Time Out

This year for our Virgo birthdays, we decided to go away for a weekend of rejuvenation.  Jonathan has been working so hard and he's also still trying to come to terms with his sister's death.  So with that, we decided to go to a place that had little to no distractions so that he could get a lot of rest.  My job was to find a place that we could enjoy solitude and be still for a moment.  I did my research and found the ultimate destination and knew that he would be really psyched at the choice of lodge/camp I picked.  I sent him off to make the payment the day prior to our departure and guess what?  The tour agent had mistakenly booked us in for the weekend after! I was livid and told Jonathan to do whatever he could to get us in there but unfortunately the camp was fully booked.  The tour agent told us about this other place and said that we would have just as much fun and seclusion there so we decided to go with her recommendation - Mbweha Camp.

Matatu Shenanigans

Image via Wikipedia

I live in Nairobi and work in Thika, which is 26 miles away (43km).  It doesn't seem like a long journey but this is Kenya and the infrastructure hasn't been developed until recently so that sends commute times through the roof!  However, the highway from Nairobi to Thika is currently under construction by the Chinese (thank you Jesus!) so the long and tedious commutes will be a thing of the past! Until then, I am one of the millions of Kenyans that take public transport every day and that usually means boarding a "matatu".  A matatu is a van that carries between 10-15 passengers and picks up and drops off passengers at bus stops that are simply known as "stage" or by a landmark feature in the area (i.e Shell gas station!) .  The origins of the word matatu are attributed to the Swahili word for three: "tatu" and also the 30 cents fare that was paid when matatus first appeared in the 60s.

Traffic Fines - Nairobi City Council

The other day I received an email detailing the new rules and fines from Nairobi City Council. I went to their website but could not locate an actual document detailing this but everyone seems to be aware of them so they must have been posted somewhere at some point.

• Pedestrians crossing the roads in Nairobi when traffic light is red – Fine Kshs. 10,000/=
• Motorist moving on when the traffic light is red – Fine Kshs 10,000/=
• Pedestrians crossing the road while talking on their mobile phones – Fine Kshs. 500/=
• Boarding/Alighting at non designated matatu stops -  Fine 10,000/=
• Unfastened seat belt  - Fine Kshs 500/=
• Worn out tyres (yes that's how tires is spelled over here) - Fine Kshs 10,000/=
• Double parking - Fine  Kshs 20,000/=

For anyone who has survived Nairobi roads, the introduction of fines seems sensible enough but lets be real...the cops might need to get a ticket themselves for not following the NCC rules!  No. 2 is a very good example - Jonathan and I try very hard to follow that rule but in Nairobi the cops never let motorists follow the lights (which work very well) and instead use hand signals to control traffic.    Which voids No.1 because pedestrians get confused as to when they should cross the road...sometimes the cops tell motorists to go on a red light and sometimes on a green light so what's a pedestrian to do?  Ok, anyone caught doing a No.3 needs to be doubly fined for stupidity because its nothing short of a death wish to cross Nairobi roads while talking on their celly!    

With regards to No. 5, I'm wondering who is going to get charged for "unfastened seat belt".  I ride a matatu everyday to work and trust me, on Thika Road you don't have to tell me to fasten my seat belt.  However, some of these matatus have actually severed the seat belts while others are so dirty that you risk catching a disease by touching them at all.  Others have a belt with a tongue but no buckle and worse some have a belt, tongue, buckle and no adjuster.  No adjuster means that even if you strap yourself, the belt will not hold if the matatu comes to a sudden stop...imagine yourself flying through the air!  So, in the case of the severed seat belts who will incur the fee during a traffic stop - is it the matatu owner, matatu driver/conductor or the innocent passenger?

Westgate Shopping Mall

NB: As I was going through my old posts, I found this one in my drafts, meaning I never published it. I'll just go ahead and post it as I wrote it back in Nov '08, shortly after I got back to Kenya.

Westgate Mall is a trendy new mall in the Westlands area of Nairobi. This mall is the first of its kind in terms of state-of-the art facilities and incorporating different types of retail outlets under the same roof.  The mall is home to a variety of clothing stores, eateries, kid's play area, food court, casino, a book/music store reminiscent of Barnes & Noble layout, movie theater, grill & sushi bar (Onami - love this place!!), coffee shops (Artcaffe & Dormans) and Nakumatt which is a "Wal-Mart-esq" type of store. The first time I visited Westgate, I was thoroughly impressed by interior of the mall and the lighting was excellent (Kenyans you know what I mean!).

Registering to VOTE!

A new voter registration exercise was kicked off on March 22 and will last 45 days.  All Kenyan citizens over the age of 18 are required to obtain a new voter card. As luck would have it there was a registration desk set up at Kilimani Primary School, on Arwings Kodhek Road, which is on our way home.

There was one person in line in front of us so the wait was like 3 minutes…gotta love that!  The registration process was easy because the Registration Officers complete the scantron forms for you and all you have to do is produce a valid National ID card or Passport.  The only information they asked from me was my postal address.  

My left thumb print was requested on the form and the front side of my voter (elector’s) card plus two signatures on the form. They had a rag and some methylated spirit to wipe the purple ink from your finger!

All that was left to do was laminate the card…that’s where it got funny.  I saw the laminating sleeves so I assumed that they would hand you the card and a sleeve and ask you laminate it yourself.  Well, they were like "no, we can't let you do that".  So I was like, where is the laminating machine? You guessed it - no laminating machines…This is Africa… so the lamination was done motherland style using a hot charcoal iron circa 1870.   It’s the little stuff like this that remind me that I am in Africa...home:-)  She had to put the card between sheets of newspaper and then iron on top.  She burned the one from the guy in front of me but mine was done perfectly!

So here I am, a bona fide card-carrying Kenyan voter!  Now all I have to do is figure out which one of these clowns in Parliament I should cast my vote for!

Sierra Lounge Bar & Brasserie

Yesterday we finally made it to Church for Easter Sunday Service at 8:30am! After Church we decided to go home and relax for an hour or so and then headed out for our Easter Lunch at Sierra Lounge, located on the third floor at Yaya Center.  Sierra Lounge at Yaya is the second installment from founder, Alan Murungi, who is the brains behind the Sierra Lounge Bar & brasserie on Mombasa Road by Panari Sky Center.  it's the first microbrewery in East & Central Africa and boasts beer production made from pure barley malt, with no additives or substitutes!  According to Sierra's website,their beer production also follows the German Purity Law. I'm not a fan of beer but I am a fan of purity and authenticity when it comes to food or drinks!

Super Retail Deals

…those words always get my juices flowing and then I remember “Damn, I’m in Kenya and the deals ain’t that great over here.”  In Atlanta, I was a shopping fanatic so words like Super Retail Deals were like music to my ears, food for my soul! I can say with unabashed certainty that almost 95% of all my possessions have been bought at a bargain/discount/clearance, whatever.  As a rule, I never paid full price on an item because I knew that it was going to go on sale at some point.  In the States, that rule held hard and fast …about every 50 days an item will reduce in price.  Also, there was always a calendar holiday around the corner so I timed my major purchases to those special sale days. 

Back to present day Kenya.  I pass by tons of stores that promise tons of discounts but when I go in I almost always come out empty-handed.  That’s because there are no “true” sales here, at least in my opinion.  If an item costs $50, then the sale here will be $49 and the stores think that they are saving everyone loads of money.  If the sale is really good, the price tag will read $47.50. For a girl like me used to 60-90% off original price, a sale in Kenya is like toying with my emotions.  The other day, I was lured by a flashy booklet from Safaricom, with SUPER RETAIL DEALS emblazoned in red and I quickly went through it looking at all the cool phones and laptops that were on sale.  My phone was stolen last year and I am now rolling with a “Nokia China Phone” which is a Chinese-made Nokia knockoff that was really cheap.  It comes with two batteries because the battery lasts about 2 hours…yeah, you get what you pay for.

Ok, back to Safaricom and the little booklet of great deals.  I see lots of phones I would like to get my little pudgy hands on so I fish into my purse for my trusty calculator and damn, damn, damn who the hell is paying this much for phones over here? I’m still converting Kenya Shillings to dollars (78/- exchange rate used) so that I know whether I’m getting a good deal or not.  Well, for a third world country, Kenya has some people with some serious cash because I’ve seen these phones with just about any regular Joe.  I consider myself a regular Joe but I cannot afford the nicer phones …even with the great deals! Now you are wondering how much a simple phone could be, right? Using the booklet, I’ve listed the prices of the phones that are termed as Super Deals! Some prices are OK (if you count buying said phone abroad, unlocked and shipping) but some prices are just outrageous! Unlocking phones in Kenya will not cost you more than $20!! I will let you decide whether I’m just a cheapskate or we need to alert the World Bank to stop sending aid to Kenya because people are spending their food money on phones!

Sleek Offers:

Samsung Omnia – 30,199 ($387)*Verizon has it for $299*SelectGSM for 349

Nokia 6700 – 21,999 ($282)

LG Renoir – 34,499 ($442)

LG KF 510 – 14,699 ($188)

Nokia 6303 – 10, 999 ($141)

Super Deals:

Samsung Ruggedized – 8,999 ($115)

Nokia 3120 – 7,999 ($102)

Nokia 5130 – 9,099 ($116)

Motorola W388 – 4,499 ($57)

Nokia 2330 – 4,299 ($55)

Business Phones:

Nokia E52 – 24,999 – ($320)

Nokia E63 – 18,999 – ($243)

Nokia E71 – 27,999 ($358)

Nokia E72 – 37,499 ($480)*found unlocked one for $379 from SelectGSM

Samsung i780 – 26,749 ($342)

Blackberry Devices:

Blackberry Bold 9000 – 66, 499($852)

Blackberry Javelin 8900 – 56,199 ($720)

Blackberry Storm – 79,999 ($1025) Yikes, found an unlocked one from Verizon for $380!

Blackberry Curve 8320 – 47,649 ($610)

Blackberry Pearl 8100 – 22,999($294)

Mobile TV Phones:

Nokia N97 – 46,999 ($602)*Unlocked 529 from SelectGSM 

Nokia E75 – 34,999 ($448)

Nokia N96 – 36,999 ($474)

Nokia N85 – 33,649 ($431)

Nokia 5800 – 23,999 ($307)

Great Deals: *These are the only ones I consider “real” deals*

Nokia 1680, 1662, ZTE S312 Simu Ya Solar – 2,999 ($38)

Samsung Crest FM – 2,599 ($33)

LG KP 105 – 2,349 ($30)

Nokia 1208 – 2,199 ($28)

Laptops:

Acer Aspire One AOD 250(Mini) – 29,999 ($384)*$289 on Amazon

Acer Extenza 5635Z – 49,999 ($602)

Dell Inspiron 1420 – 59,999 ($769)

HP Pavillion DV 61330ei – 74,999 ($961)*$799 on Amazon

Moral of the story: Do your shopping to make sure you are getting a "Super Retail Deal!"

Happy Birthday Jane & Ian!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Today is a special day for both my mother (54) my youngest brother (23) so here's to wishing them a fabulous day and good health so that we can celebrate many many more special days! Moms is at home today probably missing her last born who is on holiday in Aussie (would want to know what kind of stuff he's getting into over there!)  My moms had Ian when she was 31 years old and that was her last and fourth child...I'm older than that and cannot imagine having ONE child at my age.  Truth be told I already think that having Jonathan and Joi as enough to deal with:-)  If I had 4 kids I would go absolutely nutters!  So, let's give it up for our parents generation that had kids at a young age and still managed to enjoy their life!

Sky High

I'm missing my boys and I just saw them both yesterday! Joi, my orange tabby, was first to go...off to the boarding house for a week. Sunday morning I was trying to clean out his carrier and he knew what that meant - going to the Vet's! So he did what any self-respecting cat would do when threatened with some sort of "imprisonment" - he fled and tried to find one of his hard-to-reach hiding spots. We had a couple of hours so I gave him time to play his little hide-and-seek games. Without any effort from me, the little spoiled brat got hungry and had to come out in search of some good eats and that's when I nabbed him and put him in his carrier and off to the vet for his week-long stay. Sob!

Jonathan spent his day at the airport trying to do his flight planning for his 7-day trip round the North Eastern part of Kenya. All he could think about was how hot it was going to be over there. The veterans of the NE told him not to worry about the heat because he could tell the guest house workers to "pull his bed outside". I was like, "oh hell to the no! There are scorpions out there in the desert and God-knows what else! Yikes! My advice is shut the door, go commando and sweat it out in the house until morning!" Sleep is overrated anyway.

I thought it would be cool if I could plot his stop-over locations on Google Earth and follow him around on my laptop...didn't know GE doesn't have a plot/mapping feature. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what a GIS application was and after all that effort, couldn't find one I could download to help me plot the points!! I ended up using Google Maps as seen below! So, let's all 'look in' on Jonathan and cheer him on during his first Kenyan long-distance, multi-stop flight! To hell with the scorpions, snakes, desert critters and scorching heat, we are logging in some hours! Yay!


View Jonathan's Flight Path in a larger map

Another Security Issue!

Last night, Jonathan and I are watching a movie when suddenly we hear screams, screech of tires and what sounded like "commotion". We raced to the balcony in time to see a saloon car screech up the hill and head out of our gate. Simultaneously, we see a haphazardly parked SUV right below our apartment block (we are on the 3rd floor) parked right at the edge, kids and a woman jumping out and fleeing behind the buildings. By this time, most of our neighbors are also on their balcony's wondering what the hell just happened.

The SUV belongs to one of my neighbors, Beatrice Kones, MP in the Ministry of Home Affairs. Evidently, she was on her way home and noticed a car behind her but didn't think that there was any need to worry as the car had red plates (license plates usually given to foreign consuls, UN diplomats, etc). When the guards opened the gate for her, the other car was still trailing behind. As she maneuvers into her regular spot, two guys with guns suddenly jump out of the saloon car and are at the driver and passenger windows in seconds. She said they spoke good Swahili and they seemed calm and confident. Next thing she knew, she backed out of her spot in a frenzy, started screaming and drove down to the hill to the end of our complex (which is a very short distance, say 30 yards). She and her passengers jumped out and ran behind the buildings to hide from the perps. Meanwhile, unbeknown to her, one of the guards is on the floor at the mercy of a guy pointing a gun to his head. The other guard, in a panic, had taken off to hide behind the buildings. When Kones asked him whether he had a panic button he indicated that the guards had nothing to alert the security service nor the police. WOW...There was one nagging thought though - where the hell was her security detail? One of the residents allegedly claims that she had seen the "GK" security vehicle about two hours earlier. Curious. I know most of the residents share my sentiment that Kones better use her office to take care of this problem. According to her ministry's home page, their objectives are to:
- Improve the supervision, rehabilitation and resettlement of offenders
- Facilitate the administration of justice
- Regulate and control the Gaming Industry
- Contain offenders in safe custody

The good part of this story is that everyone is alive and no one was hurt in the ordeal. However, it raises yet another issue about the security in Nairobi. If you have been following Martin's story (previous post) you are aware that the march was successful and garnered the response of the press, police as well as Prof. George Saitoti, Minister of State for Provincial Administration & Internal Security. He met with the parents of the deceased and promised them that the government was working on apprehending the culprits as well as working the crime zones and replacing street lights. It was also reported that 40 suspects had been rounded up in connection with the case. I'm not even going to comment on these alleged suspects because we all know that the police probably rounded up 40 idlers in the city center so that it would look like there was really an investigation going on. Kenyans don't want promises, they want ACTION. Kenyans want to know that they can count on their government to keep them safe at all times. We shouldn't have to take to the streets so that our grievances can be heard.

Brutality on Kenyan Roads

In the early morning hours of January 17, 2010, Martin's car stalled on Uhuru Highway. In the minutes that it took to call his friends (who were a few cars back) to help him out, he was brutally attacked by a gang of thugs and left for dead. He was rushed to Nairobi Hospital but all efforts to save him were unsuccessful. He died less than 24 hours after that brutal attack. A young life, snuffed out in the blink of an eye. He had proposed to his girlfriend just a few weeks prior and was getting ready to walk down the aisle in May. Read the story here by Sunday Nation.

Today is a bittersweet day. I will be attending a march (@2pm from Baricho Rd to Uhuru Highway)organized by Moses Kahia for his late cousin, friend and colleague, Martin Gitehi Njuma. In commemorating the deceased, this walk is first and foremost to bring attention to the lack of security on Kenyan roads. Hopefully, this march will demonstrate to the authorities that it is their job to protect us. It should also demonstrate to fellow Kenyans that it our fundamental right to speak up and demand a safe city. The march should also bring awareness and caution to those unaware of the danger zones (people like me who didn't know about all the danger zones reported in the Sunday Nation story).

From what I've read/heard, the place that the attack occurred (Makaburini near Bunyala Rd roundabout) is a known DANGER spot. My question to the authorities is: HOW CAN YOU SAY THIS IS A KNOWN DANGER SPOT AND NOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT? In my head, the solution is really simple...how about you station some policemen there (and all other danger zones) as part of their beat? This is the problem with how the authorities work in a country like Kenya - unless there is a prominent figure of state living in close proximity, the police will not care to station/monitor that area. Citizens are all left at the mercy of these gangs and the police are still twiddling their thumbs wondering where their next "CHAI" (read: bribe) will come from. And the worst thing is that these punks who are attacking people senseless, are stealing petty items like wallets and mobile phones! How do you justify killing someone to steal those items?

What irks me is that the authorities claim that this was an isolated incident as reported in the Sunday Nation. A lot of people have blogged that the area is dangerous and this has been a known fact for years because there have been numerous cases reported. So, dear authorities, IF this was such an isolated case, WHY in heaven's name did you NOT record this in your INCIDENT book? And to add insult to injury, the Central police station boss Richard Muguai made a comment that "The young man put himself in danger by driving at that time of the night." WHAT? Are you kidding me? So there are alloted times of the night to drive? Why? Oh, is it that there is possibly CRIME happening at that time? CRIME that your police force should be handling? Give me an effing break - these clowns are smoking some ISH and they need to stop. How can the Central Police Boss be so callous with his remarks? What if this were his son or daughter? Would his remarks be as callous then? Let's not forget that Martin was a pilot so if the authorities remarks are correct, all those who work those 'anti-social' hours (pilots, nurses, doctors, construction, etc) should ditch their jobs because they shouldn't be driving at that time of the night. What planet is this so called boss from? It's no wonder that tourism has also dropped in Kenya...if Kenyans themselves think that the roads are UNSAFE, how are we going to entice foreigners to come here? Hell, If truth be told, most of us just wanna get the first ship out of dodge.