No grammar: This is chicken business

Trevy James Oyombra has sued a bank for freezing his accounts. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • In his emails to Christopher Smith and Nicholas Smith of S&O, Mr Oyombra, whose name has generated animated discussions, throws the capping of nouns, dotting of I’s and crossing of t’s to the wind.
  • But in a classic case of strange bedfellows, the Britons stick to the rules of grammar.

Ordinarily, business communication is supposed to be a crisp, no-frills, straight-to-the point affair.

Even emails, which are less formal, retain a measure of seriousness and distance.

But Britain’s Serious Fraud Office’s evidence in the matter of Regina versus Christopher Smith, Nicholas Smith, Timothy Forrester, Abdirahman Omar and Smith and Ouzman Limited brings out a refreshing linguistic difference in the world of wheeler-dealers.

We are talking of the latest rebasing of “chicken” from a domestic bird and a popular fare in western Kenya to a medium of exchange that has pushed, from the language of underhand deals, the long-reigning chai and potato.

Words maketh the man. In this regard, Trevy James Oyombra, a commission agent for specialised printers Smith & Ouzman of the UK proves that linguistic barriers or, let’s say, grammatical limitations, will never stand in the way of serious business.

In his emails to Christopher Smith and Nicholas Smith of S&O, Mr Oyombra, whose name has generated animated discussions, throws the capping of nouns, dotting of I’s and crossing of t’s to the wind.

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
But in a classic case of strange bedfellows, the Britons stick to the rules of grammar.

In one of the emails to Nicholas Smith, Oyombra writes: “once that has been done I told them we shall go to my bank and ill give the chicken to karani although karani hasnt told them how much it is but that is their business.”

In another piece of hilarious communication, Oyombra advises Nicholas Smith that “… when it comes to handling these guys (chicken) I would prefer that if dena or karani or anyone tries to come directly to you please stik to your guns and let them come and discuss non official issues with me and tha(t) involves chicken.”

In another one, Nick Smith tells Oyombra. “Understood we will keep our chicken for now.”

And so chicken acquired a squawking new meaning.