Naivasha

A few weeks ago we went camping. Rainy season can be a tricky time to try to camp but, with the exception of a short rain during one of the nights, we came out unscathed.

camp is set

The country was in lockdown which meant that travel within the country was limited. Our girls were on school break and, before the lockdown was announced, we had planned on going to the coast. But the restrictions meant that we had to stay within the vicinity of Nairobi. While this was broadly defined, meaning you could travel a bit, it prevented us from considering any beaches and most of the national parks in the country.

sunrise from the campsite

As such, we opted on exploring closer to home. Lake Naivasha is a couple hours away but within the restricted travel area. We had camped there before, and enjoyed it, so we thought that it might be a good backup plan. We coordinated the trip with another family (always good when you have kids similar in age) and headed out for a three-night trip.

looking from Crater Lake towards Lake Naivasha and Mt. Longonot

The drive is not long but Kenya’s going a bit crazy with road construction these days. Nairobi has a long-standing reputation for being a driver’s nightmare. As with many cities, evolution of roads seems to have happened without much thought. There are a few streams going through the city that serve as geographical obstacles and force traffic to be funneled through a limited number of arteries. Rapid economic growth has permitted a larger number of people to own vehicles. Construction of large buildings is approved without corresponding improvements in infrastructure.

small army of kids

Included in these belated road enhancements is the building of an elevated, limited access highway that bisects the heart of the city. It’s a massive and endless construction site that is making a bad situation far worse. And the jury is out as to whether or not it will have any long-term positive impact on Nairobi traffic. It’s supposed to be a toll highway which means that the rich will rapidly move about the city while the poor and middle class will suffocate in noxious fumes in the snarled traffic below. A light rail train would have been the preferred investment but that tends to benefit the poor (and the environment), which doesn’t seem to be a priority.

colobus monkeys

We were eventually clear of Nairobi and it felt good to get out. Given that we live in the middle of the city, by the time we reached the end of the urban sprawl, we were halfway to our destination. Soon thereafter, unfortunately, we came to a standstill as we came upon an accident blocking the highway. Nairobi highways are notoriously dangerous. People go to great lengths to pass slower vehicles and it often doesn’t end well. Eventually we were able to get through but the carnage was sobering, including at least one casualty. We did our best to distract the girls from seeing it and I think we were only partially successful.

fish eagle

Prior to arriving at the campground, we stopped to see some friends from Nairobi who had rented a house near the lake. I had no idea where we were going before we arrived and I was surprised to see how stunning the place was. It was sort of an old school, massive property that is supposedly owned by someone in the flower business. They are out of town part of the year and while they’re gone they rent out a couple houses that are on the property (though not their main house). 

tough to leave this and go pitch a tent

It’s pretty amazing. Beautiful pool, stables, tennis court, gym (not open and a bit rundown but probably cool back in the day), sunken trampoline, boats, etc. The owners appear to be crazy rich. But the place is beautiful and tastefully done, sort of like I would have done if I had endless amounts of money 😊. One of the worst things in the world is the selfish rich person. Worse than that is the selfish rich person who has no taste (think Trump). Not the case with these people.

Kinaya taking in the view

After lounging, swimming and enjoying the gorgeous gardens for an hour or two, we were off to camp. Probably not the ideal order to do things. It makes you feel a bit more ho hum about the whole camping thing. But once we arrived, pulled all the stuff out of the car, we quickly shifted into camping mode. Just as it was getting dark, the tents were pitched and everything was in place. We opted against a campfire given that it was late, and the fact that we were having dinner at a fun Italian restaurant less than a hundred meters away. Okay, so we weren’t exactly roughing it.

camp breakfast the easy way

After a nice dinner we made our way back to the campsite. As we were getting ready to crawl into our bags, a hippo made its way near the campsite, loudly chomping on grass. We had camped there before so we know that they tend to do this. But it’s pretty crazy just the same. Here is the deadliest animal in Africa and there’s nothing between us but a tiny, electrified fence, something that he could smash to the ground quite easily. But apparently they just keep to themselves, munching in the dark of night.

The next day we were up early and headed to a place called Crater Lake. I’ve been to the one in the US state of Oregon and this is quite modest in comparison. In fact our plan upon arriving was to join with the two families from the day before and have a trek around the circumference of the lake. With an army of children, it ended up taking us a couple hours. It wasn’t strenuous but, in retrospect, it was rather ambitious for some of the children.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake is, as you might guess, part of what was a highly volcanic area in the Rift Valley area. There are hot springs in the area as well as geothermal power generation. In fact, by the end of the decade, Kenya aims to use this energy to produce over 50% of the country’s total power capacity. And it’s clean.

After the hike, we headed back to the land of the rich to have a swim and cool off. We had aspirations of cooking over the fire that night but we enjoyed the pool longer than anticipated. We shrugged our shoulders and headed back to the Italian restaurant. After getting up early and having a good hike, it seemed that we were all in agreement to take the path of least resistance. Dinner by the fire would have to wait one more day.

family photo with our tall friend

The next day we had a bit slower start. Our plan was to hire a boat/guide, head out across the lake and go to a place called Crescent Island. As you might guess, the island is so named because it also was produced by volcanic activity. Extraordinarily high water, however, has changed Lake Naivasha as well as Crescent Island. In fact the island isn’t always an island given that the last time we were there we drove to it. Now, it’s very much an island and much of the lakeside property is flooded as the lake has grown. More than 500 families have lost their homes as a result of the rising waters. The combination of the pandemic causing a drop in tourism as well as the loss of livelihoods due to the flooding is having a huge economic impact on the area. Glad to spend some money there to make at least a small contribution.

Kinaya alone with the wildebeests

The animals on the island have no predators and so people are allowed to walk around without armed protection (unlike a national park). The variety of wildlife is limited but it’s still so cool to walk around, just hanging out with giraffes, wildebeest, zebras, etc. Much different from being in a safari vehicle. The only problem was that my sneakers had fallen apart the day before as we were completing the hike around the lake (thankfully not before). So on this occasion I resorted to flipflops. It wasn’t ideal but it was all I had. Thankfully it’s more of a casual stroll for a couple hours and nothing strenuous.

waterbuck

It’s such a good thing to do with kids too. It’s rather easy and accessible. No matter how long I spend watching these animals, I never tire of it. Our girls have been going on safaris since they were born and, happily, they’ve grown to love this sort of thing as well. As they get older, and move on with their lives, it does make me wonder how they’ll look back on this rather international childhood, with the safaris and regular trips to play by the Indian Ocean. It’s considerably different from my youth so we sort of make this up as we go. So far, so good I would say. But we’re still only about halfway through our task of raising dependents.

young Thompson's gazelles

That evening we finally stepped up and made dinner around the campfire. We’d had full days so it was nice to finally just hang out and not go anywhere. The kids made s'mores and it was more or less the classic camping experience.

s'mores

hippo passing by the campsite

The next morning we broke camp, albeit slowly. We decided that we would time it so that we could have lunch at a good restaurant on the way and then continue on home by early afternoon, beating some of the Sunday afternoon traffic heading into Nairobi. Mission accomplished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pandemic Positives

I’m on my laptop in a coffee shop. It’s a place not far from where we live and they have this great African music playlist. Much of the music I know. Some I don’t. But whoever put it together has similar tastes to mine.

It’s also a pleasant experience because it means I’m out of the house. I love being at home but the return to lockdown this past month felt particularly suffocating. It was as if so much effort was put into respecting the protocols of the previous lockdown, gaining some freedom, only to be smitten down once again – likely by the selfishness of the minority who thumbed their noses at the pandemic protocols (reports in Kenya indicate that it’s likely those on the upper end of society that are having the biggest impact on the spread of Covid).

Having said that, and as I’ve said before, Kenyans have generally done well throughout the pandemic. The impact on society has been much less than in other countries around the world. In fact Africa as a whole has done better than other continents. I saw a comment this morning where someone said that people predicted doom for Africa last year and it never happened. Watching what’s happening in India right now, people are predicting doom for the continent again this year - that it's only a matter of time before all hell breaks loose in African countries. Sadly no one is acknowledging these countries’ relative success in managing the pandemic, largely because it doesn’t fit their narrative of how they view Africa. And they’ve done it in spite of the vaccine nationalism in the West and weaker health care systems. It’s pretty amazing if you think about it.

Dodging Bullets

As usual, when things get busy my posts are fewer. Given that this blog serves me as somewhat of a historical record of what happens over the years, I’ll need to back up and fill in some gaps.

We are in mid-May and in the middle of rainy season. We’ve been in Kenya for over four and a half years and this has likely been the wettest. Driving back from our friends’ house last weekend, we were in water up to our door. We’re thankful to have a vehicle high enough to avoid stalling out at times like that – particularly at night in Nairobi.

It’s bad for some families that are experiencing flooding. Many are displaced and it’s not over yet. Supposedly a lot more rain is on the way. The good thing is that it has filled the aquifers and that bodes well for the coming months after the rains have gone. We have been here in lean water years when the well of our building went dry and we relied on water truck delivery. With the irregular weather patterns caused by climate change, things have become very erratic and unpredictable. In neighboring Somalia, where my main focus is, we have had communities that were in a drought situation only a month ago and are now displaced by flooding (watershed management is a huge issue in the country though I’ll avoid going into it here). But this cycle of hardship is heartbreaking.

Politically in Somalia things became pretty intense for a while. It’s complicated but the short of it is that the president was in charge of the elections. That’s only a manageable situation if the president isn't a candidate. In a lot of countries, a president’s mandate can include setting the conditions for the elections, including establishing the electoral commission. The only people that think that’s a good idea are the people who hold power. In a country like Somalia, where the judicial system lacks the ability to provide necessary backbone for such things, it breeds chaos. On top of this, the Lower House of Parliament, who seem to be allied with the president, passed legislation to extend his term for two more years, supposedly to provide time to set up one-person, one-vote elections rather than the current representational election (as Somalia is rebuilding, it hasn’t had the capacity to carry out general suffrage voting for decades, and likely won’t be able to do so for some time). I'm very much neutral in all of this and in fact I was a big fan of the president when he took office in 2017. Moreover, the idea of general suffrage is admirable. But I haven't seen much evidence of the president's team preparing for general suffrage up to now. The fact that this is the core priority tied to this term extension lacks some credibility without some sort of transparent plan in the works. And we'll skip the topic of the constitutionality of the extension which was universally rejected by the international community.

Naturally, the president's extension set off alarm bells. People in power in Somalia are usually backed by people with guns. Within days, Mogadishu was filled with military (more than normal). A massive standoff ensued with opposition on one side and pro-govt. forces on the other. For a day or so, things erupted with open clashes and it felt as though civil war was inevitable. I was in Mogadishu for the previous election, which was tense, but nothing like this. Thankfully, I was not in the city for this. After being there for the 8-hour militant hotel siege a couple months ago (not far from where I stay), I’ve had my share of grenades and gunfire for a while.

I’ve been asked about the situation in Somalia on a number of occasions recently, including by journalists, and I’ve generally said that the key stakeholders have too much to lose if things deteriorate into full on civil war. I’ve felt that they might take things to the brink to pressure adversaries, but that conflict wouldn’t serve their interests. Unfortunately it was beginning to appear that I was wrong – that people were ready to double down, even if it meant massive bloodshed. Somalia has seen this before and in the past, the business of conflict outweighed the business of peace. There is money to be made either way, but with the economic progress made, particularly over the past 5-10 years, it seemed to me that the business of peace (trade, hotels, real estate, etc.) might outweigh the business of war (weapons, security, logistics, etc.). 

At the eleventh hour, the president announced that he would work with the Lower House to nullify the two-year extension of his presidency. There was a collective sigh of relief. Someone told me that he heard gunfire soon after the announcement and there was fear that it might have been people who didn’t accept the decision. In the end it was celebratory shooting in the air (which needs to stop, by the way; our guesthouse in Mogadishu is hit by stray bullets on occasion).

Rarely is the expression “dodged a bullet” more meaningful. Though we’re not out of the woods, there is hope that the elections can move forward in the next few months without too much trouble. The president has turned over the preparations to his broadly trusted prime minister. I knew the previous PM but I’ve never met this one. But he seems to be a pretty likeable and competent guy. The pressure is on.

So we’ll see. Yesterday morning, just as I was planning my return to Mogadishu, the Kenyan government announced that it was banning all flights to Somalia. Ugh. This is connected to a long-standing spat between the two governments which I won’t go into now, but it will unnecessarily complicate things.

Today my newsfeed is filled with outrage at the treatment of Palestinians. The good news is that much of the news of chaos in Somalia has subsided – for now. The bad news, of course, is that the plight of the Palestinians continues unabated. All this tends to make one weary. There are so many people like me with their finger in the dikes of the world, trying to hold back the tiny leaks of water, to make sure that those in need are provided for and that they have a voice. At the same time there are great forces at work that undermine the smaller efforts of the masses. It’s a problem that is as old as time. It can make you cynical. But it’s encouraging to see others that refuse to avert their eyes, that get up each morning to fight that good fight.