Experience of Mukuyuni II

This is not about me in Kenya, that’s about Kenya in me …

(I was listening to music of Ayub Ogada while writing these lines)

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I woke up early to a new village. Yes, Mukuyuni seemed rather different during the day. Everybody was already awake, the smoke was coming from the kitchen's window, kids were running around, the bright blue sky was welcoming us and the new day. Finally, I got to see where we arrived yesterday. The village is situated on nicely rolling hills covered with relatively dense vegetation with some beautiful views on the neighboring hills and villages. And yes, I finally got to meet the grandmother, we talked a bit before other people appeared, I tried to use my very limited Swahili skills. Mutysia came after few minutes telling me that his grandma only speaks Akamba language,.. ups.
The local fertile soil is utilized mostly for crops; corn and coffee. Coffee can be sold to a local farmer market society that further sells it to Nairobi, or directly to the tradesman. Logically, the earnings are doubled if you sell directly to Nairobi as Mutysia does. Yes, Mutysia also grows coffee. Person, who picked me yesterday at the center of Nairobi, suddenly became an experience farmer. “The problem is that people often grow coffee together with corn, that lowers the coffee quality and they can than hardly sell it to Nairobi”, introduced Mutysia the problem of local farmers.

Mukuyuni lucks running water and electricity as majority of the neighboring villages. The problem is often connected with the distribution of money from the province capital –Machakos. Only limited amount of money makes it here and thus the development is limited. Mutysia is the pioneer with visions and with excellent communication skills. Thanks to his achievements the electricity will be installed in only few weeks. While showing me his house he introduced some of his future plans: “Once the electricity is here, I will establish a small library in this part of the house, here there will be a computer with internet access, here books, here place to relax. I plan to invite more tourists over, they will be staying here inside or camping outside, experiencing the daily Kenyan life in the country.”

Tips for travelers:

Generosity: Mutysia was extremely generous, starting the first days he was offering trips, recommending where to go, what to eat, driving me around to his village, introducing me his friends and local traditions. It’s important to say that Mutysia was not the only person with such a generous behavior who I met in Kenya. "A suspicious.. " , European may think.

A friend of mine helped me to find the right answer. Kenyans are proud on their country, extremely proud and it’s a pleasure for them to introduce it in the most spectacular way. They also know that tourism brings a large proportion of money into Kenyan budget. Last but not least: walking on the streets with mzungu brings person respect among friends.

The financial support for the planned burials was gathered this morning. Also I and a Mutysia came to contribute with something to the common budget that will help the family to prepare a proper burial. A person sitting in front of the hut by a small desk was writing a list of contributors and amount of money they contributed.

A trip to the Thuy rock at the edge of the Yatta Plattao followed with amazing views on the never-ending savanna with small farmer fields. Only in few hours we were driving back Nairobi. It was completely dark when we arrived to Umoja, the Nairobi residential area. In the morning I drove the bus to the business center together with dozen other locals. The daily routine to most in the bus was an amazing experience for me. I spent the day at work and getting ready for my next trip… Mt Kenya.

So, this was my intense village experience, and this all after only 5 days in Kenya. Thanks to Mutysia’s generosity that amazed me, and hospitality club!

Experience of Mukuyuni village, Kenya

This is a story about a special person who I met during my first days in Kenya and about the life of people in his village called “Mukuyuni”. Mutysia is a father of two great kids, he loves his country and is desperate to show it to people arriving from abroad. I met Mutysia’s wife via the Hospitality club 4 weeks before my departure and scheduled to meet in the Nairobi city center with her husband.


Our meeting went exactly as scheduled. I was amazed and concluded that its not about the distance or time over what you schedule things but about people. Mutysia picked me up together with his small son and we all then browsed the city center, me being given some helpful advice about life in Kenya. Mutysia got randomly stopped by his friends many times, for a short chat. I guess he got to talk to about 30 people during one hour of walking. Recently, I read somewhere that a first random meetings of your friends on the street of your town is a sign that this is really your home. I also felt like at home. Suddenly, everything felt so homely.

Picture: Mutysia at his coffee farm

Following day Mutysia suggested to visit his family in Mukuyuni, a tiny village in the Machakos region, about 60 km southeast from Nairobi. I could not refuse a visit to rural areas with an accompany of local person with all the necessary knowledge . In few hours we were already driving through the semi-arid land of Akamba people, approaching towards Machakos and then the promised Mukuyuni. The landscape was flat (we were still on a high plateau) with only few sparsely vegetated mountain ranges popping up. Once we get closer to Mukuyuni in the Yatto plateau things got considerably greener and the soil extremely red.

NOTE: Akamba is the fourth largest tribe in Kenya. The akamba people speak Kikamba language and they are known for their business skills. I dear to say that Mutysia was an akamba, he spend 4 hours a day on phone talking with friends and managing his businesses :-)

It was extremely dark when we arrived to Mukuyuni. First, we stopped in the restaurant of Mutisia’s sister in law. Try to imagine a small village (maybe 200 people), totally abandoned in darkness of south central Kenya, its 9pm, its completely dark with black sky spreaded by shining stars, silence, some sporadic lights in houses. A place called Teahouse is surrounded by locals, but everything seems silent, ten man sitting outside in the dark, drinking beer or Kenyan tee and discussing politics, another ten sitting inside playing board games with caps. When the caps fall from the table, the small youngsters get them and proudly bring back. I greet everybody with the necessary shake of hands. They did not seem very surprised by mzungu. The chief of the village was also present. Older, skinny and very tall man.

Mutysia explained to me earlier that this is very sad time for the village. Several people died only recently and today all adult man from the village are suppose to meet and discuss the arrangements of the burial. One hour later we already drove to a small house of Mutysia’s relatives and the meeting began. Although women never participate in similar meetings, being a white tourist I was given an exception. Chief of the village, me and 14 other Akamba local man sit for following one hour around a fireplace, 13 of us discussing arrangements for the burial in Kikamba, me - being fascinated by the situation I got into. After the meeting we followed to Mutysia’s home. Here, I got to know the entire Mutisia's family. His wife, father, mum, brothers, and Mutisia's incredible active and happy younger sun. The oldest member of the family, Mutysia's grandmother was already asleep. I hope to meet her tomorrow.

Picture: Yatta Plateau

After a short chat with the entire family, we broke away to go to sleep. I was given a room in the house of Mutysia's parents. Who has ever traveled alone far from his/her country knows that the dark evenings and the waiting to fall asleep in unknown home can get pretty sad, lonely and maybe little scary. Thanks for the excellent Kenyan network, at least I could exchange few sms with my best friend Gabca who just recently spend 1 year in Kongo and knew what feelings can one get.

“A morning in Mukuyuni is coming soon…”

Kenya 2008: in Nairobi

Nairobi is an enormous and busy city with people anytime and everywhere. At least thats was my first impression as a person coming from Wien :-) Walking on the main Moi avenue is like searching for free space on the payment where one would not hit other pedestrians. Locals have a perfect talent in doing so. Seeing that you are white (“mzungu” in kiswahili), they usually give you little more space. I was delighted meeting thousands of people on these busy streets. I met more people during the first two days than I usually meet during one week in Wien and got really excited. My head got overwhelmed after 2 days of this excitement, though. Then I learnt how to “filter” - random selection of people on the street.

Tip for travelers: I like walking, that’s my ordinary way of exploring new cities. Walking in Kenya can get rather tiring and uncomfortable, though. Locally, you have to walk through gravel mixed with water, pavement is missing and matatu may pass only 40 cm from you with rather high speed. The dusty environment may then help to finalize your wrong impression of Nairobi - “dirty and unfriendly city”.

I would highly advice to take it easy at the beginning, walk only short distances, use buses, don’t try to reach more then 2-3 attractions a day (traffic jams are unexpectable) and try to find time to stop once in the while and look around, follow the flow of people and cars coming and heading to …somewhere, stop in the store and spend some time talking with locals, you may learn a lot, but.. don’t believe them everything, you may hear another “true” right in the next stall J.

When your feet hurt, it’s time to search for public transportation. Actually.. the transportation searches for you in Kenya J. It’s the matatus that provide the ordinary and the fast way of transport in Nairobi and you definitely should not this experience. Matatu– the minibus for 10-15 people is usually very old Nissan or Toyota. It’s interesting to note that matatu is in kiswahili very similar to matata that stands for a problem. Nobody ever mentioned any real connection with this translation during my journeys, and I have just the best experience with matatus. They work indefinitely, probably 24-7 with no fix schedule, but one usually doesn’t wait more then 5 minutes to get to his/her destination. When I think of it, matatus work considerably better then any public transportation in US or Great Britain.

Tip for travelers: make sure to ask more people where the bus is going. Quite often the answer “yes” to your question “are you going to Westlands?” may just be the simplest solution for the driver. Eventually you may finish up at the most eastern part of the town.

Since many Kenyans prefer noisy and colorful matatus the drivers often come up with small improvisations that make their Nissan or Toyota the most unordinary. Some matatus are really peculiar. Often you hear a Kenyan folk song instead of normal honking or see windows covered by pictures of Osama Bin Ladin or Bush.