Nairobi

September the 6th

Good morning Nairobi! the place that I'm staying at is nice, has a casual atmosphere to it and is full with travellers coming back and forth, arranging day trips, transfers to other countries or days to weeks safaris. Everything you want, they arrange it for you at a "reasonable" price, they say. What is a reasonable price? I don't have a chance to know that, do I? So, I just asked around. Some of the guest were asked a staggering price of 5000Ksh for a ride from city center to the guest house. That ride will cost 30 Ksh if you take a bus. The guest house arrange this for you for 500 Ksh, which is about 6 dollars. You would say that is reasonable. But if you take into consideration that people here earn about 2,5 dollars a day, the price is fairly high for a 10-15 min. ride.

But as any tourist, I want to make the best of my trip and see most possible. So, I choose a walking day trip to Nairobi.

My guide, Joshua, an young man 24 years of age, starts talking passionately about Kenya’s history, it's independence and about the first president which is the father of the actual president. He speaks respectfully, not praising neither criticizing the new president. But he's very critical about the educational system, and the lack of possibilities for the uneducated. He says he's from the slums and he works for a kenyan NGO named ____

which are supporting people from the slums to support themselves by recycling the garbage. I didn't exactly understood how they do that but he says that 50% goes to finance schooling children from the slums. He believes that, although there aren't many jobs out there, there is a bigger chance to get one if you are educated. It sounds to me like a good plan.

We took a bus to the city center and it was and experience, I can say. The bus was crowded and very slim witch made it a challenge to walk through it between the seats. You also have to be very quick to get on or off, otherwise you would have to do it while moving. They also tend to change the route as they go along.

Nairobi was a disappointment, muddy and dusty, a construction yard and very, very busy. Everybody is crossing the streets where they want and when they want to. But don't mind that, the pedestrians aren't the only ones. Cars, buses and other kinds of mean of transportation don't respect the traffic lights either. My heart stopped a couple of times. We went to the Kennyata International Convention Center (KICC) which is currently the tallest building in Nairobi. It was a nice view from the top, and the city is huge. 

There is so much security everywhere, it's intimidating. Every single shop no matter how small has it's own security and they check your bag and get you though a metal detector. I asked my guide about that and he said that is both a question of insurance and fear for bombs, after the conflict with Somalia.

But here is a bit of history. Kenya has been a Portuguese and then an English colony. They got the independence in1963. In 2007, after the presidential elections, ethnic conflicts started and 1000 people were killed. Conflict was successfully mediated by the UN general Kofi Anan. The current president Uhuru Kennyatta is under ongoing investigation for deaths occurred in 2007 by the International Court of Justice. As I read the papers yesterday it seams that the charges will be dropped because of lack of evidence regarding Kennyatta's involvement in the conflict.

In October 2011, Kenyan troops cross into Somalia in an attempt to push the Al-Shabaab militants from the border, which are considered responsible for a series of kidnappings of tourist and aid workers in north Kenya. This is still an ongoing war.

Kenya is home to 42 tribes, which mostly coexist peacefully. The religion is catholic, about 70%, sunni muslim 20%, mostly at the coast and 10% other religions, among them hindu. The indians came in the English colony time to work at the construction of the railroad. They settled down in Kenya and have today a big economical influence.