Dave’s first shakedown experience

#ibmcsc kenya

Soo, on my first day here in Nairobi I had an interesting experience.  Not that I am a world traveler by any means but I’m used to walking about, minding my own business, always aware of my surroundings.  I hope I don’t walk around naively.  My first day here (Wed June 29th) was a bright, sunny, HOT beautiful day in Nairobi.  I typically just walk through streets that look interesting or have interesting buildings.

I was walking down this dusty, busy, fume soaked road (I hope you get the picture that I’m still getting used to Nairobi traffic 🙂 and came upon Uhuru Park.  Uhuru Park is like a little oasis in the Nairobi City Centre, similar in concept to High Park in Toronto, Central Park in NYC or Hyde Park in London.  Like those parks, Uhuru Park has it’s cast of characters, but was very lively and friendly.  Kids playing in paddle boats in a pond, sculptures, couples, people just enjoying the day.

Perfect place to walk through and take pictures, which of course, I did!  Pictures are on my Facebook page, and I may cross post here sometime soon.

I’d spent maybe a little over an hour just walking through taking pictures when three men in suits with no ties stopped me.  This was early afternoon, maybe around 1:00, 1:15pm.  One of the men pulled out a “warrant card”  with the words Powers of Arrest written on it.  That alone immediately freaked me out … first day in Nairobi and I get thrown in jail!

Another one of the three started saying they had followed me through the park watching as I was taking pictures.  He said I was breaking city council rules by photographing the buildings (the building happened to be in many of the backgrounds of the shots and I had taken some direct building shots as well) and that I needed to pay.  I explained I had just arrived in their beautiful city and that I wanted to enjoy their park.  They kept insisting I needed to pay.  I then played the innocent tourist and kept saying I just arrived, I didn’t know the rules, I was just walking about.  This went on back and forth for maybe 10 minutes.  As they kept insisting I needed to pay, I began to realize this was a shakedown.  They never once asked for ID, which I wouldn’t have shown them anyway.  They never directly used their so called “powers of arrest” except as a threat and intimidation.  As this wore on, I came close to saying call the police and have them arrest me.  I certainly would never allow them to take me anywhere.  In the end they said I could finish up and leave.  I never did give them any money and continually played the innocent tourist line.

I was 99% certain this was an extortion attempt but needed to confirm with my Kenyan hosts first before blogging about it.  Obviously, they said it was just 3 guys looking for money and if that ever happened again just to firmly but politely tell them to leave,

It’s unfortunate that this kinda soured the rest of my first day and gave me a negative first impression of Nairobi.  That’s obviously since changed as I’ve talked to people about it and reflected on it.  I’ve also used the experience to help frame my work here.

There is such a huge divide between what my clients want (e-Voting) and what some few Nairobians feel they need to do (hussle and scam people for money).  How can I and my team close that gap?  I think we need to.

What also struck me about this experience is that some (many?) people only look at the immediate transaction (pay me now) rather than longer term relationships.  If those three men in suits, no ties, approached me as warm, welcoming guides who asked where I was from, what I was interested in, or wanted to show me their beautiful city, I would have appreciated that and would have paid them for their time, their hospitality and would have called them and used their services many more times as well as recommending them to my other CSC friends.  They would have made much more money and the tone of this blog entry would have very different!

That’s also something they didn’t think about or care about … the power of social media … they didn’t know or care I would be writing about this.  In a sense this is also Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs at work here.  They needed (I suppose), thier immediate need of money for food, drink, whatever.

In a way, I’m glad I had this experience as it taught me a lot, gave me things to think about to help frame discussions with my clients here, as well as see first hand how scams work in Nairobi!  Not bad for my first day in Nairobi!