I Was Robbed In Broad Daylight in Kenya

Police Corruption in Kenya

It is pretty common knowledge that some of the countries in Africa are known to be extremely corrupt. Some places are doing better than others, but many countries still struggle to curb public officials' corrupt behavior.

Kenya, despite being one of the most traveled destinations in East Africa, has one of the worst records when it comes to police corruption and brutality. The Kenyan police force is known to be one of the country's most corrupt public institutions. Problems of extortion for bribes can be found at all levels of the organization.

With one hand wielding the "law" and another wielding an AK-47, the lower ranks on the ground do most of the dirty work as they work their way up the chain of command to the very head of the institution.

When corruption affects every level of an organization like this, it is almost impossible to curb the problem because whoever is next in line for the top position probably extorted and bribed their way there in the first place.

The fact is that the Kenya police institution is so underfunded that they often have to resort to extortion to make up for the low salary, which spirals into the extortion and bribery system they have in place today.

Of course, the regular Kenyan people know this very well, as they have to deal with police extortion every day. A local told me that they even carry a second decoy wallet with less money in case they get pulled over by the police for some ambiguous violations, so they can bribe the police with whatever they have in their decoy wallet.

As time goes by, greed continues to extend its ugly hands outward. With the increasing number of tourists coming into the country, the police are becoming even greedier. They have decided to start extorting tourists as well, using the usual intimidation, the advantage of ambiguous laws, and the cluelessness and confusion of tourists.

Unfortunately, as my time in Kenya was coming to an end, I fell into such traps just a few days before leaving, and it left me with such a bitter feeling of the country in an otherwise awesome trip. Here's how the tourist extortion went down:

How the Police Extorts Tourist in Kenya

As I was walking around the streets of Mombasa, clueless about what would befall me in a few minutes, I snapped a few photos of the very nice white colonial buildings that Mombasa is well-known for.

All of a sudden, I heard a taxi horn going off. I didn't think much of it, as many taxi drivers do this to attract customers. So, I continued snapping a few photos before making my way to the Old Town.

As I was walking away, the taxi came and parked on the side of the street, and two policemen with AK-47s (for extra intimidation, I guess) came out and asked me in a friendly manner where I was from. Confused as to why they were talking to me, I cheerily told them that I am from Thailand.

They then proceeded to accuse me of violating the "government buildings photography prohibition" law. "Are you serious?" I remember saying to them, and "I asked them which government building are you talking about? This is a regular colonial building." The photo you see above is what I got arrested for.

They calmly told me that there is a police station behind it, which is about 2 blocks away, and it is in no way visible in the photos I took. They asked me to see the photos, and, of course, they didn't find any violations. However, they continue to insist on my illegal activities and have asked me for my passport.

A standard procedure, but here's the catch: the moment they take your passport, they will not return it until you go with them. This is how they force you into their cars and start driving around while asking questions.

Once they got me into the car, they drove outside of a crowded area before they told me to switch into a tuk-tuk, where they would be able to intimidate and extort me easily without repercussions.

In the small passenger seat of a tuk-tuk, which can barely fit three grown men, I was sandwiched between two armed policemen. They asked the tuk-tuk driver to step away for a few minutes and began extorting money from me.

Why did they switch to a tuk-tuk, you asked? Well, due to the almost-sealed, boxy passenger area of an Indian-style tuk-tuk (unlike the ones we have in Thailand), the police were able to conduct their illegal intimidation and extortion methods without being captured on the surveillance cameras on the streets.

They first asked me for a crisp 100 USD bill, as they expected every tourist to carry. And they were right; I did have a crisp 100 USD, but I begged and pleaded that I needed that money for my PCR test. After around 5 minutes of back and forth, we settled on 70 USD.

70 USD is still pretty goddamn high for taking a random photo, if you ask me. But I was getting extremely annoyed by it, so I decided to pay. They, together with the tuk-tuk driver, drove me to the old town area.

Guess what happens next? With their poker faces and my money securely in their pockets, they started lecturing me on scammers in the Old Town and gave me "friendly" advice on how to avoid them without shame! What nerve!

They eventually let me go after about 1.5 hours of intimidating and extorting me in broad daylight, while continuing on their day looking for more clueless tourists to rob. That experience left a strange feeling in my stomach and really made me despise Mombasa.

How to Avoid Getting Robbed By the Police in Kenya?

I came out of that experience feeling extremely bitter with Mombasa and Kenya in general. I was just strolling around on the street, taking random photos of a building, and bam, I lost 70 USD for no reason.

This is also not an isolated incident. Friends of mine who were traveling in Lamu, another coastal town in Kenya, also got arrested and rounded up by the police, among other locals, for not wearing a mask in public. My friend only took her mask down to drink water, and she got arrested. Their experiences were similar, and they ended up having to pay 50 USD each.

After a while, I met a Kenyan woman in Uganda, and I told her about the incident. She informed me about how common it is in Kenya to be arrested by the police for no reason. She gave me some advice that I remember to this day: if the Kenyan police want money from you, they will get it one way or another.

You might be doing something completely legal for all we know, but the police will use whatever ambiguous laws to spin it in their direction and make it illegal for them to extort money out of you. Unless you are well-versed in Kenyan laws, which is extremely unlikely for tourists, you won't be able to get away with it once they arrest you.

That said, there are a few ways you can avoid getting arrested by the corrupt police in Kenya.

• Avoid Taking Photos Outside of Tourist Areas: To avoid making the same mistake, limit your photography to touristy areas only. Taking photos in urban areas can be used by the police to falsely accuse you of threatening the security of the country.
• Go with an organized tour: For the first 7 days of my trip to Kenya, I was with a tour group and we didn't run into any problems with the police at all. You pay a little more for these organized tours, but you get the security and reassurance that these kinds of mishaps won't happen to you while you are in Kenya.
• Carry a decoy wallet with small changes: If you get arrested anyway and want to avoid giving a large sum of money as bribes, try carrying a decoy wallet with small bills. More often than not, the police will just take whatever you have in there. You do not want them to see that you have a crisp 100 USD bill because they will take it without hesitation.
• Do not give them your passport: If they ask for your passport, show it but do not hand it over to the police. That's how they will force you into a car where they can extort you discreetly without detection from the surveillance cameras and the public.
• Make a Scene: If nothing works, make a scene to grab as many bystanders' attention as possible. I have heard that sometimes they will let you go if the activity you were doing is not worth taking you into the police station.

Be warned: The last thing you want is to go to the police station with them. From there, they can easily arrest you and put you in jail for a few hours, or even for days if they want to. That is not how you want to spend your time on holiday. So, if nothing works, just give them what they want but take that lesson to heart, as I did.

Looking for a complete guide to backpacking Mombasa? Check out:7 Best Things to Do in Mombasa

Further Reading for Kenya

I have plenty of articles to help you with your trip planning for Kenya. Here is a selection of articles that you might find useful:

• Planning to visit Kenya for the first time? Here are the 10 best things to do in Kenya.
• Looking for a complete itinerary for backpacking Kenya? Check out: 7 Days - 2 Weeks Backpacking Kenya Itinerary.
• Diani is one of the best beaches you can visit in Kenya. Here is a complete guide on how to get to Diani Beach.
• Want to visit the historical town of Mombasa in Kenya? Be sure to check out: 7 Best Things to Do in Mombasa.
• To see all articles about Kenya, visit our Kenya Travel Guide page.
• Want to travel to the entire East Africa? Check out all of our East Africa Travel Guides.
• Looking for more travel guides for Africa? You can find more on my Africa Travel Guide page.
• For more of my travel guides, visit my Destinations page.