Peculiar 'Photogenic' Kenyans

I was listening to the radio when a popular afternoon presenter caught my ear. She was furious over a piece written by European about his experience with Kenyans at large. I felt her because as a Kenyan I was contrary to the experience. Kenya people are very diverse. Kenyans are friendly and relaxed people, who seem to enjoy everyday life. They are never too busy to make time for you, and little crowds gather in no time if something extraordinary is happening.

Thats why with a camera I've been able to photograph different Kenyans in different situation or places without any charge. If this is no act of being friendly, then what is? Its like Kenyans are proudly photogenic, never miss an opportunity to show off our beauty. From a Masaai woman in Lake Magadi to a group of boys in the Kibera neighbourhood. From a Turgen elder in Bogoria to the Luo fish seller in Ahero. Peculiar Kenyans and their beauty.

'04: My dreams of an Ad Agency

I was going thro' some old files this morning and voila! My 2004 dreams of starting an Ad agency. After some frustrating attempts to join the 'exclusive' Ad Agencies locally, I set out to make my 'imaginary' portfolio for my 'imaginary clients'. Its quite sad that 7 years late I have nothing to show for that dream. I let it die and so was 'my creativity' back then... who knows?

ONE8 - Hands Across the World (Official Music Video)

R.Kelly & ONE8 (African artist including my Kenyan Amani)in 'Hands Across the World'... never been this proud of being African. Great track!

COAST O

Trips by urbanites to the Kenyan coast are all the hype due to the night life coupled by the 'Las Vegas' notion of what happens at the coast stays there. From the humid climate to the Swahili foods, from the Coastal culture to the foreign investment... the Kenyan coast has a lot to offer. My trip this year was just that... What has the coast got to offer apart from the rave? Fort Jesus never disappoints especially with a good historians as company. I was lucky to ride the new ferries though the crowds are a disaster waiting to happen. Remember the movie White Masaai? the attraction begun on the old ferries. A visit to the Gede ruins and the Vasco da Gama pillar in Malindi was the highlights. Hope the pictures tell it all.

SAFARI RALLY... Safo!

Though the Worlds greatest rally lost its FIA status the memories of Safari Rally or Safo ( slang/sheng) will forever remain with me. The joy of watching rally cars zoom past at high speeds then getting stuck in the mud is the hallmark of the rally. When rains & Easter holidays were synonymous with Safari Rally. This years event didn't disappoint any bit, the trills, the adrenaline rush characterized the Thika section.

ANIMAL NOTICES

I once saw a warning/notice over a bridge advising elephants to cross singularly because of their weight & found it hilarious. Was it actually directed at the elephants or all animals including the humans. You got to give it up to the Hospitality industry for humour at times.

Archaeological Tourism

Archaeology (also archeology)
... the study of human history and prehistory through the excavation of sites and the analysis of artifacts and other physical remains.

Courtesy of a south african client trying to publish an atlas I ventured into a new frontier, archeological tourism. A visit to local prehistoric sites was a start. On friday I set out to Hyrax hill in Nakuru named after some extinct rodent called hyrax.

Hyrax hill has a museum but main attraction is the Sirikwa excavated sites. Sirikwas are the ancestors of the masaai community. Took me the whole afternoon to locate Gamble's cave in Nakuru. Met a guy called Kabiru (bridgepartnerkenya@yahoo.com) who is trying to market the site due to its difficult terrain. Gamble dicovered it back in the '40s but nothing has been done ever since. The following sunday, it was the journey to Olorgosaile on your way to Magadi. The landscape to lake Magadi is awesame. Here the formation of the rift valley is at its best. According to officials at Olorgosaile, the area was under sea evidenced by type of soil. Olorgosaile did not disappoint. The climax for me was the bones of extict elephant compared to the current elephants we have now. The difference in size trully illustrates the gigantic animals that walked on this earth. cant imagine the size of the dinosaurs. This frontier is worth exploring!

The Marvels of Japanese Technology: Sondu-Miriu HEP

A visit to Sondu Miriu HEP plant was worth every shilling. From Kisumu town it looked like an all weather road on a hill, but the marvel that awaited me was just breath taking. Here's a bit of its background. Water was diverted from the Sondu river at the Intake through a 6.2 km long tunnel. A surface mounted penstock then takes the water down the Nyakach escarpment to the Power Station below. In the Powerhouse, harnessing the water and the head, the turbines are turned to generate the electricity. The water is then returned to the Sondu river approximately 13km downstream of the intake via a 4.7km long Outlet Channel.

ONCE IN A LIFE TIME! THE SOLAR ECLIPSE.

Once in a life time moment. This morning of January 15th, 2010 I set upon to shoot the solar eclipse. Here's a write up from wikipedia on the issue "... the solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 is an annular eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 0.9190. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse will appear as partial eclipse over a region thousands of miles wide... the eclipse starts at the Central African Republic, traverses Cameroon, Congo and Uganda, passes through Nairobi, Kenya, and enters the Indian Ocean and reaches greatest eclipse."

Now you understand my excitement? Here below are my shots... ENJOY!

There something about waterfalls...

On saturday snobbed the hype that was Harambee Stars Vs Super Eagles match for the pineapple express. Thika, the Burmingham of Kenya has always been receptive on weekends. Lunch at Blue Post Hotel turned out to be a motivator interms of water falls. The Chania falls on one side and Thika falls on the other. The beauty of the water falls was so breath taking we had to drive to the fourteen falls. An old school picnic joint during my campus days had turned into a serious venture by the County Council. It has become a source of revenue though I couldnt see any re-investment back to the site. The falls are still as beautiful as I had left them seven years back though i depends much on the amount of water on river Athi. With the current rainny season, the falls were a deadly site. talk of a deadly site, another deadly sight was the divers. They made jumping from cliffs into the falls look so easy forgetting the dangers involved.

The Yu advert where the father and son jump must have been inspired by these 14 falls jumpers.

Magical Kenya!

I've always thought tourism was ment for tourists till I decided to change my lifestyle; from pubs & kenyan love for liquor to domestic tourism. And damn, don't we have a beautiful country! Having been born & raised in the mtaa of Nairobi city, I've never appreciated nature or the outdoors. 2008-09 has been my turning point, nature, scenery, people from different walks of life have become my new hobby. From conquering Mt.Longonot to hot springs of Baringo & L.Magadi, from shores of L.Victoria to L.Naivasha, from the savanna of Mara to plantations in Kericho. From a Sony digital camera to a more professional Canon, I hope my new passion of photography will change the world. How I wish...

Barack Obama's Speech on Education

What a speech! These are some of the quotes I'll forever cherish from the above speech.
"Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new."

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed."

"So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?"

Don't we Kenyans wish our own president was half as inspiring as Obama?

You know you're Kenyan when...

I got this from some guys am following on tweeter and damn were they funny! Some hard truths that I think, uniquely defines being a typical Kenyan. This are my top five:
1. You know you're Kenyan when you used to eat the wrapper of a queen cake as a delicacy.
2. You know you're Kenyan when theres slight cloudy so you dress your child in so many jumpers it can't move its arms & a knitted balaclava. Hope my wife is reading this.
3. You know you're Kenyan when you're stuffed but that soda has to go down! You paid a fortune for the combo.
4. You know you're Kenyan when you ride on a bus called "MASH" and use mortuary services at "UMASH". Are these guys doing business for each other?
This one is my favorite one, things we do naturally;
5. You know you're Kenyan when you chain your dogs up all day to make them even more dangerous. Turning that mtaa coyote into a doberman. Mbwa kali!

Kenya’s high speed trains!

“The prospect of this dream becoming a reality in Kenya grew on Monday when Kenya Railways Corporation advertised a tender for a standard gauge line to run from Mombasa to Malaba. Such a line would shorten the train journey from Nairobi to Mombasa from 10 to only three hours.”

Call me a cynic, but don’t these high speed trains run on electricity? We don't have enough power to light our homes leave alone trains. Speeding through Kibera laini saba slum where an accident with result in rowdy youths uprooting the railway line! Whenever I see those old depilated RVR trains with myriad of technical problems, I can’t imagine the technology that comes with the high speed ones. Some one joked that engineering in our universities still based on 1985 syllabus, so there goes out technical support. Am I a case of a pessimists, who prevent the country from developing and then blame the government for lack of foresight? Or a case of a realistic Kenyan, ranting on an impossible dream. What happened to mass rapid transport light rail to for the city? Oh, it was an old forgotten dream. Can’t wait for another one of those dreams, this time the technocrats should try an airport in Thika. That I can dream.

McDonald Vs McCurry

Al Jazeera left me curious on who between the fast-food giant McDonald's versus Malaysian restaurant McCurry would win. McDonald's lost an eight-year legal battle to prevent a McCurry from using the "Mc" prefix, as it infringed its trademark. McCurry opened for business in Kuala Lumpur in 1999, and serves Indian dishes, including fish head curry and breads including tandoori naan(already salivating).

I found the ruling fair! There was no evidence to show McCurry was trying to pass itself off as part of the McDonald's empire. The logo (two thumbs up chicken) was creatively done, far better than McDonalds. Who on earth would patent "Mc" , I think this goes to far. To my usual ranting, if it were back home the multi national would definitely have won.

Traffic jams vs new school term

After experiencing one of the worst traffic jams ever (the presidential motorcade had nothing to do with it), I concluded that must have been the start to the new school term. The last three weeks the roads have been 'nyweee' as my grand mother would say. Smooth as the buttocks of a new born. Leaving the residential areas at 7 am and making it to other side of town in an hour time. Less traffic equals less fuel equals a bit of saving. But come to think of it, how many of the school buses are there? Could it be the teachers' personal cars? If both contribute but why are fridays less congested... I think Nairobians panic too much. From smell of rain to speculations of happenings in CBD. The general assumption that a new term means traffic jam results in panic mode. I just wish 'we' would all analyze the situation my style and maybe 'we' don't have wake up so early.

Lion Sculptures in town

Saw a guy on TV yesterday arguing out he doesn’t see the importance of those wooden lion sculptures in town since the “Government is not providing him with food and so the lions are a waste of time”. Though I won't like to take his line of thinking, I was left wondering if this is another misplaced priority. Yap, am still talking of the lions! After watching an item on NTV News on putting some GSM/GPRS tags on lions necks. Wasn't it humorous when one of the lions woke up from the sedatives as the KWS guys were busy taking some samples...
... Back to my rants, I beg to wonder; wouldn't the awareness be more productive on neighboring masaai community who kill lions for culture or conflict? A Nairobian experiencing power/water/LPG rationing has a lion as an issue least of his/priorities.

Sites of Death!

Kenyans are known for the unique 'peculiar habits' from mobile phone etiquette to driving madness. Most of these 'peculiar habits' have been accepted as a social norm. But there is one I'm wondering if its one of them habits or a natural human instinct. Today morning while trying to avoid the ever congested Muranga Road, I divert on Desai Road. A few meters I encounter a huge crowd that doesn't seem to be in a hurry on a monday morning. My fellow motorists also join in my causing another traffic jam. As I get closer to the crowd I get to visualize the subject matter. A corpse of a mugging victim with deep bruises on the head, the usual being hit by a blunt object theory. As I drive off I wonder what could be the gain of standing for hours just looking or imagining the 'what could have happened' theories. Is it our own kenyan habits of always flocking to accidents scenes or its a human nature?

The sad case of Mau

As a born city I never thought I'd ever have an opinion over environmental issue leave alone Mau. My trip to the Masaai Mara through Narok was like a blow to my environmental ignorance. The burnt out hectares of what was once lush indigineous forest was heart breaking. Numerous questions of why, how did it get to such levels of destruction, was I could ask myself. With the politicization of Mau reforestation and the visible tell tale signs of years of depletion, am genuinely worried for my year old son's future. I frankly pray that our politicians preferably the president would make such a trip and who knows, maybe he'll get worried for his grandchildrens future... and who knows, the beginning of Mau Forest afforestration!