The advice from those who have lived in Kenya for some time
has always been to think through and have a plan in the case of a car accident
or an emergency, which we have discussed on several occasions. The conventional
wisdom is that even if you think there is a fatality, leave the scene
immediately, find the nearest police station; otherwise you could be the victim
of a mob attack which can result in injury or destruction of your vehicle.
Never show any feelings of remorse, never say you are sorry,
and never show any signs of emotion. Never do or say anything that could show
you are guilty of anything in any way.
This flies in the face of all we believe about compassion
and mercy, not to mention the laws regarding a hit and run or fleeing the scene
of an accident! The reality is that we
can’t depend on public services or protection in times of need, and we recently
experienced all this first hand when Doug received a phone call from a friend
of ours . . .
She had had an accident on our street not far from our gate.
She asked Doug if he would please come to the scene as she was alone and a
crowd was beginning to gather. Our friend had hit a bicyclist who had suddenly
come into the street and he was dead at the scene.
Thankfully our local security company had arrived and
managed to keep the crowd at bay, as Sue drove our friend to her home to change
her clothes and go to the local police station. Advised to return to the scene
we did so. Officer Leonard finally arrived after being picked up by the security
company. He has no car though he is the ‘traffic officer’ for Karen, and his
phone had been taken by someone at the scene of his prior incident.
Observing all that was going on, there was a sense of
sadness as all the focus was on ‘the plan and strategy of coping’ as a Wazungu
(white ex-pat), as this man with thread bare clothes and a rickety bicycle lay
on the ground, completely exposed for all the crowd to see. No one knew who he
was or where he had come from. It was several hours later before his body was
collected and taken away.
We drove Officer Leonard back to the station so a report
could be filed and we could pay the bail on behalf of our friend. We are still
helping our friend navigate through the details of reports, court, attorneys
and the victim’s family asking for money to bury their relative.
Every word must be measured and carefully stated. . .
'May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.' Ps 25.21
