Realities of life in Nairobi
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 14/May/2009 13:38, 34 days ago
This week, I was quickly reminded about the realities of life in Nairobi and shown how quickly things can change from calm (well, relative calm anyway) to chaos.Yesterday morning in town after a meeting, I boarded a matatu to return to work. When it finally filled up with passengers, we found ourselves in a gridlock of vehicles (not abnormal in town.) But then something very abnormal happened... another matatu backed into ours, as it tried to flee from a violent scene which was erupting right in front us. A man dressed in a driver's uniform was yelling like crazy, throwing his arms in the air, and aiming a rifle at the head of the matatu driver of the vehicle right in front of us. I tried to get out of our matatu, but they wouldn't open the door. Then, a group of young men approached our vehicle, opened the door, and dragged the makonga (the guy who collects money) out of the seat right in front of mine by the scruff of his neck. At that point, I took advantage of the door being open to hop out and get out of the area as quickly as I could. I still don't know if it was a criminal or undercover cop with the gun and probably never will ...Then today, I just heard I narrowly avoided more violence in town at the Globe Cinema roundabout. Less than an hour after I was there, chaos broke out between mechanics and police over a land dispute. So far, a police car has been burned, rocks thrown, and tear gas dispersed by police, the special units were being called in for support and radio stations are advising people to stay far away...Tomorrow, I think I might stay away from town and matatus.