A Kenyan law student, Adrian Oluoch, has narrated a frightening ordeal in Nairobi’s CBD where he narrowly escaped a drugging and possible robbery at the busy Super Metro stage near Archives.
“Yesterday, I was dragged to the stage of Super Metro Palais Archives and I’m still surprised,” Adrian recounted.
“I still can’t comprehend it, because I’ve always thought something like that would never happen to me… if it were not for one of the conductors of Super Metro, I would have actually been robbed or lost all my belongings that day.”
Adrian said he had just left a political event and was waiting to board a matatu to Thika when an elderly man approached him as he was on a phone call. “He shook my hand and started talking, but he was talking in a very low voice,” he recalled.
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♬ original sound – Adrian Oluoch, Law Student
“While he was talking to me, there was a certain bad smell from his voice, a stench from his mouth. At that point, it did not even clock to me… I actually thought it was just bad breath.”
Soon after, he began feeling dizzy, and immediately knew he had been drugged.
Panicked, Adrian stumbled toward a Super Metro conductor and begged for help. “I told the conductor, ‘I have been drugged, kindly just help me,’” he said.
The conductor swiftly secured his phone, shielded him from the suspicious man, and rushed him to Bliss Healthcare clinic nearby. “He instructed the nurses, ‘This guy has been drugged, kindly look out for him.’”
Doctors assured Adrian the effects would wear off, though he remained weak and drowsy for hours.
Even later, when he boarded a matatu, the conductor made sure he sat at the front seat to avoid possible attackers trailing him.
After sharing his story online, most Kenyans are now telling of their harrowing experiences.
“It happened to me at Odeon some time back. It was during the rainy season. We were standing in a crowd, waiting for vehicles to pass so they wouldn’t splash water on us. Suddenly, I felt someone hold my hand, but I brushed it off, thinking it was just the commotion. Within seconds, my mouth felt heavy, I was drooling, and I grew weak,” one user identified as Emmah wrote.
“Something told me to check my handbag, and to my shock, my phone was missing. I screamed, and a very young boy quickly handed it back to me as if he had done me a favor. The place was full of bodaboda riders, yet no one stepped in to help,” she added.
Other netizens identified the drug as ‘Devil’s breath’, which goes by the medical name ‘Scopolamine’
According to WebMD, the drug is a potent substance derived from the deadly nightshade family of plants, and is used to treat various medical issues like nausea, vomiting, motion sickness, and even muscle spasms.
When administered, often by being blown into a victim’s face or mixed into a drink, it can induce a state of amnesia and extreme suggestibility.
Victims may become compliant and lose their free will, making them vulnerable to robbery, assault, or other forms of exploitation.
The drug’s effects are often described as a hypnotic-like state, where individuals are conscious but unable to resist commands, and later have little to no memory of the events that transpired.