I told you I would return to Kenya. I did, a few weeks ago. In
my usual travelling style, my safari to get there was eventful, but that’s
another story, luckily though I made it in time for the family wedding.
This time round I was in the East African metropolis of
Nairobi. Those of us in Harare complain about traffic, we have nothing to
complain about as compared to other capital cities. Nairobi is a huge, bustling
city, characterized by traffic of all sorts, matatus, pikipikis/borda-bordas, and most importantly people. You find the same thing in
Harare, but there is a different flare in Nairobi (with a population over three million).
The language
In Nairobi just about
everyone speaks kiSwahili. By everyone I mean everyone, all the market vendors,
(people of different ethnic backgrounds. Not like in Zimbabwe, with our 16
official languages (courtesy of the new constitution) most people speak either
Shona or Ndebele or English, not often do you find us speaking all three let
alone the 16 which many remain unintelligible. But a real linguae franca- a
trade language does not exist. Perhaps I am wrong, consulting socio-linguists
about this one may be necessary.
A huge smile plastered on my face, in an attempt to
apologize for my lack of language I would answer the Kenyans, in English
desperately wanting to throw in my few Swahili words and a few words of sheng (the local slang-that I have
learnt from my Kenyan friends and family) or better yet answering back in the
similar sounding Shona that I know, Hopefully, by the time I return to East
Africa I will be more conversant in this trade language that intersects Arabic
and Bantu languages.
The people of Nairobi represent a multitude of ethnic and
social backgrounds from across the globe. While walking through a large
supermarket with my Kenyan sisters, I tried to heed to my mother’s council of
not prying into conversations. It was impossible to not to ignore the English
spoken with accents from around the globe, the KiSwahili and not surprisingly
Shona conversations.
KiSwahilii, allows the people of the nation from over 40
language groups to understand each other. It is the language of choice during a marriage ceremony joining up two people from
different ethnic groups, building relationships and growing families.
The traffic
The traffic of Nairobi is something that everyone who has
been to this East African metropolis will attest to is nothing more than irritating.
You spend a considerable amount of time in a jam, no matter how hard you try to
outsmart it, something will make the journey longer than you anticipated,
perhaps it is the road works, or the traffic police who might be chatting with
one of the drivers in a stationary car instead of directing traffic. The road
infrastructure, even with the many roundabouts, does not match with the sea of cars,
the majority being high clearance ones that are able to navigate through the
pot holes.
While the traffic is irritating, there is so much to see,
roadside markets and vendors selling tourist curios. The vendors selling
everything from fresh cut flowers to adorable puppies. If it all gets to
be too much, there are road side
restaurants, and popular eating spots all dotted around the city specializing
in local delicacies, offering meals and
snacks at cheap prices. If that doesn't entice you there are fast food chains
all over.
And then there are the matatus
or mats- minibus taxis, which in all the African cities I have been to, are
the same. I might even add the Roman taxi cab drivers also share such a
reputation. Their names may be different, from a taxi, a Kombi, Candongera, to Molue the drivers and their
conductors exercise their entitlement bestowed on them by apparently us; the
paying public who desire to get to our destination in the shortest time
possible. In an attempt to please us, the drivers have an unusual disregard for
the law, weaving in and out of traffic, committing numerous road traffic
violations that constantly go unnoticed and not reprimanded.
The upside to these mats
is that you have your standard fare and you have no worry about parking.
Parking your car is a costly expense when venturing to the numerous shopping
complexes, which surprisingly for me from Southern Africa were full of busy
shoppers. And off street parking, if you find it, may not be the safest option.
The little I saw of the city center of Nairobi along Moi and Kenyatta Avenues,
I think it’s a wise option to be a pedestrian. Not to mention that with the mats you can go to the less attractive
areas, the real hidden gems where you really see that Nairobi is a sprawling economic
epicenter of East Africa. 
The sights and sounds
My sisters and I, weary of being stuck in the weekday
traffic headed out of the house in the suburbs at the crack of dawn. Jumped
into the mat just outside the gate of
the housing complex and began our sleepy journey to Gikomba Market. One of the larger markets in Nairobi, where, if you
are a self-proclaimed fashionista on a budget, will consider this market as a bargainer’s
mekka. According to my sister, it is the
market where all the nearly-new clothes from abroad come into. Walking through
the market you find people like me and my bargain savvy sisters, backpacks in
hand, market vendors trying to pick out the better quality garments to buy then
clean up and resell for exorbitant prices in other less markets of Nairobi. All
this is done while trying to hold on to your backpack stuffed with found
treasures and men shouting out to move out of the way as they try to move
through the haphazardly ordered aisles, carrying sealed sacksful of clothes.
Exhausted from our bargains, we exited the market, a large
one, nothing quite like I've seen in Zimbabwe but the hustle and bustle
reminded me of the markets in West Africa. Back onto the matatu, we dropped of in the center of Nairobi and stopped for a
much deserved early lunch in a popular take away in Nairobi center. Along the
street there were several of them with very familiar menus (things you might
find at other take always across the globe), chicken rotisserie style, or
fried, hamburgers, hot dogs, and deep fried potato chips- what I was after.
I’m not the biggest fan of deep fried potatoes, but my
sister had convinced me that I had to try bhajas,
before leaving Kenya, having visited Zimbabwe before they assured me that I
wouldn't find anything quite like them in my Southern African home. True to
their word, the bhajas were nothing
short of delicious, the exact carbohydrate fix that was needed after shopping.
The deep fried potato disks that have been coated in herbs
and spices, and the ubiquitous fresh coriander leaves sprinkled on top. The
flavours of this street food (and I believe many others that I did not have an
opportunity to try) are reflective of the intersection of the people and
cultural backgrounds in East Africa. Incorporating flavours from the Indian
subcontinent, Near, Middle and Far East, subtly alerting you that the nation is
a colourful melange of people, histories and stories.
So there you go, a very quick, and very short story of
Nairobi, hardly doing it justice. Perhaps the next celebration in my adopted
Kalenjin family will give me another opportunity for a safari through Kenya. If you get there, before me, embrace it all,
the language, the people and the traffic. For now, I say asante sana Kenya.
