Someone might describe Heartstrings entertainment as
producing ‘situation comedy’ as if that imp was a trivial genre. But when
the situation is economic, concerned frankly with issues of survival, life and
death, it’s also political. For most Kenyans are feeling the economic pinch. They’re
feeling it in terms of taxex designed by government and found in nearly every
aspect of their ordinary everyday lives which are no longer ordinary but extraordinarily
tough.
Heartstring’s production of ‘Guilty as Charged’ reveals just
how dire the situation has become for Kenyans who feel the injustice of being
told to ‘tighten their belts’, especially when their leaders fly by private jets
or by government helicopters costing multi-million US dollars. The claim claiming
it’s in wananchi’s interests to have their leaders look ‘presidential. But the
critics would claim we the public are being bamboozled, hoodwinked, and
mesmerized by our leaders are using what George Orwell called ‘doublespeak’ or
saying or doing one thing while really doing the opposite.
Don Carlo (Mitch) has devised his own bamboozling scheme to
obtain the cash he feels he needs to cover all his lavish expenses, including
payment of his child support to his ex-wife. That’s a spoiler since Don
presents himself like a wealthy Godfather-like mafioso criminal, when he has a
lot that he’s hiding to keep up his front.
In guilty as charged, one of Don’s hustles (a term
hardly used these day due to wananchi’s disillusionment with their tax-mad Hustler
No. 1) is financing ‘games’ like the one devised by another inventive hustler. (Fischer
Maina) who pretends to be a handsome young rich man who’s meant to fulfill every
women’s Mr. Dream come true. His hustles aims to identify wealthy women with a
healthy cash flow which can quickly cash into and then rob her blind. Don Corlo’s
role is to finance fischer at the outset of the game, after which he will be
repaid with interest. But fischer is many months in arrears of repayment and
Don starts to torture him (through his body guards) to let him know he means
business. Mwaning pay up or you’ll be shut up.
The woman he wooed, quickly won, and then wedded, is dr.
irene, a gynochologist (NjeriHahuha) who also delivers babies. She loves the
house/flat fischer bought for her (with Dom”s dirty money). Unfortunitely,
fischer fell into h is own trap, forgetting to run back to Dom with her cash because he
seriously fell for her and her two big kids. Unfortunate too is the fact that
all the people he has borrowed from are now coming to claim their pound of
flesh. The first is Dom. But then comes the the bak representatives coming to
take away all of his furniture, then comes the water man to turn off the water
including the pipes. The electricity people turn off his electricity, so
everything goes black and finally Irene shows up and maina confesses his crimes
in part. She takes sympathy for him she just happens to have four million in
her bank that is for him to use. He suddenly perks up and quickly pays all his
debts. Now the future looks bright, even as Don Carlo arrives, only to discover
he’s been repaid every penny he is owed by maina. Don in turn phones the mother of his two kids
to tell he’s got child support for her, so where can they meet? They agree on phone that they can meet at
her house. But as she begins to give him directions she returns from the
bedroom and finds he’s the one speaking to her. But how com? Why is he who has
been given a court order demand he not see his kids at their mom’s request to
the court. But here is the spoiler: Don carlo is the one struggling to pay
irene his ex-wife child support which are apparently are quite high. Now the
truth be told that fischer was being blackmailed by Don cause fischer murdered somebody,
and though he claims it was an accident it doesn’t look that way. But seeing
dom being at the mercy of irene was great news to fischer.
But their amusement was short-lived. Dom and maina were not
the only one weaponizing love as a tool to use in order to achieve their goals.
For the Special Branch, undercover agents were regularly sent out to find criminals,
especially like extortionists and murderers like maina and Don carlo. That irene
was working allthe time she was with maina and even with dom is the biggest shock of them all.
Guilt
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