Some days in December

For the holidays and election time, we were invited to stay in Karen at a friend’s home while he and his wife were away. Among other things there is a Rothschild giraffe rescue, an orphaned elephant reserve, and an abundance of colonial era relics that add to Kenya’s interesting, if not unique, brand of African culture. Most importantly, we were eager to soak up all the electricity and hot showers we could in a week’s time.

Quite a world apart from our site, Karen could be a small British village. Besides the enormous, vaguely Mediterranean mansions, the roads are small and walled by thick hedge. I am taken back to my childhood. My mother, still a green-card holding British citizen, brought me to the family farm in Ockbrook every summer as a child. We would whiz through hedge-lined corridors in some rented bomber, or pass thousands of small homesteads nestled in greenery dotting the English countryside on the train into Derbyshire. Taking a cab home from the veritable American atmosphere of Nakumatt (a Walmartesque superstore) I am struck by how reminiscent the journey is of the British Midlands. I could be seven again, humming along to pop music, buckled into the wrong side of the car, and gazing at the monotony of the impenetrable hedgerows.

Thursday, December 27th, 2007 – Election Day

Outside observers have rubber stamped the election proceedings as overwhelmingly free and fair. In the space of 24 hours 70% of the Kenyan electorate has showed up to perform their civic duty. This is almost double the amount that American presidential aspirants can expect, and a monumental achievement for such a fledgling democracy. Consider that Mwai Kibaki is only the third president in Kenyan history. He was born and educated before independence. And he was one of the drafters of Kenya’s first constitution.

Friday, December 28th - Our two year anniversary

We start our day with a long run through the neighborhoods of Karen. A thick foggy blanket sits over the hills making it feel insulated and quiet. We notice with building curiosity that the roads are empty. It’s our second anniversary, so we decide to enjoy an evening in the city.

Overwhelmingly we are struck by the complete lack of activity given that it’s a Friday afternoon. We skirt the Kibera slum on Langata road—the streets are empty of vehicles, and the sidewalks are devoid of pedestrians. Everybody seems to have gotten the memo except for us. There are no men on bicycles or mamas with shopping bags balanced on their heads, and there is a decided absence of noisy youth.

Upon reaching Uhuru highway we turn left without stopping. The normally congested route is lacking in human presence. On workdays Uhuru Park, Nairobi’s central meeting place, fills with people enjoying sunlit benches or napping under towering Eucalyptus. But today, an eerie silence prevails. No hawkers or people in suits; no soda carts or maintenance staff; just empty space and political leaflets. We make the turn towards city center on Haile Selassie, and finally a few people are visible. There is no traffic at all, and it makes the four lane barricaded route seem like a marathon in which we have finished dead last. The lack of people, in a normally crowded city is ominous.

We wander into a supermarket where the workers anxiously crowd around a television monitor blaring results of the parliamentary seats, but still no presidential outcome. The bakery staff is setting up for the next day and heatedly exchanging ideas. Their Swahili is mixed with Kikuyu, a slang referred to as Cheng. I can only catch parts of the conversation, but it seems that several prominent MPs have been ousted. “A future without corrupt officials is still an uncertain future” says one man, waving a gloved finger at his bread making coworkers. “Now, will you take your bread sliced bwana?”

After dinner and a movie we arrange for a cab and head home. In the pitch of a Nairobi evening we pass onto a section of the Gichuru road lined by Jacaranda. The trees make an impenetrable tunnel, blotting out the stars in an eerie, sleepy-hollow sort of way. Posters cover the lower trunks. The orange and white of the Orange Democratic Movement (Odinga’s opposition party) are most numerous, with some blue Party of National Unity (Kibaki’s chosen party) posters intermixed. The polls have long since closed, but there are still no results.

I discuss with the driver, a young Kikuyu, how the president is fairing. What does he think the future holds given that the incumbent, also a Kikuyu, may lose? Current polls put him almost a million votes back from Odinga, a Luo and former political prisoner of the Moi era.

He thinks that legacy has a lot to do with the current situation. Kibaki has been in government since independence, and shares close political ties with the previous administration of President Daniel arap Moi. Power is shared by a select few, its borderline aristocracy, and according to our cabby, it has welled up in the non-Kikuyu consciousness as something to oppose. The driver worries that it will again marginalize the Kikuyu, the historical implications of which are not lost on him. And he makes an interesting connection as well.

Wealth, in his estimation, curbs civic action. “Your people probably don’t vote because they are rich” he says as we round Nakumatt junction, a bastion of Asian and Kikuyu owned consumerism. “My people have gained wealth and power through politics, something they stand to lose if they don’t get out and vote. All these businesses are here because of political connections, other tribes see this and feel resentful—they have reasons to vote.” He is young, and doesn’t feel that he votes along tribal lines, but he quickly follows by outlining why voting based on tribe is essential.

Saturday, December 29th

The country is still waiting for results in the presidential election, but the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK) says it needs more time. Things are degenerating here quickly. To the south of us in Ngong, people are raising homes and killing each other with pangas. To the northeast of us in the Kibera slum, armed groups are engaged in small-scale warfare—poor Kenyan against poor Kenyan. The electoral commission has delayed issuing the results to the detriment of stability. The opposition party ODM is saying that the substantial lead they had is disappearing under the cloak of corruption as the incumbent PNU candidate catches up and, according to some sources, overtakes him.

Sunday, December 30th,

I walk into the small town center and chat with some of the merchants. And after procuring bread, tomatoes and Safaricom I head back home. Upon arriving, we decide to order pizza. I call to order and a distraught voice comes over the other end. The accent is clearly Indian, and he is sending his staff home “right now” as there is prone to be violence. “Did you hear? They have announced Kibaki the winner. I can’t believe it! Wherever you are” he says breathlessly, “stay there and don’t go outside, it’s going to be a very bad night.” He hangs up leaving me staring at the phone.

Renewed chaos has broken out in many parts of the country as the incumbent is announced to have won a second term. This is a monumental comeback considering two days ago he was almost a million votes down to the opposition candidate. Within an hour of the announcement Kibaki suspends nearly all media coverage of the elections, and swears-in for a second term. A stunned silence seems to follow Kibaki’s hasty swearing in ceremony, and the normally scheduled news hour gives way to cartoon re-runs.

Monday, December 31st – New Years Eve

Our food supplies running short, we decided to venture a little further than the kiosks in the center, but there was no transport. Rioters have been turning Kikuyu owned matatus into rolling Bunsen burners, leaving the transportation sector fearful and walking. In light of this, we called a cab and asked him to drive fast.

We arrived at Nakumatt just as they were closing the big metal doors. Apparently they were keeping them closed while groups of customers shopped, opening for successive groups every half hour. I have never personally attended one of those midnight super sales, but the bonanza type atmosphere upon the next door opening was quite ridiculous. We watched as rich Kenyans, expatriates and tourists trampled children, cut lines and swore at the more modest native Kenyans. Maybe wealth wears the same face the world over—the best dressed and the worst behaved. Or maybe we are still reeling from how different this world is to our site. Arriving at an ultra-modern supermarket after months of living in the bush was particularly jarring, and the brusque self-importance of the shoppers only insulted our senses further.

On getting inside we noticed that people were taking this civil unrest really seriously. The normally overstocked abundance of Nakumatt had been reduced to a ragged collection of damaged items strewn about on empty shelves and dirty floors. There were shopping carts everywhere filled with rotting produce, meat, and dairy products abandoned by impatient customers. The few remaining eggs were broken, the produce section was barren, and there had been a run on water and toilet paper. The apocalyptic state of one of East Africa’s best stores begged the question, what is it like in other parts of the country?

On the ride home, our cab driver acted oblivious as to why people were unhappy with the election results. I told him that as a neutral observer I only wanted the country to find a way through this mess. But he seemed much more dismayed that people would “play stupid with police and lose their lives,” as though government soldiers were crocodiles just waiting by the riverbed for an easy meal. “You can’t blame the soldiers he said.” But I wonder if he had considered blaming the men behind the soldiers that may have robbed the people of their right to a fair electoral process. I’m sure we don’t fully understand. I just hope that he acknowledges that he doesn’t either.

As I am writing this, Odinga has planned to swear-in as the people’s president—a move which the Kibaki administration has said will be construed as a coup attempt, and will deal with in a swift and militaristic way. This does not seem to be headed towards a speedy resolution. Frankly, it seems like the country we have come to love is screeching to a halt before our eyes.