Daniel travelled to Kireka the next morning with a permission request from Madam and the payroll appeal. Peter wanted to go with him, but Daniel told him that one of them had to remain at Mwangaza to follow the students and district messages.
“This is my story too,” Peter said.
“And it may contain your truth. But if you are absent here, the staff will say you followed Daniel instead of teaching.”
Peter agreed with an angry face. Daniel was slightly relieved. Anger was better than an unspoken fear.
Kireka Community School stood behind a market, with a blue gate and an office whose walls were covered in teachers’ certificates. Daniel introduced himself to the administrator, Madam Atim, and handed her a copy of his letter.
She read it slowly. “Is this the transfer notification?”
“Yes. Payroll gave me your school as the destination.”
“Did you apply to come here?”
“No.”
She opened the incoming-correspondence register. Daniel’s name was not there. The transfer file held no request from Mwangaza on his behalf. Madam Atim asked her assistant to bring out that month’s box.
“We do not want to receive a teacher who does not know whether he is coming,” she said.
Daniel felt a small ache in those words. His school had tried to hand him to someone without asking; here, someone was refusing him in order to protect the school. The difference showed him that the system did not have one voice.
Inside the box was an attachment held by a clip. The recipient was listed as *Kireka Community School*, but the request date was the day Daniel had been in hospital. The receiving stamp belonged to the district office, not to Kireka.
“This does not prove that we requested you,” Madam Atim said.
“I need a certified statement saying that.”
Madam Atim gave him a form. Daniel wrote that Kireka had not submitted a request and that his name was not in the incoming-transfer register before the notification. Madam Atim signed it, dated it, and placed the school seal on the page.
Before she closed the file, her assistant asked, “Whose contact number is this?”
At the bottom of the attachment was a phone number ending in 219. Daniel recognized it immediately.
“That is the number that gave Peter the facilitator’s details,” he said.
Madam Atim looked at him carefully. “Who is Peter?”
“A teacher who came to Mwangaza believing his transfer was legitimate.”
“Then you have two issues.”
“It looks like one issue that used two people.”
Daniel sent a picture of the attachment to Peter while Madam Atim watched. Peter replied quickly: *That is Charles’s number.* Then he sent the first message. The number was the same, although the profile name had been changed to *District Liaison*.
Daniel asked Madam Atim for permission to copy the contact page for the complaint reference. He told her he would hide the school’s office number on any copy sent outside. Madam Atim agreed.
“Please do not write that Kireka was involved,” she said. “You will damage the school’s name without evidence.”
“That is why I asked for a statement saying we did not request the transfer.”
Madam Atim watched him for a moment. “Many people come here wanting a copy that will save them. You are asking for a copy that says another school did not make you come.”
“I need the truth even if it shows that I came from somewhere I never chose.”
Outside the office, Daniel called Madam Nansubuga. He explained that Kireka had not requested him and that Charles’s number appeared on the payroll attachment. Madam was silent.
“Daniel,” she said at last, “do not put this in the staff group.”
“I will not. I will put it in the formal file.”
“If the district sent a notification to payroll, perhaps it was an administrative error.”
“An error with my signature, a duplicate number, and Peter’s facilitator?”
Madam did not answer.
Daniel sat on a market bench and prepared an email. He attached Kireka’s certified statement, a picture of the attachment, the appeal receipt, and Peter’s complaint reference. He wrote clearly that Kireka had not requested him, but did not say that Charles had manufactured anything. He left that as a question for the investigation.
He read the email three times before sending it. In his first draft he had written *fraudulent transfer network*. He deleted it and wrote *possible coordinated misuse of transfer records*. In the second draft he had called Charles a fraudulent facilitator. He left the name out and attached the message carrying the number. He did not want an officer to accept a conclusion before opening the evidence.
Madam Atim returned with a copy of the statement. “May I put my administrator’s name in the copy list?”
“Yes, if you want.”
“I do. If someone says tomorrow that we rejected a teacher to protect our own position, this statement will show what we checked.”
Daniel added her address to the email. He asked whether Kireka had received new teachers that week. Madam Atim said they had requested a science teacher, not a mathematics teacher. That request had a completely different reference.
“Put that in the note too,” Daniel said.
“Will you write everything down?”
“Everything that can distinguish one post from another.”
Madam Atim looked at him with a sympathy he had not asked for. “A person who loses his name on paper spends a long time putting it back.”
Daniel did not answer. He sent the email, saved the delivery confirmation, and recorded the time. Then he closed the file. He did not want to remain there until someone replied and begin believing that an email answer would return him to work.
Peter called. “Daniel, there is another message from Charles.”
“Tell me.”
“He says I ruined everything by going to the district. He says they will examine my file first now.”
Daniel looked at Kireka’s statement. “Do not answer.”
“I saved it.”
“Put it in the file, then request a check of whether this number has been used for other teachers.”
Peter was quiet before saying, “I thought that if I got ahead of you, I would get the position. Now I realize I was entering a position that was not mine either.”
Daniel did not tell him that he understood. Both of them had been given names and dates they had not chosen.
Madam Atim called Daniel back from the doorway. She held the closed copy of the file. “I signed the statement. But there is something else.”
On the back page of the attachment was a contact reference written by hand. Charles’s name was absent, but his number appeared beside the words *liaison for urgent placements*.
Kireka had not requested Daniel.
But its file listed Peter’s facilitator’s number.
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