and … i’m back

recently got back from a 3.5 week trip home to kenya. all plans to blog from home came to naught as i got caught up in the planning whirlwind that preceded my brother’s wedding. i also have new respect for anyone who blogs from kenya. here i have plenty of unstructured time to plan, think about and post blog entries. over there i had very little time alone what with social commitments practically 24/7. priorities are quite different at home.

the post-election violence, the political impasse and the talks to end it were pretty much the only stories in kenya. all conversations i had when i initially landed eventually came around to the current situation. some other impressions:
– i was impressed by how much media there is. there are multiple newspapers, the FM dial is chock full of stations. but i seriously missed an NPR-like big picture view on what was happening in the country. the only attempt at serious analysis came from a series in the nation newspaper called “the state of the nation” that related current events to others in kenya’s history as well as across africa. public discourse in kenya sorely needs a strong, objective, intelligent “above it all” voice to puncture some of the emotional tribal-based partisanship that brought the country to the brink of chaos. the press is best suited for that, but as vibrant as it is, it hasn’t yet developed much past spot reporting.
– relatedly, there also needs to be a new political vocabulary so that “kikuyu” is not proxy for “conservative”, “luo” code word for “progressive”. so that a progressive or conservative kenyan doesn’t feel like she is betraying her tribe by espousing a particular political viewpoint out of step with the dominant party affiliation of her ethnic group. i am not holding my breath that a post-tribal national leader will appear anytime soon, but i believe that this is what an intelligent media can start to inject into the political conversation in the country.
– nairobi now has epic traffic jams, all over town, all the time. with thousands of “new” cars coming into the country (sign of growing middle class), there has been no significant new road construction in the city since forever. amazing.
– westlands has changed beyond recognition. as a kid, we shopped in westlands all the time as it was between school in Parklands and home in Kile. there was oven door bakery for fresh, hot bread, dairy den (???) for ice cream, an uchumi, not much else. no nakumatt westgate next to sarit center, no tall buildings, no music/club district. wow.
– kenya must lead the world in one statistic: number of prayers offered per capita. maybe it’s because i attended many family gatherings, and i live in america (that sick society, as one of the preachers at a family gathering called it), but that really stood out to me.

it was quite a whirlwind trip, so i am still processing what i experienced. will post more impressions anon.