So in the course of staying in Kenya for little more than
one month, I really got to know a bit more about that country than I have about
any other country. Our group, “the
Rodeo” was staying with a pastor and his family. Our ministry that month was varied from
working in a cyber café to walking around with the pastor and visiting families
to walking around with social workers and going to schools to speak to kids
that the orphan program sponsored. During our time, we stayed in a little town called Kiminini and when we
wanted to get away for a little bit we would take a 30-40 minute ma-ta-tu
(taxi/big van) to Kitale where we could get some descent internet connection
and some non-instant coffee at a local shop.
At
least once a week we would head into Kitale and find ourselves in those
matatus. During those times, I would be
willing to say that we got pulled over about 80% of the time. You see, like most of Africa, Kenya’s
government is very corrupt…Surprise, Surprise…I know its Africa!! Anyways, the first time we got pulled over in
a vehicle I was actually in the vehicle with our pastor and he told me to look
behind our vehicle. When we would get
pulled over, there would be a couple of cops on the side of the road, one to
pull the vehicles over and the other one to stay behind the vehicle and have
someone pay them off from the vehicle. So as I was watching this matatu driver pay off the officer, I felt a
great disdain for any sort of police officer.
As the
month continued, I noticed more and more and continued to talk to people about
it and ask them why they pay. They say
they pay because if they don’t, then they will be taken to court and have to
pay an even larger fine for something that they didn’t even do. This upset me even more. I can’t believe in a system that allows its
officers to do such a thing. Its not
like they don’t get paid at all, they do. In fact they make more money than some of the local farmers and other
towns people and yet they find themselves in the right to bribe people for
money.
(This is not Justice but another taxi driver whom had gotten a flat on our way into Kitale, but this is the feel of the culture we were in)
It came
about one day that instead of taking a matatu, we decided we didn’t want the
long and crammed journey so we paid a bit more for an actual taxi (car) to take
us directly back to the small town of Kiminini. It turned out that as we were heading back, sure enough we got pulled
over and the police officer saw us in the car…obviously we have no place to
hide in a car. So the policeman thought
that our taxi driver was getting a good deal from us and in his thinking
decided to charge our driver even more than what they normally take as
bribes. I saw our driver talking with
the officer for abit longer than usual and finally making his way back in the
car, he seemed even more disturbed. So
as we talked, he was sharing that the officer was pretty much taking the whole
proceeds he was making from us. I felt
so bad for this man.
We
eventually arrived back at our driveway and he dropped us off. As we were parting ways, I happened to ask
our driver was his name was. He replied
saying that he is called “Justice”. We
parted ways and I still kept on thinking on how our driver certainly wasn’t a
blind man, but the government that we spent all month in certainly was. Justice surely is blind in Kenya. Those who have the power to change take
advantage of those who can do nothing about it and those who want to affect
change don’t have the financial backing or power to do so.
