Mashujaa Day – Heroes Day: Kenya’s New National Day Today’s Mashujaa Day (Heroes Day) was a first-ever in Kenya. It used to be Kenyatta Day, dedicated to the admiration of former president Jomo Kenyatta. In all his modesty, he instituted it himself during his reign Mahujaa Day is now a National Day honoring all the…
Breakneck competition between Kenya’s mobile operators Whenever a text message pops in these days, I pray it is not more spam from the operator. Too often, it is. Safaricom and Zain seem to have gone crazy with their sms advertizing, and there is no way to stop them! I have no idea what Yu and…
DHL + Customs: A Recipe for Delays While I was successfully bullying the dreaded container of Kyoto Box solar cookers through Customs in Mombasa, people from the same useless government institution were doing their best to delay our business in Nairobi. A consignment of our latest product, the Kyoto Flash Mini torchlights is currently on…
Attempting to bring a container into Kenya can give you several heart attacks, and is by no means a recommendable exercise for any sound-minded person who cares about his mental well-being. Had Franz Kafka been alive today, he would doubtlessly have agreed that Kenyan bureaucracy by far eclipses his nightmarish descriptions of their counterparts in the pre-WW1 Austro-Hungarian empire. Here’s a step-by-step guide to experiencing a true Kafka process in the 21st century.
My race against time in Mombasa was crowned with success! Having finished the most insane race against time ever, I am now back from Mombasa. The dreadful container that had overstayed at the port, is now on the road and approaching Kisumu, where it is to be delivered. Getting that container out before the deadline…
Garissa Town is the headquarters of Garissa County, and the gateway to North-Eastern Kenya. Going to Garissa by road, will initially send you through Thika Road. Perpetually jammed over the past decade, this road is currently being upgraded into a 12-lane superhighway. This prestige project of president Mwai Kibaki and his coalition partner, Prime Minister…
Eldoret, the unofficial capital of the Kalenjin community, in the heart of Rift Valley, was the first place I visited in Kenya outside Nairobi. Back then, I was a young and excited trainee through AIESEC, the global student organization that brought me to Kenya the first time. That was on my 4th day in Kenya,…
The Accident On Langata Road My new Toyota Kluger got less than 2 weeks on the road before some jackass rammed into it from behind. On the way down Langata Road, between two meetings, the car in front was attempting a completely reckless maneuvre, forcing me to stop. Familiar with the risks of driving in…
My sweet, new Kluger is here! So it finally got here, my Toyota Kluger! After 3 months of patience, I am now cruising the roads of Nairobi in my new beast, straight from Japan! I started looking for a car as soon as I got to Nairobi. The challenge in Nairobi is to find something…
New, classy restaurants are popping up in Nairobi every day. It has been a while since I wrote my most popular blog post ever, City Guide to Nairobi – the Green City in the Sun, read over 30 000 times since I posted it. At that time, I was back in Norway, and wrote it…
