Police: 1 Stephanie: 1

That's right, I had another run-in with the police. But this time I won. (Read about the first time here: http://sspayneinkenya.blogspot.com/2009/01/first-brush-with-corruption.html)

Quite similarly to last time, I was in a taxi on a main road in Nairobi. I was with Alain (the guy I went to Rwanda with) and we were going out for a nice Italian dinner, so we were dressed nicely. And of course we came across a road block, quite typical in the Nairobi night. I hurriedly whispered to Alain that whoops, we weren't wearing our seatbelts (it was such a short drive, less than $3), but that these weren't traffic cops and I wouldn't bribe them at all, that I was going to be difficult. I'm not sure he got everything I said, but soon enough the cops were shining their lights on us and asking Alain to get out of the car. Of course, they asked for his ID but not mine. I could tell that they were debating the rules and if Alain and I should be let go. I motioned Alain over to me and told him to tell the policeman we were refusing any monkey business. Then Alain had an idea.

Alain's uncle is the Rwandan ambassador to Kenya (cool, eh?), and Alain has often accompanied him on interesting diplomatic trips, so he knew a little bit about those systems. Alain told me to pretend I was going to call "the office," and later to ask for the officer's name and registration number. I got out of the car and acted angry, and impatient. Eventually I took my phone out, and said, with much authority, "I'm going to call the office, this is ridiculous." Alain feigned annoyance. "No, don't do that, if you call them this will become a long ordeal!" Alain then spoke to the police in Swahili, saying, "If she calls her office, this will take so long, the diplomatic police are like that." I paced around a little bit with my phone in my hand, while the policeman hesitantly debated how much a bribe should be. Again, I picked up my phone, making a fake important phone call - "Can I have your name please? I think I really need to call the office." Once again Alain took the phone out of my hand, insisting that I shouldn't. The policeman looked from Alain to me and waved at us to get back into the car and go. Bribe free.