Mr Amenya says it was not just the unusual terms and lack of transparency that rang alarm bells, it was also, he alleges, that Kenyan laws appeared to have been systematically ignored.

"So the alarm bells rang at that point," she said.

Mr Nuur says he acquiesced, and the phone rang, with the anonymous caller wanting to know whether "the government's demands are more important to you than ours".

“What did I want to do?” she asked, as the clang of a trolley car rang from the K Street Mall below.

He was brought to his hometown where celebratory gunfire rang out and his tearful family embraced him.