked down.
“Charles said that if someone came through me, he could give me a small percentage.”
“Did you receive it?”
“Yes. In cash.”
Juma felt his anger change into something harder. He had come looking for someone to blame, but in front of him was a person who had received a benefit, felt deceived, and had still persuaded someone else to use the same broker.
“Did you tell Rehema?” Amina asked.
“She knows now.”
“Have you involved her?”
“We are building an evidence package.”
Amina looked alarmed.
“Do not put my name down as if I deceived you.”
“I will not write what I felt. I will write what you sent me, what you paid, what you received, and what you told me.”
“Do you want to destroy our friendship?”
“Friendship cannot change a transaction.”
Amina took out her phone.
“I will send you all the chats. But not because I agree with everything.”
“Because the record matters.”
“And you also made a choice. Do not write me as if I held your hand.”
Juma picked up his pen.
“I will write that I made the decision myself.”
They read the first chat together. Charles had written: “Do not delay, this opportunity is closing.” Amina had added: “I have seen them begin with other people. If you can, pay today.”
Juma felt the sentence return to him. He had read pressure and mistaken it for proof of an opportunity.
“You knew there was a deadline?” he asked.
“I knew Charles used those words with everyone.”
“Why did you not tell me?”
“Because I wanted my fee.”
Amina said it in a quiet voice, but she did not take it back. Juma wrote it in his notebook.
A café attendant came to ask whether they wanted more tea. Amina declined. Juma opened the printed email headers.
“On what date did you make your first payment?”
Amina checked the receipt.
“The second month.”
“And this is the same number?”
“Yes.”
“Were you given a contract?”
“Only a draft.”
“Were you given a warning?”
Amina opened a folder of WhatsApp messages. There was a message from Charles saying that processing had been delayed because of a “verification issue.” Amina read it and said that she had not thought it was serious.
Juma added it to the evidence list without writing that Amina was honest or dishonest.
“What do you need from me?” Amina asked.
“An export of the chat, the receipts, confirmation of the referral cash, and the name of the person who gave you Charles’s number.”
“Where will you take them?”
“We are considering a formal complaint.”
Amina was startled again.
“Juma, if you file a complaint, Charles will know we reported him.”
“He already knows we know.”
“Are you sure?”
Juma’s phone lit up. A message from Charles was short:
“Do not bring anyone else into our matter. We will finish this through conversation.”
Juma showed it to Amina.
She went quiet.
“Do not answer him,” she said.
“I will not.”
“And do not delete it.”
“I will keep it.”
Amina sent Juma the chat export. Before they left, she handed him her old receipt.
“Do not make me a clean witness,” she said. “I have my part in this.”
Juma accepted it.
“And I have mine.”
At the café door, Amina stopped.
“Does Rehema hate me?”
“I do not know.”
“If you see her, tell her I did not force you.”
“I will not carry a message that was never written.”
Amina nodded.
Juma opened the export he had received. Charles’s name appeared in thousands of words, but beneath the payment record was a code they had never discussed.
Amina also opened her email and showed him the first invoice. At the bottom, the company name was written differently from the name on the recipient account. Juma asked to photograph it together with the date it had been received. Amina wanted to close the phone quickly, but stopped when she saw that the receipt connected her payment to Charles’s number.
“Do not use this photograph without telling me where it will go,” she said.
“I will not send anything without a timeline.”
“Your timeline may make it look as if I was finding clients for him.”
“Because you were finding clients for him.”
Amina stared at him angrily, then accepted the point.
“Write also that I paid before I received your referral fee. I do not want the truth selected only in the part that helps you.”
Juma added a new row to the notebook: Amina paid first; referral benefit later; warning received; no full contract. It was a bad record for both of them, but it was a record that did not require either of them to pretend to be a complete victim.
Amina looked at the row and said, “I did not know that was on your receipt.”
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