Very often I venture outside of the hotel and office, travelling in a van provided by the business. Whenever the traffic stalls, I try to capture everyday scenes on my iPhone.
These visual experiences bring me closer to how the poorer section of the local population live. To put things into perspective, according to the website MyWage/Kenya, the monthly minimum wage of a driver is 13,000 Ksh (just under £105), whereas the hotel is charging $245 per night (about £165).
From the van, behind tinted windows, I see hawkers weaving among cars selling bananas, grapes, snacks, mineral water, car chargers, newspapers, kites, etc. It remind me of the young boys selling sweets in the Sao Paulo traffic. I read once in the newspaper that these Nairobi hawkers, if apprehended by the Nairobi city inspectors, could be fined as much as US$58 (~£38).
Those selling from a more stable environment operate from pavements or roadside stalls.
On the way back to the office from a late afternoon meeting, I came across the pavement hawkers selling from their bags. In Beijing, I also came across vendors selling from pavements - no rent, no licences, just hard work and a keen eye on the police to eke out a living.
There are quite a lot of roadside stalls selling fruit, shoes, clothes, everything one can find in a Sunday market. I read in the newspapers that a lot of smallholder farmers who have been struggling to make a living growing coffee have shifted to growing bananas, a major staple among a variety of communities in Kenya.
I snapped this photo one early morning at about 08:30 on way to the customer's office. As it was still early, the stalls were not yet set out.
This is a roadside food stall next to an M-Pesa top up hut. It is between the office and the Nairobi Java restaurant that a lot of us go for lunch when we are tired of the sandwiches and Indian food at the canteen. I am curious about the food served at this joint and maybe one day I should stop and inquire. Note the lack of pavements, which is very common in Nairobi.
On a major junction, a woman was seen watering the plants and the grass. It was 18:06 and traffic congestion was at its height. Driving in Nairobi requires nerves of steel, with cars inches away from each other. The drivers would tell me: you will get used to this, madam.
View from the front seat of the van. Traffic jam goes on forever. The majority of cars in Nairobi are imported from Japan. It is very rare to see European cars; sometimes I see the hotel's BMW 5 series parked at the entrance waiting to take hotel guests around. The sin of corruption - premium cars - are absent from the roads at Nairobi.
To avoid the traffic, the driver often goes off road. Once the short cut took us to a waste ground blocked by oil drums. So the driver turned back and joined the traffic again. Thankfully by then we had avoided a lot of the heavy traffic.
This scene greeted me on my first trip to the office from the hotel. High rise buildings are perched next to residential properties. The building that is under construction seem to be making very slow progress. Once again, note the lack of pavements.
When taking the stairs in the office, I see this commercial building shaped like the sail of a ship. Mirage it is called and it is seeking buyers at 11,000 Ksh (£87) per sq ft . In the foreground is the Westlands Hostel. I tried to Google this hostel but it has not gone digital yet.
These visual experiences bring me closer to how the poorer section of the local population live. To put things into perspective, according to the website MyWage/Kenya, the monthly minimum wage of a driver is 13,000 Ksh (just under £105), whereas the hotel is charging $245 per night (about £165).
From the van, behind tinted windows, I see hawkers weaving among cars selling bananas, grapes, snacks, mineral water, car chargers, newspapers, kites, etc. It remind me of the young boys selling sweets in the Sao Paulo traffic. I read once in the newspaper that these Nairobi hawkers, if apprehended by the Nairobi city inspectors, could be fined as much as US$58 (~£38).
Those selling from a more stable environment operate from pavements or roadside stalls.
On the way back to the office from a late afternoon meeting, I came across the pavement hawkers selling from their bags. In Beijing, I also came across vendors selling from pavements - no rent, no licences, just hard work and a keen eye on the police to eke out a living.
There are quite a lot of roadside stalls selling fruit, shoes, clothes, everything one can find in a Sunday market. I read in the newspapers that a lot of smallholder farmers who have been struggling to make a living growing coffee have shifted to growing bananas, a major staple among a variety of communities in Kenya.
I snapped this photo one early morning at about 08:30 on way to the customer's office. As it was still early, the stalls were not yet set out.
This is a roadside food stall next to an M-Pesa top up hut. It is between the office and the Nairobi Java restaurant that a lot of us go for lunch when we are tired of the sandwiches and Indian food at the canteen. I am curious about the food served at this joint and maybe one day I should stop and inquire. Note the lack of pavements, which is very common in Nairobi.
On a major junction, a woman was seen watering the plants and the grass. It was 18:06 and traffic congestion was at its height. Driving in Nairobi requires nerves of steel, with cars inches away from each other. The drivers would tell me: you will get used to this, madam.
Traffic congestion seen from the back window of the van. To get moving in Nairobi, it is necessary to squeeze the car into the next available space.
To avoid the traffic, the driver often goes off road. Once the short cut took us to a waste ground blocked by oil drums. So the driver turned back and joined the traffic again. Thankfully by then we had avoided a lot of the heavy traffic.
This scene greeted me on my first trip to the office from the hotel. High rise buildings are perched next to residential properties. The building that is under construction seem to be making very slow progress. Once again, note the lack of pavements.
When taking the stairs in the office, I see this commercial building shaped like the sail of a ship. Mirage it is called and it is seeking buyers at 11,000 Ksh (£87) per sq ft . In the foreground is the Westlands Hostel. I tried to Google this hostel but it has not gone digital yet.
