Mariam did not ask Elias again about the “person willing to pay more.”
The next morning she went to the market alone.
She did not want to approach an agent pretending to own the estate. She did not want authority she did not have. She wanted only to understand the value of commercial frontage on Mbuyu Street and whether a proposal could be verified without stealing anyone’s private information.
Kito found tenants for small shops, pharmacies, salons, and service businesses. He met Mariam in a café beside the daladala stand.
“Mariam Jengo?”
“Yes.”
“I’ve seen you around the workshop.”
“Possible.”
He sat down. “You said you wanted a market estimate.”
“For frontage with one workshop room and two shop units near the main road.”
“Approximate size?”
Mariam gave measurements without naming the address yet.
Kito opened his notebook.
“For that area, rent can sit between this figure and this one. A pharmacy or mobile-money chain can pay more if the frontage is clean and there is a little parking.”
“Advance?”
“Usually six months. Some landlords ask twelve if the tenant is paying for the fit-out.”
Mariam wrote it down.
She did not want one headline number. She asked him to explain the standard agency fee, commission, deposit handling, and basic lease-preparation costs. If the family later waved a gross figure around, she wanted to know what actually remained after expenses.
Kito drew a simple example on a café tissue: monthly rent, six-month advance, commission, legal preparation, net to landlord.
“And if the landlord has not settled estate authority?”
Kito looked at her.
“That is not a normal question for a market estimate.”
“It matters to me.”
“Are we talking about Hamisi’s compound?”
Mariam waited a second.
“Yes.”
Kito partly closed the notebook.
“Elias came to see me.”
Mariam felt her stomach tighten, but her voice stayed even.
“In what capacity?”
“As a family member looking at options.”
“Did he say he was already authorized to lease?”
“No.”
“Sign anything?”
“No.”
“What did you give him?”
“A standard proposal. Market rent, possible advance, tenant profile.”
“And the tenant?”
“I am not giving you a client’s name if you have no authority.”
“I don’t want the name.”
“Good.”
“Can you say whether the proposal was for a pharmacy?”
He considered.
“Our public offer category was commercial health retail. I will not go further.”
Mariam accepted the boundary.
“And no lease was signed?”
“Not through me.”
“Deposit?”
“No.”
“Proposed advance?”
Kito opened another sheet.
“I can show you the range we proposed for that kind of frontage without client details.”
“Please.”
She read the number twice.
It was large.
Large enough for her to understand why urgency could grow around that piece of property.
But she did not write Elias wants money. That was a conclusion, not a fact.
“When was the proposal sent?”
Kito gave the date.
One day after the funeral.
Mariam placed her pen on the table.
“Had he contacted you before that?”
“Two weeks before Hamisi died. He asked only for the market.”
“Before?”
“Yes. Hamisi was in hospital then, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.”
Kito leaned closer.
“But again: a market inquiry is not a lease.”
“I understand.”
“Do not use my words to say a deal was already done.”
“I won’t.”
Mariam reminded herself that anger was not evidence. It would have been easy to take the date and turn it into a verdict on Elias. But Hamisi had been in hospital, the frontage was an obvious family asset, and asking its market value did not prove a plan to remove her.
She wrote the date under PROPOSAL TIMELINE, not MOTIVE.
Kito opened a sample term sheet.
“This is the document I gave him. It shows rent, advance, fit-out period, and that everything is subject to ownership and estate authority confirmation.”
Mariam read the line carefully.
SUBJECT TO OWNERSHIP / ESTATE AUTHORITY CONFIRMATION.
“This is the important part.”
“Exactly. No sensible tenant places a large advance without confirmed authority.”
“So the pressure could be about getting authority quickly.”
Kito raised one eyebrow.
“That is your interpretation. I can only say the proposal included a large advance and was not signed.”
“Fair.”
She asked for a copy of the public rate sheet, not the private proposal. Kito gave it to her. For Elias’s proposal he allowed her to record the amount and date, but not the client’s details.
Mariam wrote:
FACT: Elias requested commercial frontage proposal. FACT: no lease signed through Kito. FACT: proposed structure included multi-month advance. FACT: authority confirmation required. UNKNOWN: final tenant identity. UNKNOWN: whether other agents approached.
“You’re building a file?” Kito asked.
“I’m trying not to build a rumor.”
“Your family has become heavy business lately.”
“Families stay light until money and land enter the same sentence.”
Kito did not argue.
After leaving the café, Mariam walked to the compound frontage without entering. From across the road she could see its commercial value clearly: a wide workshop door, room for signage, space for two motorbikes, and school foot traffic.
For years she had seen it as a place to sew.
Elias saw a rent stream.
Neither of them had to be lying to see the same space differently. The question was who had the power to decide before the estate was counted.
Across the road she saw Bibi Saada leave the compound with a man she did not know. Mariam did not photograph them. She did not follow. She refused to let evidence gathering become surveillance.
Instead she wrote only what she could support: the frontage carried commercial value far above one month of workshop earnings, while Mariam’s access to it also generated cash flow through the business. It was not an empty room.
Her phone rang.
Pendo.
“Mama, the school accepted the sample.”
Mariam stopped walking.
“What did they say?”
“They gave us two days for the first batch. But they want confirmation today.”
“We confirm only what we can deliver.”
“And the fabric?”
“Still inside.”
“So?”
“I’ll make a formal request for supervised access.”
“Elias will refuse.”
“Then the refusal becomes part of the record.”
Mariam ended the call and turned back toward Kito’s café. One question remained.
“Kito.”
He looked up from the doorway.
“Yes?”
“The advance figure—is that gross before your commission?”
“Yes.”
“And what would the landlord actually receive after fees?”
Kito took out a calculator.
He deducted commission, basic legal preparation, and deposit handling.
The remaining figure made Mariam quiet.
Then she asked him to write the normal market fee beside the proposed figure. She wanted a comparator, not a floating number that could be used dramatically without context.
Kito wrote the standard range and then the higher proposed amount.
Mariam compared them.
The gap was larger than she expected.
“Can you write only the proposed advance for me?”
“Without the client name?”
“Without.”
Kito took his pen, wrote the figure, and added the date.
Mariam stared at it.
Kito writes the proposed advance; Mariam recognizes it is almost double the standard fee.
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