Kenya: A Safari in More Than One Way

How did you spend your New Year's Day? Maybe you went snowboarding? Maybe you drank beer and watched football all day? Well, I had quite a different experience in Nairobi. Instead of boisterous toasts and songs, the Kenyans called in the new year with riots and tear gas in what the Kenyan newspaper I picked up called "Kenya's Darkest Week."

I'm not sure if any of you had actually realized at the time (other than my poor mother and father who probably sent a combined 15 emails during the 4 day period when everywhere in Nairobi was closed or without power) that your dear friend Sean was traveling through a warzone, but you can now say that you know someone who has seen a Civil War unfold.

I was by no means in the middle of the action, of course. What I saw firsthand was a group of protestors wielding tree branches marching to exercise their right to assemble in Uhuru Park, only to be forced to flee back to the suburbs by a heavily armed military truck firing out several rounds of tear gas. The really striking thing was what I didn't see: people; on the day that the ODM called for a Million Man March on Uhuru Park, every single business (except for one restaurant, thankfully) closed, work days were called off, and all the citizens of Nairobi who weren't protesting retreated indoors, leaving the normally bustling, cosmopolitan cityscape looking like the post-apocolyptic movie set of 28 Days Later. Police dressed in riot gear like Ninja Turtles (refer to the pictures) made rounds in packs through the empty streets while thousands of military personel surrounded Uhuru Park, so as not to allow the ODM supporters to assemble.

I could write a lot more about what I saw and felt in Nairobi that week, like political discussions with locals in which even supporters of Kibeki agreed that the incumbent President rigged the election or my cameo on Kenyan TV standing near the Chief of Police as he addressed the discovery of a car full of homemade bombs parked outside the restaurant where I was eating lunch, but I'll save those other gems for another occasion.

For now, HERE ARE THE PICTURES