KNOCK, KNOK, lawful extortion

HOW's this for a neat example of governmental extortion? The Kenyan Government managed to insinuate itself into the sale, by BP, of its assets to Shell Kenya (a perfectly normal willing buyer/willing seller situation) by only approving the sale if Shell gave a tenth of its 130 petrol stations in Kenya to the State-owned National Oil Corporation of Kenya.(KNOK) Finance minister Amos Kimunya initially blocked the deal, citing a "possible" breach of monopoly and competition rules, only to approve it a few months later. Neat bit of extortion, says Spigot. And all done "perfectly legally". Shell must be mad to give into extortion like this. BP should be embarrassed too. Wait till the word travels round the continent that both companies are soft targets, if it hasn't done so already. Next thing could be Mad Bob demanding his cut in Zimbabwe. .