They’re Not Getting Around

So I finally got something right. Last week I was panicking because colleagues in Joburg had begun calling me to find out if the gentle scent of teargas was once again wafting around Nairobi. This was a concern because my folks had just arrived on holiday. And they had travelled largely because I had reassured them all would be well.

In the end it worked out fine. We have a peace deal and my folks have completed their safari and are now at the coast. But it’s going to take much longer for Kenya’s tourism industry to recover. It’s the beachboys who are really suffering:

“There are no lady mzungus now,” says Jack, using the Swahili term for white person as he waits for business in the coastal town of Watamu, “not even travellers.”

Indeed.