The pack hunters:

The hunters were out hunting early one fine morning. It was barely 7.00 am but they were already out and about on the lookout for easy prey. They were positioned strategically, ready to pounce should the victim make a move in the wrong direction. All around the well-travelled route they lay in wait knowing that it was just a matter of time before someone, something, anyone made a wrong move when the pincer movement perfected by the Germans in World War I using their Panzer tanks would encircle around making sure that there was no possible escape route and to devastating effect.

There were in all shapes and sizes the pack hunters some coming out in large numbers ready to share the spoils of a successful hunt. Then there were those that chose to hunt in pairs and trios, and then there were the lone rangers hunting alone and keeping all the spoils to themselves like the lions, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs of the wild that they were not.

These tricks had been perfected long time ago seemingly from the beginning of time itself. The positioning, the encircling, the anticipation clear on their furrowed brows and wrinkled foreheads some clearly not able to hunt effectively thanks to protuberant mid sections due to years of engorgement with scant or non-existent exercise.

This was like a well-oiled machine most able to work alone but sure that at the end of the day they would all share in the kill, each afforded a share equal to their importance within the hierarchical pecking order.

Lest you wonder why I am talking about the Masai Mara yet I haven’t been there in close to three years let me let on that this was the situation on the Thika super highway not so long ago as a proceeded towards Nanyuki. There were no less than 6 groups of traffic officers, brilliantly lit in the early morning light in their reflective luminous jackets, obnoxious beacons of corrupt practices broadcasting to the matatu drivers and lorry drivers that they were waiting for them. It seems that no matatu or lorry passes them by without being flagged down and the obvious shake down happening as they pretend to inspect new worn out tyres and expired current PSV and insurance certificates even as the rest of us ordinary motorists speed past as a sedate 100km/h.

As had clearly come out during the ongoing police vetting exercise these law enforcers gone rogue have been enriching themselves at the expense of maintaining law and order on our roads. Many of you have been victims of these extortionists masquerading as police officers even as they brazenly position themselves strategically sometimes clear entrapment on our poorly marked roads and highways.
They demand with menaces and act with wanton indiscipline always having the upper hand on the hapless motorists. The rules are clear that they are not supposed to enter your vehicle if you have committed a traffic offence but they will demand that they do so to more easier shake you down no doubt as the hijack your driver’s license and hold you to ransom in the process until you part with something.

The frustrating thing is that it is easier to pay a bribe then be dragged through the system to be charged with whatever offence you have committed something that they are very sure about and hence guide you quickly towards the bribe giving way. So there you are a law breaker yourself for giving a bribe as the lesser of the two evils and racked by guilt knowing that you have fuelled the dragon that is corruption.