Who knows when they will ever come calling?
It is on Wednesday
23rd November 2011, I left office (Ngong Road) with another appointment
at 6pm in Nairobi West. To make it in time, I decide that Ngong road is
not
fast enough and clearly remembers the usability of an
alternative "short-cut" route; the Southern Bypass. After all, it is
still daytime.
As I take my turn into the Southern Bypass, driving towards Langata, everything seems okay.
Several on coming cars are seen. Actually the road is busy, many vehicles but nevertheless that is good
for security and some great distances are covered pretty fast.
One little hill done, then valley, then the next hill is approach,
actually now mid way along this route. Suddenly, some vehicle is spotted
parked on the right side of the road, doors wide open. I slow
down a bit, avoiding to hit onto the doors of the other vehicle.
Speed is reduced from an average of 100Km/h to 30 or 40Km/h, and the car
is now positioned for the eventual overtaking.
Suddenly a youthful Kenyan is spotted doing his nation building
duties. He is standing in the middle of the road, about 30 meters away;
with a gun in hand; pointing towards the on-coming car. I tries a U-turn on this "loose earth"
road, impossible on this narrow road with deep trenches on both sides of the road . 2 gun shots in quick succession are
fired towards me; and by now I realizes that the road is narrow and
the u-turn cannot work at all.
Cornered, un-armed and frightened, I surrenders and
obeys. I jumps out of the car and my belly is welcomed flat on the
dusty murram road. My feet landing directly on the muddy waterway on
the side of the road. Not comfortable, but in situations like
this; instincts quickly gathers that you do not complain! My pockets
are frisked; the car is run-sacked; everything is taken away. out of curiosity I peep
from under the car over the other sides and immediately notices a
couple of other private cars (about 5 to 7 in total); occupants (both
men women of stature); all sharing in my predicament on the surface of
the murram road. I consoles myself that after all, it will be many
murders, not just one. Something like this may definitely attract the
governments attention to these matters of security.
In a couple of minutes, the youth group (approximately 5 in total);
invites everybody back to their cars as they dash into the nearby Ngong
forest. In fact they shout thank you's to us for having chosen to travel
this short-cut road without traffic jams and even encourages us to
continue using it in the future. We are reminded that with no resistance,
things can never get bloody...
Indeed, very nice words for me by now...
I collects himself from the ground, dusts off a little bit,
but most of the mud is too stubborn. Luckily, the car engine is still
running. About 500 meters from the scene, I notices several
vehicles; private cars and public vans (buses and matatu's) parked on
the road waiting for the ordeal happening just ahead to complete. Of
course it is clear that they watched the whole episode. Some by-standers
(about 10 to 15) as well are spotted by the road side, watching
the episode.
As I continue down the road about 2Km from the robbery scene, I
spots two cops on
patrol. I slow down and pulls over to
the attention of the two cops armed to the teeth, each with an AK-47. I
narrates the ordeal briefly and the cops asks for a quick ride to reach
the scene and follow the gun-trotting youths. After all, I have lost so
much; I agree to drive the cops. The car is now a police response
vehicle. By now the cops are asking too many questions: How many
were they?, did they have guns?, I heard some gun shots, was it there!,
roughly how
many people/cars were there? How much money did they take from you???
etc. I give rough estimates as we speed towards the scene, now
beaming with confidence. After all, I am protected with two AK-47's
(most probably loaded). The cops promises to get something back, if not
everything, but at least the documents which they are sure will not be
useful for these youthful Kenyans doing their part in the
nation-building business.
After some distance, I pull over and shows the two cops the presumed location of the
incident, but they refuses to accept this location and points to some other location some 500 meters ahead. I
drives further ahead and actually realizes that I was confused. The
cops who were about 2-3 KM away from the scene of the incident knows
better...!!!
The cops disembark, heads towards the forest and urges him to proceed and report the incident at Karen police station.
The morale of the true story: The Southern Bypass in NOT safe
anytime, day or night; with or without the police. Sambaza to your
contacts. It is not an interesting thing to experience.
Can
media highlight such cases publicly on prime time news so that all
Nairobians get to know these unsafe places? If someone could have died,
yes; it could have been on news! We can help others by warning
tirelessly, without surrender...
--
Regards
Philip Adar