NAIROBIA, KENYA: Back to Nairobi, a
one-night pit stop on the way to Rwanda. My agent in Windhoek, Namibia, had
originally routed me through Johannesburg, but in looking at the map Joe Burg, as it’s fondly called, seemed
like back tracking. I had thought Kenya was a country I would want to visit,
but my agent steered me clear and I now understand why. I took a quick tour of
the city and the National Museum and didn’t see any tourists. An article in the
local paper explains why: first, the country faces serious security challenges
from terrorism to violent robbery; second, park fees are twice as high as those
in Tanzania; third, the country is seeing a dramatic increase in pouching, destroying
the primary reason for tourists to come to the country in the first place; and
fourth, the government’s arbitrary decision to charge a value added tax on
tourism, which probably speaks to the even more serious problem of corruption.
The headline in the same paper read: “18
envoys ask Uhuru to act on corruption.” The envoys included U.S.
Ambassador, Robert Godec. Their letter to President Uhuru begins with, “Corruption is undermining Kenya’s future,
its economic growth, security, and government services.” Just as a test of
the security concern, I asked my driver to drive me to Somalia. “You’re not serious?” he said. The farthest
north he would take me was 400 kilometers, which is still 800 kilometers from
the border. “Oh, well,” I said, “A tour of the city will have to suffice.”
We drove on past the memorial park commemorating the 1988 bombing of the U.S.
Embassy, killing 2,000 people, and then on to Westgate Shopping Mall where 47
people were recently killed. My driver had an Obama 08 sticker on his front windshield and so I asked him, “What do you think of Obama?” He
responded, “I liked him at first, but now
I’m disappointed that he’s not doing more for Kenya. He needs to come here and
tell the American people that it’s safe to visit here. We need the American
tourists to come back.”
