The traffic officers must have licked their lips when they saw the easy pickings approaching -- a luxury gray Toyota Land Cruiser with UN number plates.
In time-honored fashion, one of the officers stepped into the road on the outskirts of Nairobi, flagged down the vehicle, informed the driver that he had been speeding and confiscated his license and car keys.
The driver and passenger would be free to go only if they paid bail of US$42 and kitu kidogo, "a little something," of US$13.
There was only one problem. The passenger was Colin Bruce, head of the World Bank in Kenya and an outspoken critic of the corruption that continues to bedevil the country. Bruce denied that his car was traveling over the 50mph speed limit and asked the officers to produce evidence.
When they refused and threatened to tow the vehicle away, Bruce used his mobile phone to call Aaron Ringera, the head of Kenya's Anti-Corruption Commission. A team rushed to the scene and ordered the officers to return the license and car keys. Several other motorists who had refused to pay "bail" were also given their keys back.
"It happens to be that policemen in Kenya are cited as the most corrupt and that may be what we were seeing here," Bruce told reporters during the two-hour stand-off.
Five traffic policemen were taken for questioning, while one was reported to have run away. They later denied demanding bribes, and said that they could not produce any evidence of speeding because videotape in the speed gun could not be rewound.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not