Travel and Personal

Kenya - Surprises Galore

By Dweep Chanana ⋅ January 22, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅ Post a comment

Kenya continues to surprise - in so many ways.

Take women for instance. What is their position in Kenyan society? I’m not certain, but it cannot be that bad if the security guard at the Co-op Bank branch in Chogoria - a small village in Meru district - is a woman. Or, if when I go to a meeting for one of my project alliances, two of the three people are women. Appearently, gender equality is not a completely alien concept.

There there is religion - so strongly grounded in the psyche here. Young and old alike go to church every Sunday. Uhuru Park - in the center of town - is packed with thousands of faithful every time it hosts a sermon. Driving in the countryside, it is striking to see churches in the smallest of villages. Most surprisingly, the receptionist at the HCDA office I visted this past week was watching the ‘Family Hope’ channel. As I and my colleague waited for our meeting, we were aghast at having to watch a presentation of the ‘Jesus Manifestation Ministry’ called ‘Encounter with God’. This country may be secular, but the people clearly swing one way. Bush would feel at home here, even if not welcome.

Nairobi, itself, surprises with its history. The city was established, out of nothing, in 1899. Linked with the construction of the railway, the ‘city’ contained about 2,000 Europeans, 8,000 Indians, and 18,000 Africans in its first two decades of existence, but almost 80% of the land belonged to the Europeans. And the first bank building - now the Kenya Commercial Bank - was built by the National Bank of Kenya in 1904!

Finally, there’s the trivial. On Nairobi’s streets you can buy anything. There are of course trinkets, souveniers, newspapers and the like. But around the Sarit Centre roundabout, jostling for space with the mundane are hawkers selling puppies, cats, and rabbits. The quoted rate for a pup is Ksh 2000, meaning you can probably get one for half that. Don’t let the economists tell you that developing countries are centrally managed economies. Below that lies the most vibrant and unregulated market economy.