"Are they reflections of the past"

No not really. My incident was pretty tame - for me anyway.

I have heard however (in Zambia - I believe) where poachers tried to ambush hunting safaris with automatic gunfire.

Also I travelled in Kenya in 1988 and if travelling to the Turkana region (North West) it was mandatory to pick up police or soldiers for part of the journey as the local "shufta" (or shifta - ie bandits) would often try to rob travellors. The soldiers advise travellors not to sit next to them as the bandits will try to shoot the soldiers first.

Now as for the police, in a lot of cases, is there a big difference between them and bandits? Legalised robbery vs banditry.