Nairobi Now
My favourite taxi man stayed at home towards the end of last week, and so each evening after work we would haggle with the taxi men at Yaya for a reasonable fare back to the hotel.
“My friend, everything is so much more expensive. Have you seen how much the petrol is now?”
“My friend, it is the same price as it was this morning.”
Sometimes too tired, I would accept the 50% hike in the price - from 200 to 300 bob - and consider it a fair exchange for the small rise in my monthly salary subsidy, paid in Euros, which could go a little further now that the shilling has dropped. The International Community in Nairobi, paid in foreign currency, could probably rebuild Kisumu with their sudden salary bonuses, or more likely take an extra holiday this year.
The hotel bar, filled with the chatter of businessmen and the timid laughter of the young women and their Mzungus, would quieten down each evening for the news on NTV Jioni. On Wednesday, the scenes of protest and bumbling policemen were met with jeers and some laughter. On Friday the bar was full; businessmen, waiters, receptionists, doormen and security guards. Complete silence fell for the whole edition, not even a click of the tongue as we all watched the already familiar footage of the man in the black t-shirt fall to the ground.
Most evenings, the Ethiopian restaurants across Nairobi are filled with NGO staff raving about how good the tough, flavourless meat is, or how they can’t get enough of the orange sauce that repeats on you until midday the next day. Last night conversation would occasionally return to the political situation; a regurgitation of articles read in national and foreign press about the latest protests, the lack of tourism, and the use of the word ‘tribes’ in the media. Some competition for the best worse story of a Kikuyu friend/colleague/colleague’s relative in trouble after the elections, but this was as close as we could get. Talk remained abstract as these troubles aren’t ours; home for us is somewhere else.
Today riot police were still scattered across the city; small groups on street corners and garage forecourts, but there was hope that life would return to normal next week. A hope now gone with the announcement today from Raila that protests are to continue.
For the average Kenyan it is easy to avoid the outbreaks of violence, but this unrest only prolongs the fear of the unknown -in what direction are the policiticans taking Kenya? Whatever the outcome, those in the slums will continue to suffer.
