Buying a Car in Kenya: Part 3

But of course I skipped a few details. Like registration. Like insurance. Like repairs. Like the stories that people come up with of how I’m likely to be swindled in ways that I never could have conceived.

Registration:

In order to make sure your car is not stolen or in some other way illegal and that all the import duty has been paid (usually worth about the value of the car), you must go to the Kenya Revenue Authority to check the registration against the Log Book (your little piece of paper that gives you ownership). I have this checked out by Jimmy, my car guy, and it checks out fine.

Insert story of swindling: But how do you know that it checked out? Do you trust this car guy? He could have a deal on the side. Don’t trust anyone. (OMG! Even when I think I’m going through all the nit picky little steps to make sure everything checks out I’m potentially being swindled! Jeez!). So of course I spend another day getting an independent lawyer to help me check out the car registration again – again, it checks out fine.

Insurance:

In Kenya, your annual insurance rate is based almost entirely on the value of your car. I was worried about making sure all medical expenses are covered for anyone potentially involved, etc. But here, the big expense of a collision is not medical bills but car damage. Of course. So it’s roughly 7.5% the value of your car. To ensure that people don’t overestimate the value of their cars and then total them or underestimate the value of their cars (which apparently never happens), your car has to be valued by the insurance company.

So we make all the insurance arrangements and then it comes time to purchasing the actually insurance. As you can guess based on the difficulties faced when paying for the car, this is not a straight forward story, but I’ll spare you the details this time.

More interesting story of insurance issues: As I’m making sure that the insurance covers all medical costs, I’m informed that the insurance doesn’t cover someone who is sick if they die in my car. Huh? I initially ignore this comment but later come to discover that this is actually a big deal in Kenya. If you pick up a sick or injured person to take them to the hospital, then you become responsible for them. You have to pay a deposit on their hospital bill and may be responsible for all their medical bills. And if someone dies in your car, oh man, is that bad. You have a big mess on your hands trying to prove that you didn’t kill them. No “Good Samaritan” laws here, just disincentives for picking up anyone in need. I think the moral of the story is “don’t help anyone”. So sad.

Repairs:

Naturally any used car will need a few repairs and Mbuzi is no exception. I want to take the car to a mechanic and have it all done but my bartering with the car salesman ends up with an agreement that his guys will do the repairs as part of the purchasing price. Never do this! All the repairs were supposedly going to happen over the weekend. Monday arrives and nothing is done. Over the next week (while waiting for the money stuff to get sorted to it’s not really a huge deal as much as an annoyance), I visit periodically and find bits and pieces slowly being done. Eventually the shocks and exhaust are done. I’m told the headlight will be repaired “tomorrow”, I’ll get a spare key, etc. Fine.

Oh, and I’d like to practice changing a tire…

Good thing I practiced is all I can say cuz this would have been bad news out in the field. I find an old jack in the back of the car and labor trying to crank it up. Just as the back wheel is coming an inch off the ground, the car comes crashing down. Holy ****! Um… may I have a new jack, please? This one is completely shredded. I get a slightly newer jack and repeat the process – this time it at least cranks with a little less animosity. Oops… I forget to loosen the lug nuts first. Down it comes again. I loosen the lugnuts and discover a few are missing (actually, exactly one on each tire is missing) and jack it up a third time. Wait a minute – those nuts aren’t missing – they are just different. And no, they can’t be removed with the crank that I have. So how would I ever change a tire in the field with these on? Not sure. And of course the tool to remove these “different nuts” is not to be found.  And it’s getting late and starting to rain. Thus I leave with a promise that the lugnuts will be changed “tomorrow”. I write out a list of things to be done by Friday: fix the headlight, make a spare key, replace the lugnuts. Sigh.  

Morning of Take Off:

I thought I’d be in Nairobi for one or two days buying this car. Two and a half weeks later, I am finally ready to leave. The car has been picked and checked out by two mechanics, the registration has been checked (and double-checked), the payment has been made, the insurance as been bought, the repairs haven been done, and I have mentally passed from frustration to resignation.

So I show up early on the morning of take off (still sick to my stomach - read the post on Food Poisoning for details). The headlight is still out and now I notice that the fog light on the opposite side isn’t working either. The lugnuts have not been changed. There is no spare key. And the car has not been serviced in way too long (this was also supposed to be done… shucks). We take the lugnuts off another car, scrap the headlight repairs and the spare key and plan to service the car in Kisumu. Now onto the insurance issue that I discovered the night before…

Remember that little thing I mentioned about needing to have a “valuation” of the car for the insurance? Well, I was told that the insurance valuer would come out to the car lot over a week ago to the make the assessment. I assumed (how stupid of me) that this was done. The night before we hope to leave, I think to ask, “Hey what happened with the valuation of the car?” Oh, we need to do that before we head out of town. Right. So off we go to the valuation place… discover that the hazard lights aren’t working properly and that my insurance is actually only temporary insurance for a month until the valuation has been filed and any price discrepancies are remedied. So I have to return to Nairobi within a month to get my “real” insurance.

Jimmy (who will be driving me out to Kisumu with Mbuzi) and I swing by the store to grab a few car tools, with plans to get the remainder in Kisumu. Around 1pm, we finally leave Nairobi. I wonder what other little details I didn’t catch.