Kenyan Traffic Police make Darwin's Case For Natural Selection

Thursday the 1st of October 2012 was an early day, I was scheduled to pick my parents up from the airport.  They had arrived on the 6:30am flight, and I was the designated pick-uper for the day.  As I approached the turn off from Mombasa Road to the airport, an 18-wheeler truck was making a U-turn from the other side of the road.  Rather than use the acceleration lane, he came straight for the outer lane where I was.  Being the experienced driver I was, I knew at the speed at which both my vehicle and his were going, a collision was going to be inevitable.  If this was a vitz, I may have been minded to hazard a crash, but this is a road monster, I would have been stuck between the trailer's front and back set of wheels, and would certainly suffer injury or possible death.  I decided to swerve off the road.  Since there were pedestrians also walking along the road, I swerved further left to avoid hitting them.  I ended up in the ditch.  Turns out, the driver relied on the word of his intoxicated turn boy that the road was clear.  When he realised it was not, he still decided to proceed.  Had he slowed down, I would have passed him by easily.  Instead, he decided to put his foot down and try and out manouvre me. 

Now, the GSU officers manning that area (its in the flight path, so it is heavily secured) together with officers from the Kenya Wildlife Service, apprehended Mutinda, the driver of the truck registration number KAR 814 W and forced him to return to the scene of the accident.  I was not hurt at all, just a little shaken and irritated since I was going to be late in picking up my parents.  Anyway, cut a long story short, the truck owner, a man called Meshak, was called and instructed to M-Pesa some money to ensure my car is towed out of the ditch and that the damage, mainly scratches and a small dent, is repaired.  He agreed to do so.  After waiting in vain for his M-Pesa, we called the Traffic Police to come and do the paper work so we could go to the Police station.  Now this is where things get weird.

The traffic policeman PC Ntulele (or something like that, but he was force number 84651), comes to find us at the scene with the three GSU officers who have been keeping the driver under watch.  He says, according to him, it is the duty of the vehicle behind to avoid a collision with the vehicle ahead.  The GSU officers indicate the reason they held the driver was because his driving was so reckless, that he was a danger not just to me in the ditch, but to other motorists, and besides, his turn-boy was drunk and possibly under the influence of some narcortics.   Apparently, the Traffic Policeman had been on the scene two minutes when an emissary of the owner of the vehicle, who goes by the name Mutava, arrived and had a brief word with him.  No one had noticed this fellow's activities until then.  Anyway, it gets weirder, I assure you.

I insisted that the situation was not as the policeman had indicated and that I was not satisfied with his verdict of the situation.  He said we should go to the Police Station so his boss, the Embakasi DTO, Inspector Marigi, who can decide the way forward.  When we finally get there, the driver of the truck is no where to be seen, neither is the emissary of the owner of the vehicle, neither is the Constable who visited the scene.  I see the DTO (District Traffic Officer) and explain to him what happened.  He radios for the Constable to come who tries to make out how I landed in the ditch on my own and I'm trying to blame the poor helpless truck driver Mutinda for my carelessness.  The DTO tells him off for letting the Truck driver go and demands he be called back to answer charges of careless driving.  He also calls the owner of the vehicle and asks him to make an offer to me to see if we can settle the matter amicably or he issues me with an abstract to enable me to claim from his insurance.  

Twenty minutes later, Mutava arrives.  He goes straight a secluded corner just outside the DTO's office and leaves us standing there.  He makes a quick phone call, then he rejoins us.  We enter into the DTO's office.  When we get in, I could hardly believe my ears when this Inspector Marigi, with all the stickers of service and integrity pasted on his wall, started speaking total and utter nonsense!  He rambled on in this boring monologue of how no one leaves their house in the morning wanting to cause an accident and how I should thank God He spared my life.  Long and short of it was, as far as his mind could process, the worst offence the truck driver committed was causing me obstruction and that the fact that he ran me off the road was unfortunate but was not a traffic offence.  This with the new tougher traffic rules we have today!  He further indicated that the damage to my car was caused by my own issues and I should thank the truck driver for stopping.  I told the DTO to talk to the GSU officers who apprehended the driver, since I was in a ditch, I did not do it, and get an independent view of the same.  He said, he had considered all matters and was satisfied that I just preferred the ditch to the open road.

He flatly refused to give me an abstract saying if I insisted on one, he would issue one saying I caused my own accident.  I indicated even when one hits a dog on the road, the abstract says he hit a road, I insisted his abstract must indicated my ending up in a ditch was in an effort to avoid a collision with KAR 184 W.   The Inspector said he would do no such thing.  I then asked for a copy of the obstruction charge sheet so I could sue the truck driver and his employer in my own capacity.  He flatly refused, and indicated I should go to court if I wanted, court belonged to all Kenyans, but he would give me no copies whatsoever.  If I wanted, I should attend the arraignment and apply for copies of the Court File.  I realised at this point that my rage was a point where my words and actions would have left me in danger of hell's fire, so I left his office in a huff.

I called a Superintendent of Police based at the CID headquarters and had a word with him regarding the matter.  He indicated I should pursue it, since the force is keen on weeding out such Officers who give the force a bad name.  He said I could have a criminal file opened against the PC for investigation, and a complaint against the DTO for his complicit behaviour in this saga.  When I got home that evening, I realised, if I pursued it, it would consume my time and energy and quite frankly, I had no guarantee that the woeful pedigree displayed by the hapless officers in Embakasi Police Traffic Office was not generic in the force.  

That police constable and his Inspector just stood in the door of justice and refused me to go in.  I am a lawyer, a former Magistrate, quite honestly if I wanted to find a way to climb over them, I could.  But I chose to let it go.  What of an uneducated Kenyan?  What if I had suffered grave injuries?  What if it was a fatal accident?  Yet PC no. 84561 and Inspector Marigi are pleased that they were useful in helping that funny Meshak to leave an incompetent driver and a drunken turn boy with an 18-wheeler truck on the road, to wreak whatever havoc they can get up to.  This is why we need Police Reforms.  We cannot be decrying the death of thousands of Kenyans on our roads, yet have officers like these wearing the Crown.  We cannot have corruption being the currency, the language, and the norm in our Police Stations.  Having bumper stickers and posters on our walls and Police Service Charters will not eradicate corruption.  We have to get a new mindset.  If the current breed cannot change their minds, then they must be changed.  It is useless to purge the Judiciary and corruption is still endemic among other players in the criminal justice system.

I sent Meshak a text and in it I stated one simple truth, "Malipo ni papa hapa duniani."  What goes around, comes around.

Selah.