The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire

Part 9 – February 10, 2015.   Our brush with the law.  Go straight to jail, do not pass GO, do not collect $200.

We are sitting in the airport in Nairobi as I begin writing this post on Tuesday waiting for our flight to Dubai after eventful days on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.  I’ll attempt to describe them chronologically.

Saturday was our last chance to visit Kasavai and spruce up the play school rooms to something closer to Sandy’s standards.  Three hours of moving, cleaning and discarding things got it a bit closer but not all the way.  They are now in need of another locking cabinet to store and display books in a manner allowing them to be found and used easily.  That’s for next time though.  There were no cabinets available on the spot a few kilometers away in Chavakali.  We can have a wooden one made locally but we are not ready just yet.  A metal cabinet costs about 23,000 shillings at Yako or Tuskey’s in Kakamega.  One of the widows had her whole house built two months ago for 20,000 shillings.

Sunday was a scheduled day of travel from Kakamega to Nairobi until the big D hit little Sandy hard early in the morning.  A quick exchange of the bus tickets for Monday and a change in hotel reservations for the night was followed by a day at the hotel.  I spent it writing summaries of our visits with the widows and Sandy spent it, well, you know where.

Monday proved more interesting, if you count an 8-hour 250 mile bus ride as part of interesting.  Perhaps you do not.  But would you call spending 1.5 hours sitting in an impounded car in the police lot while your driver tries to extricate himself from an apparently unwarranted arrest as interesting?  Uncomfortable certainly, a bit scary probably, disconcerting of course, but interesting?

Here’s the rest of the story.  We arrived in Nairobi right on schedule at about 5 PM and got stuck in by far the worst traffic jam we have ever seen.  After sitting absolutely motionless in the bus for about 15 minutes we got out and walked the last three blocks to the bus station where we watched the traffic parked at a standstill for the next half-hour and looked for Joseph who was supposed to pick us up.  About 10 phone calls later we managed to locate Joseph and the car stuck ten or so blocks away in the same traffic.  We walked to him and we exited the traffic on back roads on our way to the hotel, or so we believed.

The traffic cop at the first big traffic circle we came to had a different idea.  A couple of fingers pointed at the car and Joseph pulled us over to the side of the road. 

Cop: “Your license please.”    

Cop: “Now your cell phone.” 

Cop: “Pull your car around the circle and park there.” 

Joseph gets out and talks to the cop and listens. 

Cop: “You are operating a vehicle as a taxi without the vehicle being registered and insured as such.”

Joseph: “No I wasn’t, these clients are good friends of my boss (David Gakule) and I am picking them up for him as friends.”  “And the lady in the car is ill and needs to get to her hotel to rest.” (True!)

Cop: “She can’t get to the hotel now, this is Kenya, you get it? (This is apparently the request for us or Joseph to buy her and my freedom.)

Joseph:  “I have nothing.” (True again)

Cop: “You were talking on your cell phone.” (An attempt to make the stop seem legitimate).

Joseph: “No I wasn’t.  Check the call registry on the phone.”

Ten minutes pass…Joseph…cop…Joseph…cop…Joseph…talk, talk, talk outside the car.  The cop is on his own phone too, doing whatever.

The cop is relieved at the traffic circle by another and he gets in the car in the front seat with Joseph with us in the back and instructs Joseph to drive 100 meters or so to the police station.  This is still in daylight because, after all, the sun never sets on the British Empire.

Wrong!  Joseph is taken off to the station for booking while we sit bewildered in the back seat watching the impounded cars around us and the sunset - it sets.  I test my handy dandy cell phone for its flashlight capability – it works. 

Another cop comes to the car, tells us that we are not in trouble and asks us our names.  Have you ever wanted to say your name was John Doe?

I spoke to David Gakule 5 times on my phone in the next 20 minutes and Joseph did too.

Joseph has disappeared into the station.  Geoffrey shows up!  Who is Geoffrey?

“You recognize me, don’t you?” he says.  Blank and blank describe our faces perfectly.  “I am the owner of the restaurant (Chris and his family will remember it.) David has brought you to many times.”  Oh, that Geoffrey.

“Who is this with you?” I say.  The other guy is wearing a suit and tie.

  He must be important.

“This is …. (I can’t remember his name), the CID representative for (something or other).  Don’t worry,” says Geoffrey.

Everybody except Sandy and me disappears instantly.  We are now sitting in the dark in the back seat of the car with all the windows open and the doors unlocked with only the cell phone flashlight between us and our uncertain future.  The car on our left has a windshield that looks like it lost a battle with Arnold Schwarzenager and it has a blue light flashing on the dash which I think signals “steal me if you dare.”  The van on our right looks like it came straight from a Grateful Dead (literally) concert.  It’s getting later and Sandy is not completely over the big D.

Another face suddenly appears in the window next to Sandy.  It’s our friend David Gakule.  He gives us a few reassuring and calming words and off he goes, only to return in about five minutes to indicate that Geoffrey and the guy in the suit and he have turned up the heat on the cop through his supervisor.  He also tells us that yet another friend, Duncan, who we know as well, will be here shortly in his van to take us home.

Verily, Duncan arrives, we transfer our tiny bit of luggage to his van, hop in, say hello, and are ready to go.  But not yet.  Who appears from the darkness and gets into the van but Joseph with his cell phone in hand, ready to get out of there.  Has he busted loose?  No, Joseph has been set free while David and the others are still in the police station pleading their case while.

To the surprise of the police they have refused to hand over a shilling and have offered to see them in court.  As I understand, that will happen. 

And finally after all the impounding of the vehicle and so on, it has been returned to David free and clear.  But a court date is on the horizon.

Corruption is blatant and runs deep but there are a lot of people we barely know, but who know us, who are ready to go to bat for us and against the system.  We thank them all and think of them as we now sit in the Dubai airport on our way to Delhi.

And here a few birds we saw this morning at the Sportsview Hotel before we left.

  

I send this from Delhi on Tuesday evening.  We just had one of the best dinners we have ever had anywhere ad a restaurant called Amour in Haus Khaz in south deli, very close to airb&b studio apartment.

Kwaheri Kasavai and Kenya,

Terry and Sandy