My day in court
Scott Bourland
May 18th
Friday morning we left Nairobi to head to Eldoret. Our plans were to visit with missionaries Chuck and Terry Fernandez and visit an orphanage that we believed would be a great learning experience for us. We made the trip fine, but we had a little delay in Naivasha.
As we came down the hill into town there was a police check point and we were chosen to stop. The officer came up and asked if he could see my license, which is all normal. But then he walked away from us and started a discussion with two other officers. They were pointing at the van and I noticed that he had a piece of paper in his hand that he kept referencing. At that point I thought that they must be looking for a van that was like ours and felt that he would return to the van and say “OK, you can go”.
Instead he came back and said “You were speeding, you were going 90 instead of 80 (KPH not MPH). I ask him where I was speeding because I had been told that the speed limit on the highway was 100, so I thought I must have went through an area were the speed reduced and I missed the sign (which a speed limit sign is almost non-existent). He said he could not tell me exactly where but I had been caught by a camera, which seemed very unusual, I think he meant a speed gun, but I am not sure. So he said, “You must follow me to the police station”.
When I got to the police station I had lots of company. They were catching almost everyone, but I was still not sure I had done anything wrong. They kept telling everyone to just relax they would fill out the paper work and then we would go to court, pay our fine, and then be allowed to leave. So I sat in the paper work area for about an hour and then we moved on to the court room.
The court room was literally a little shanty about ½ mile walk from the police station. It was jam packed with people who I thought were the speeders who preceded me. As I sat to wait my turn I realized that all kinds of cases were being heard. The current case was land dispute, which I listened to for an hour and a half. I tried to listen carefully and improve my Swahili. As they started to hear some speeding case the man sitting next to me tried to help me. In broken English he said, “Just say you are sorry you did it and pay your fine”. I thanked him for the advice.
After a couple of other non speeding cases it was my turn. As I went to the bench they read the charge against me which was the same as the officer had told me. I said, “If I have violated the law I am sorry and I am ready to pay my fine, but I need to understand why what I did was wrong so I do not repeat the offense”. By the way, if this seems strange to you, I obey the speed limit. I do it in America and I will do it here. I told them I understood the speed limit to be 100 (which I had even heard a police officer tell another motorist) and I was not sure why I was in violation when I was going 90.
They explained that my vehicle was rated for 80 KPH. I ask if it mattered that it was a private vehicle and they said, no, it did not matter. I ask them what the maximum speed would be for a Toyota Rav 4 (Because that is what we think we are going to get) and they told me to consult the log book and it would tell me. Then the judge asks me if I was Kenyan. I know, you would think my white skin might give me away, but there are white Kenyans. I said no I am a resident, but I am not Kenyan. She said that she would forgive the offense. I thanked her, collected my license, and we were on the road again after a four hour delay.
Thanks for praying,
Brother Scott