I have been living in Nairobi, Kenya for over three months now, and I feel like I have now truly managed to settle and understand a bit how the city—and, to some extent, the country—works. So here is an account of Kenya through the lens of a muzungu (i.e. foreigner) and a Nairobi resident.
To me, Kenya is a place of contrasts. (Having lived in five countries across two continents before, I do have some reference point.) This is more true than ever in Nairobi. One minute you can be in an upscale restaurant with only expats and food more expensive than in Amsterdam; another minute you are traversing a slum with people living in weak huts who barely have any food the whole day. And let me tell you, driving on the unpaved road in the middle of a poverty-ridden slum in your $100,000-car is not a comfortable experience.
I started to see these contrasts already on my very first day in Kenya. I landed at the international Jomo Kenyatta airport, one of the top 10 busiest airports in Africa, receiving as much as 7M passengers each year. And yet as I entered the arrival hall, I was greeted by a small terminal with a shabby roof, three almost-foldable kiosks selling sim cards and one security guard. Little did I know that this little hall was nothing like the other arrival halls with western cafes and an atmosphere that makes you think you never left Europe.
So to stay on theme here, let me divide my experience of Kenya into the most basic contrast of all: good and bad.
Nature, nature, nature. Kenya truly is a beautiful country. In many places, you will find the unspoiled beauty that was once found in popular places like Thailand. Tourists are slowly discovering Kenya, but it is still not a common destination, leaving you the freedom to discover a lot of places without the crowds of western tourists. From safaris through hiking to the beach, Kenya has something for everyone. On the other hand, Kenya still has a long way to go to truly preserve its natural beauty, especially since littering is far from uncommon.
Strong sense of community. People within one community (such as family, friends, or even a village) help each other much more than in Europe. It is common for the whole family to chip in for medical treatment for a sick family member. After being at my company for one month, I was asked to give some money for the funeral of my colleague's granddad. And on the very first day in Kenya, our landlady drove me and Roel to the supermarket, waiting for us until checkout, and drove us all the way back, while her two friends were waiting in the car for us to be done. Nonetheless, people really don't respect each other beyond their community (e.g. our neighbors playing loud music until the wee hours week after week despite our relentless complaints) and in a way, Kenya really is a dog eat dog world unless you have a strong support group. Or enough money.
Hakuna matata. This saying, popularized due to the Lion King movie, means "no worries" in Swahili. And the statement that everything is hakuna matata in Kenya could not be truer. Whatever the problem is, people always find a solution or learn to live with it. If your car breaks down, you can be sure that a dozen people will surround you within a minute and try to fix it. (And while around Nairobi they will always ask for money afterward, this is definitely not the case in other parts of Kenya.) We never found this relaxed lifestyle more prevalent than in the coastal areas where people "chill for a living." For instance, Jawad, a young adult in Lamu, operates a dhow sailboat business and is paid to relax on a sunset boat tours every weekend. Undoubtedly, living with less stress is something that westerners could learn from Kenyans.
Kenya, and especially Nairobi, is very welcoming. Nairobi is full of expats, who are almost always searching for new friends. Already in our first week in Nairobi, we met a lot of people that we ended up spending a lot of time in the months to come. Talking to random people in a bar is nothing weird and everyone is usually very open to making new connections. Even local people on the street very often just greet you without wanting anything.
The food is great. No, I don't mean Kenyan food, which very often consists of ugali (cornmeal porridge), some sort of meat (often organs), and sukuma wiki (cooked kale). But across Kenya, and of course, especially in Nairobi, you can find exceptional restaurants serving any kind of cuisine you can imagine. The only one I have yet to find is the Slovak one.
It is still a poor country where people live from day to day. For many Kenyans, salaries are paid on a daily basis and saving is not a big thing. What often happens is that people start every single day anew, with no spare money. The fact that Nairobi is a very expensive city compared to the wages really doesn't help. In addition, a huge chunk of the population is unemployed, and any day you will see a lot of people just hanging around in the streets with nothing to do. In addition, the majority of the people who become beggars are handicapped due to the lack of access to healthcare and the inability to afford even simple procedures that would entirely prevent their disability. The one good side effect of the Kenyan poverty for expats is that Kenya offers some affordable luxury, allowing you to visit beautiful places to relatively good prices.
'Efficiency' has completely disappeared from the Kenyan dictionary. Kenyans are literally never in a hurry. In our very first week of being in Nairobi, we went to a fast-food restaurant where one staff member prepared our orders one by one, while the other four of his colleagues stood around and watched him. But the lack of efficiency seems to extend to every part of life. Working at a coworking space, on a daily basis I have around 20 people around me. And while many of them are developers and people who spend the whole day on their computer, none of them, in fact, use a computer mouse. This inability to see the value of small adjustments and investments in order to optimize efficiency is one of the reasons why many African businesses still cannot compete with their European or American counterparts.
Flexibility reaches undesired amounts. The hakuna matata mentality translates into people being extremely flexible. While on the one hand, it can be convenient to always be able to change your mind without any repercussions, I have found that this cultural habit proves to be more of a challenge. Booking back-to-back meetings is usually suicide, as meeting times are rarely respected. In fact, there is a running joke in our company that our management team meeting starts at 10:00 am Kenyan time, 10:30 am real time. Even conferences for hundreds of people routinely start an hour late. In fact, I learned the hard way that agreement or one's word doesn't mean much here - when a Kenyan company revoked my contract already after quitting my job and moving to Africa. But more about that here (coming soon).
Enforcement and regulation is a joke. Police are in most cases completely useless. When I got my phone stolen, they wrote me a report for my insurance company but never bothered to investigate. The same happened when Roel's bag was stolen. From my perspective, police are in most cases the biggest danger out there. With corruption reaching astronomical levels, police randomly stop cars, take your passport and only give it back if you pay. In fact, money will get you literally anything in Kenya. A local friend told me that if I wanted to become a Kenyan national and had some money, I could get it done within a day. Regulation of many aspects of life doesn't really work either, even though I must give kudos to the government for trying, such as recently introducing a ban on all plastic bags.
Security guards are everywhere in Nairobi and really change your feeling about the city. Especially after the recent terrorist attack on the Dusit hotel in Nairobi, security guards have sprung like mushrooms in literally every side of the city. Sometimes you go through three security checks before you can enter a shop. On the one hand, guards are there to make it safer for everyone, but their relentless presence and their loaded guns everywhere you walk really do not make you feel safe.
Despite security guards, crime rates are exceptionally high. First of all, walking outside after dark is a big no-no in Nairobi that even locals do not dare to do. Stealing is a big part of life here and there are only a handful of expats who leave Nairobi without having their phone stolen. The worst part about it is that those who steal do not even think they are necessarily doing something bad, as they are only 'taking from those who have everything.'
Health and safety are not big priorities. Despite having the best marathon runners, Kenyans are on average not very healthy or fit. Naturally, this is primarily caused by the lack of proper nutrition for a lot of the population. But even those Kenyans who belong in the middle class do not seem to care too much about their health. Their food is very simple and always the same, full of oil, salt, and sugar. They do not usually like to experiment with new cuisines and even though they never say no to food if you offer, they stay true to their Kenyan cuisine. This is also one of the reasons why many Kenyans consider hiking Mount Longonot or Elephant Hill as very difficult, even though we found it very doable. Safety enjoys a similar statute. People regularly walk in between cars waiting at the traffic light selling small bites. They cross highways like it's no big deal. They refuse to wear a helmet on a motorbike even though there is one available.
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| Game driving in Ol Pejeta Conservancy |
To me, Kenya is a place of contrasts. (Having lived in five countries across two continents before, I do have some reference point.) This is more true than ever in Nairobi. One minute you can be in an upscale restaurant with only expats and food more expensive than in Amsterdam; another minute you are traversing a slum with people living in weak huts who barely have any food the whole day. And let me tell you, driving on the unpaved road in the middle of a poverty-ridden slum in your $100,000-car is not a comfortable experience.
I started to see these contrasts already on my very first day in Kenya. I landed at the international Jomo Kenyatta airport, one of the top 10 busiest airports in Africa, receiving as much as 7M passengers each year. And yet as I entered the arrival hall, I was greeted by a small terminal with a shabby roof, three almost-foldable kiosks selling sim cards and one security guard. Little did I know that this little hall was nothing like the other arrival halls with western cafes and an atmosphere that makes you think you never left Europe.
So to stay on theme here, let me divide my experience of Kenya into the most basic contrast of all: good and bad.
Nature, nature, nature. Kenya truly is a beautiful country. In many places, you will find the unspoiled beauty that was once found in popular places like Thailand. Tourists are slowly discovering Kenya, but it is still not a common destination, leaving you the freedom to discover a lot of places without the crowds of western tourists. From safaris through hiking to the beach, Kenya has something for everyone. On the other hand, Kenya still has a long way to go to truly preserve its natural beauty, especially since littering is far from uncommon.
 |
| Gorge in the Hell's Gate National Park |
Strong sense of community. People within one community (such as family, friends, or even a village) help each other much more than in Europe. It is common for the whole family to chip in for medical treatment for a sick family member. After being at my company for one month, I was asked to give some money for the funeral of my colleague's granddad. And on the very first day in Kenya, our landlady drove me and Roel to the supermarket, waiting for us until checkout, and drove us all the way back, while her two friends were waiting in the car for us to be done. Nonetheless, people really don't respect each other beyond their community (e.g. our neighbors playing loud music until the wee hours week after week despite our relentless complaints) and in a way, Kenya really is a dog eat dog world unless you have a strong support group. Or enough money.
Hakuna matata. This saying, popularized due to the Lion King movie, means "no worries" in Swahili. And the statement that everything is hakuna matata in Kenya could not be truer. Whatever the problem is, people always find a solution or learn to live with it. If your car breaks down, you can be sure that a dozen people will surround you within a minute and try to fix it. (And while around Nairobi they will always ask for money afterward, this is definitely not the case in other parts of Kenya.) We never found this relaxed lifestyle more prevalent than in the coastal areas where people "chill for a living." For instance, Jawad, a young adult in Lamu, operates a dhow sailboat business and is paid to relax on a sunset boat tours every weekend. Undoubtedly, living with less stress is something that westerners could learn from Kenyans.
 |
| Sailing on a traditional Swahili dhow boat in Lamu |
Kenya, and especially Nairobi, is very welcoming. Nairobi is full of expats, who are almost always searching for new friends. Already in our first week in Nairobi, we met a lot of people that we ended up spending a lot of time in the months to come. Talking to random people in a bar is nothing weird and everyone is usually very open to making new connections. Even local people on the street very often just greet you without wanting anything.
The food is great. No, I don't mean Kenyan food, which very often consists of ugali (cornmeal porridge), some sort of meat (often organs), and sukuma wiki (cooked kale). But across Kenya, and of course, especially in Nairobi, you can find exceptional restaurants serving any kind of cuisine you can imagine. The only one I have yet to find is the Slovak one.
It is still a poor country where people live from day to day. For many Kenyans, salaries are paid on a daily basis and saving is not a big thing. What often happens is that people start every single day anew, with no spare money. The fact that Nairobi is a very expensive city compared to the wages really doesn't help. In addition, a huge chunk of the population is unemployed, and any day you will see a lot of people just hanging around in the streets with nothing to do. In addition, the majority of the people who become beggars are handicapped due to the lack of access to healthcare and the inability to afford even simple procedures that would entirely prevent their disability. The one good side effect of the Kenyan poverty for expats is that Kenya offers some affordable luxury, allowing you to visit beautiful places to relatively good prices.
 |
| While Elephant Resort in Malindi |
'Efficiency' has completely disappeared from the Kenyan dictionary. Kenyans are literally never in a hurry. In our very first week of being in Nairobi, we went to a fast-food restaurant where one staff member prepared our orders one by one, while the other four of his colleagues stood around and watched him. But the lack of efficiency seems to extend to every part of life. Working at a coworking space, on a daily basis I have around 20 people around me. And while many of them are developers and people who spend the whole day on their computer, none of them, in fact, use a computer mouse. This inability to see the value of small adjustments and investments in order to optimize efficiency is one of the reasons why many African businesses still cannot compete with their European or American counterparts.
Flexibility reaches undesired amounts. The hakuna matata mentality translates into people being extremely flexible. While on the one hand, it can be convenient to always be able to change your mind without any repercussions, I have found that this cultural habit proves to be more of a challenge. Booking back-to-back meetings is usually suicide, as meeting times are rarely respected. In fact, there is a running joke in our company that our management team meeting starts at 10:00 am Kenyan time, 10:30 am real time. Even conferences for hundreds of people routinely start an hour late. In fact, I learned the hard way that agreement or one's word doesn't mean much here - when a Kenyan company revoked my contract already after quitting my job and moving to Africa. But more about that here (coming soon).
Enforcement and regulation is a joke. Police are in most cases completely useless. When I got my phone stolen, they wrote me a report for my insurance company but never bothered to investigate. The same happened when Roel's bag was stolen. From my perspective, police are in most cases the biggest danger out there. With corruption reaching astronomical levels, police randomly stop cars, take your passport and only give it back if you pay. In fact, money will get you literally anything in Kenya. A local friend told me that if I wanted to become a Kenyan national and had some money, I could get it done within a day. Regulation of many aspects of life doesn't really work either, even though I must give kudos to the government for trying, such as recently introducing a ban on all plastic bags.
Security guards are everywhere in Nairobi and really change your feeling about the city. Especially after the recent terrorist attack on the Dusit hotel in Nairobi, security guards have sprung like mushrooms in literally every side of the city. Sometimes you go through three security checks before you can enter a shop. On the one hand, guards are there to make it safer for everyone, but their relentless presence and their loaded guns everywhere you walk really do not make you feel safe.
Despite security guards, crime rates are exceptionally high. First of all, walking outside after dark is a big no-no in Nairobi that even locals do not dare to do. Stealing is a big part of life here and there are only a handful of expats who leave Nairobi without having their phone stolen. The worst part about it is that those who steal do not even think they are necessarily doing something bad, as they are only 'taking from those who have everything.'
Health and safety are not big priorities. Despite having the best marathon runners, Kenyans are on average not very healthy or fit. Naturally, this is primarily caused by the lack of proper nutrition for a lot of the population. But even those Kenyans who belong in the middle class do not seem to care too much about their health. Their food is very simple and always the same, full of oil, salt, and sugar. They do not usually like to experiment with new cuisines and even though they never say no to food if you offer, they stay true to their Kenyan cuisine. This is also one of the reasons why many Kenyans consider hiking Mount Longonot or Elephant Hill as very difficult, even though we found it very doable. Safety enjoys a similar statute. People regularly walk in between cars waiting at the traffic light selling small bites. They cross highways like it's no big deal. They refuse to wear a helmet on a motorbike even though there is one available.
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| Hiking Mount Longonot (2,776 m) |
Driving habits are rather poor. Most importantly, drunk driving is not stigmatized. This means that quite a few accidents happen at night after people go home from parties. Secondly, Kenyan always use their big lights at night, whether they need them or not, whether they are inside or outside the city. They also don't exit the fast lane after overtaking. One funny observation is that there are often speed bumps on a highway, as they pass through villages where people need to cross to the other side.
Cyber? What's that? Even though people are slowly realizing that cyber security is to be taken seriously, this renaissance is very recent and definitely still shallow, making Africans approximately 20 years behind the US, Europe, Singapore, or Japan. One most striking manifestation of this is that people leave their unattended laptops in a public space in an unlocked state, and probably don't even realize why that would pose a problem.
Kenyan men are quite the players and often like Western women. Be it in the gym, at a club, or just in the streets - Kenyan men are very, very keen on socializing with Western women. And they often don't even leave you alone when you say you have a boyfriend. In addition, the whole dating culture in Kenya is very relaxed, with many men not wanting to settle down until their 30s.
Almost all Kenyans have a Christian name: Catherine, George, Victor... This is a legacy of the colonial times at the end of the 20th century when western colonists gave Africans names that they could pronounce. Later, Christian missionaries spread the notion that together with baptism, Christian names are going to secure Africans a place in heaven. As written by a Kenyan writer here, "In the psyche of the Kenyan mind, Christian names came to be seen as formal, official, a sign of being educated, no longer a heathen, saved from one’s primitive nature. Long after the country gained independence, this mentality remained." I somewhat understand the value in introducing yourself with a name that the other party can comprehend (I also sometimes pronounce my name in the American way if I meet Americans) but the fact that Kenyans still use their European names in basically all official settings is very sad and disturbing to me.
Many use their African name as their last name. The vast majority of Kenyans have at least three names: European name (used in official settings), African name (used with family and friends), and their surname. Interestingly, very often they only use their first two names when introducing themselves fully. For instance, my colleague is called Mark Ochieng Onyango, but really only uses Mark Ochieng.
Kenya is very, very conservative. At least for my Dutch standards. The majority of the country is Christian and all of my colleagues go to church every Sunday and even sign in the choir or play in the church band. Conservativeness also means that the traditional gender roles are very much enforced here, with the bride still being bought by the groom's family, women expected to raise the children, and so on. Homosexuality is not only still a big taboo, but a lot of people are outright homophobic.
'Hello' in Swahili always has the meaning of 'Hello, how are you?'. Kenyans whose English lacks a bit do not recognize the difference between "hi" and "how are you?" and in fact, sometimes when I greet the security guard at my apartment complex with a "Hello!", he just responds "Fine."!
People do not say goodbye when they hang up the phone. This might be a cultural thing but I am pretty sure it also has to do with the fact that people do not have phone subscriptions and pay per minute. This way, they try to minimize the amount that they pay.
Cyber? What's that? Even though people are slowly realizing that cyber security is to be taken seriously, this renaissance is very recent and definitely still shallow, making Africans approximately 20 years behind the US, Europe, Singapore, or Japan. One most striking manifestation of this is that people leave their unattended laptops in a public space in an unlocked state, and probably don't even realize why that would pose a problem.
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| African definition of cyber |
Kenyan men are quite the players and often like Western women. Be it in the gym, at a club, or just in the streets - Kenyan men are very, very keen on socializing with Western women. And they often don't even leave you alone when you say you have a boyfriend. In addition, the whole dating culture in Kenya is very relaxed, with many men not wanting to settle down until their 30s.
Almost all Kenyans have a Christian name: Catherine, George, Victor... This is a legacy of the colonial times at the end of the 20th century when western colonists gave Africans names that they could pronounce. Later, Christian missionaries spread the notion that together with baptism, Christian names are going to secure Africans a place in heaven. As written by a Kenyan writer here, "In the psyche of the Kenyan mind, Christian names came to be seen as formal, official, a sign of being educated, no longer a heathen, saved from one’s primitive nature. Long after the country gained independence, this mentality remained." I somewhat understand the value in introducing yourself with a name that the other party can comprehend (I also sometimes pronounce my name in the American way if I meet Americans) but the fact that Kenyans still use their European names in basically all official settings is very sad and disturbing to me.
Many use their African name as their last name. The vast majority of Kenyans have at least three names: European name (used in official settings), African name (used with family and friends), and their surname. Interestingly, very often they only use their first two names when introducing themselves fully. For instance, my colleague is called Mark Ochieng Onyango, but really only uses Mark Ochieng.
Kenya has almost 50 tribes. All of them have their own traditions, languages, and habits. The lastest recognized tribe was Kenyan Asians (mostly Indians), who started coming to Kenya at the beginning of the 20th century and most of their descendants are now usually third-generation Kenyans. Nonetheless, a lot of Kenyan Indians find their spouses among each other and often do not like to marry a black Kenyan. I am still waiting for the Italian-infested Malindi coastal town to be declared home to the newest Kenyan tribe.
'Hello' in Swahili always has the meaning of 'Hello, how are you?'. Kenyans whose English lacks a bit do not recognize the difference between "hi" and "how are you?" and in fact, sometimes when I greet the security guard at my apartment complex with a "Hello!", he just responds "Fine."!
People do not say goodbye when they hang up the phone. This might be a cultural thing but I am pretty sure it also has to do with the fact that people do not have phone subscriptions and pay per minute. This way, they try to minimize the amount that they pay.
