Normalcy and Infrastructure

Nairobi, Kenya – October 2010

At night I hear chirping and howling, but otherwise it is quiet. I sleep under a mosquito net and greet the guesthouse workers each morning with a “Hello – how are you? Fine.” Otherwise being in Nairobi feels very normal. Having brought few concrete expectations, I am seldom surprised – but the extent of normalcy here makes it difficult to open my first blog with a catchy adventure. Instead, I'll tell you about what I found most interesting – transportation infrastructure.

The highway from Nairobi airport to our neighborhood was three lanes in each direction, a wide barrier between, well maintained. It was clearly not constructed with a mind to the steady trickle of pedestrians appearing out of an apparently vast, desolate stretch of land on one side, walking across the first three lanes of traffic, climbing over the two metal barricades, and traversing the next three lanes in order to reach the buildings on the other side where they are, I assume, employed.

The road to the right of our compound is a dirt one, surrounded by compounds of apartment buildings that would appear luxurious in any western country. Between the compounds are clusters of 1-room wooden stores and homes. Each tree seems to hold a different color flower – red, orange, yellow, pale purple – with flowering magenta vines strung between. There is little traffic.

The road to the left of our compound, leading to the posh Yaya mall, is a two-lane paved road jammed, at rush hour, with buses, 15-passenger vans, and private cars – a large quantity of which look shiny and expensive. The roads have no shoulder and drop abruptly to rough, rutted dirt paths used as sidewalks. My first venture out of the compound with Tallie – who will be volunteering in Kisumu in western Kenya, on Lake Victoria – was anxiety-provoking both for the reputation of Nairobi as a robbery-ridden world (non of which we encountered), and, moreover, for the traffic. The buses seem too wide for their lanes and project into the pedestrian pathway within inches of the foot traffic. All drivers move rapidly and abruptly. There is no apparent traffic control – no speeding tickets, no shock at an overtaking car remaining in the opposite lane until a few meters before the oncoming traffic hits it, no stop sign, stop lights, or crosswalks at the intersections. Crossing requires alertness and courage. Most striking (that's something of a pun) are the 15-passenger “taxis” (called Mutatus in Kenya) which are run like buses. They pull abruptly off the road at designated yet unmarked stops, or anywhere else they think they might find customers. The conductor calls out their destination, soliciting customers, often waiting to depart until he's found enough. I've seen vans departing with the sliding door open and several people hanging out, though fortunately in Uganda that's punished by significant fines for every passenger involved.

The most interesting question to ask, I feel, is why? I've just come from Switzerland, a country possessing one of the most highly developed transportation infrastructures in the world. Why the contrast?

Having done zero independent research for lack of internet, here is what I learned from a co-volunteer: There is income tax in Kenya and the residents feel that it's high, though I don't know the percentage. The money collected, though, is a very small fraction of that available per person in a western country. The fundamental problem is not perceived as corruption; the money is prioritized toward national security, education, infrastructure, etc – similarly to the west. But there is simply not enough to cover all the infrastructure and services available in the US.