A Narrow Escape…from Kenyan court
Ok…so I figured the traffic here would be different, but I didn’t realize how different it would be. As I briefly described in my first newsletter the driving rules here are more like driving guidlines. No one follows them at all…well only when the police are around and even then they might ignore them. Today for instance was an experience. Alot of people make their own roads, two lanes will be four, etc.
Traffic was worse coming home from language school than normal so I decided to take a different route. I turned but came to a complete stand still after 2 feet! Having sat on this road in this traffic before, I knew it would be 20 or thirty minutes until I could move. So… I pulled into the entrance of a bank and backed out, heading in the direction that I initially came from. I quickly reached the end of the street and was about to turn when and the police officer on the corner began motioning me to roll down my window. Wanting to be cooperative I rolled it down. Immediately, he told me to pull over because I was getting a ticket for $60 for driving the wrong way!
My initial reaction was to become defensive, but knew that would not get me anywhere. I didn’t panic because I knew I had not done anything wrong. (The road was two lanes going opposite directions, but apparently stops being a two lane road at a certain point…of which I didn’t know). I had just followed a car that had done the same thing and turned onto the main road. I didn’t relaize he had been pulled over too and was sitting on the shoulder!
The police officer told me to pull onto the shoulder and wait for my ticket. He had my license so I couldn’t just drive off…which was really tempting. Police officers are on foot…so half the time people don’t stop when they are waived down by a police officer. I figured it would be a bad decision… considering I told him I was a missionary and he knew my license plate number. It was not worth spending time in Kenyan jail so I waited for the police officer and had my rolled down my passenger window so we could talk through the window.
After about five minutes the police officer walked up to my car and before I realized it he had reached in opened the door and sat down in my passenger seat. I was hoping he didn’t want me to drive him anywhere… I wasn’t about to be his personal taxi driver! He asked why I had driven that way. I told him, “to beat the bad traffic on the other road”. “Ah, yes but you can’t drive that way on this road.” He replied. A puzzled look must have come across my face because he proceded to explained that the road becomes one way…once you reach certain road. “Oh, ok”, I said, “I didn’t know that…I was only following the other car. I’m trying to get home for a haircut appointment.” He asked where I lived and I told him Thika road… “Oh…you live far” he said. And then the question I was expecting came…”It will cost you $5000 shillings ($60). How much do you have on you? ” There is was ” the question”. The police force here is know for begin corrupt. I was carrying $1500 on me, but was not about to tell him. Reaching into my ash tray I pulled out a 20 shiiling piece. “This is all I have on me”, I said. He chuckled and then asked again, ” How much can you get now?”. I told him, “nothing for two weeks”, which was true…to a point. I get paid only once a month and pay day was coming soon. Anyway, after about 10 minutes of him trying to get money out of me I think he realized I wasn’t going to give him a bribe. I tried to change the subject a couple times, but it always came back to some form of the question of how much money did I have on me or could I get. Finally, he said “Ok, you can go… I can see you were completely honest in your driving mistake”. He pointed me in the right direction and off I went, careful to thank him for his kind decision to allow me to leave.
Pulling onto the road..I counted my blessing that I got off. I wish it would happen in the states more often. I always get a ticket when I get pulled over there. Oh well!
hey micah! haha why am i not surprised you already had a run in with the police in kenya?? but i’m very excited for you and what you are doing. I think God is really going to use you and grow you so much while youre in kenya! it’s so exciting! Good luck and i’ll be praying for ya!