Haroun Risa

The Pirates of Zanzibar Haroun Risa

Ruth is a Kenyan journalist trying to unravel the truth behind her sister Catherine's death. She had been stuck, until she met a young hawker named Susan, who happened to have met Catherine before her mysterious death while trying to find herself a Schengen visa to Europe. After being directed to Mogadishu, Ruth gets to meet several hawkers like Nicholas, Frank aka The Doctor, and June, aka 'This Month', three champion hawkers in the weekly Gunia Marathon games who now risk their lives to smuggle merchandise for hawkers across East Africa, a business so lucrative even the Tanzanian National Guard keep cashing in. But Ruth hits another wall when the three hawkers go missing, and upon further investigation Ruth discovers about the dreaded Pirates of Zanzibar; an extortionist group who hunt down hawkers that bypass their extortionist methods, and also pose as beach boys who contribute massively to major disappearances across East Africa.