 So my trip to Kenya has ended and I came back with an interesting mix of different views, facts, pictures, etc. from there which I will try to share as much as possible.
Fist some General information of Kenya taken from CIA World Fact Book:
Location: East Africa bordering Indian Ocean and between Ethiopia, Uganda, Somalia and Tanzania
Area: 582,650 sq km (about 64% of Venezuela's size and 19 times Belgium's size)
Population: Approx. 35 Million (Compared to 26 Mill. in VE and 10 Mill. in BE)
Life Expectancy at birth: 48.93 Years (compared to 74.54 at Venezuela and 78.77 in BE)
Languages: Kiswahili and English as official
Currency: Kenyan Shilling - KES (Exchange Rate 1 EUR = 91.5 KES)
GDP per Capita: USD 1200 (USD 6900 in VE and USD 31.800 in Belgium)
Capital: Nairobi (Population Approx. 4 Millions)
Some Other interesting facts about Kenya: - Was a British Colony up to 1963 when it was declared independent, the independence movement was led by Jomo Kenyatta who became Kenya's first president until his death in 1978
- After that president MOI took power and ruled for 24 years until he stepped down in 2002 ( 24 YEARS!!! That's Chavez dream). From that time most of the people I talked to said that money was taken from the Country into his and his close people's pockets
- Since then president Mwai Kibaki has been ruling, most of the impressions I heard of him are positive, although there's still a long road ahead of Kenya for development
- They will have elections this year, and the impressions I received was that the current president will not be reelected as results have not been as quick as expected in the Country's economy
- There are about 24 different Ethnic groups in the country
- It's famous for it's wildlife, Mt. Kenya (with its 5199 mts), it's tribes and the Masai Mara Natural reserve
From a personal perspective of the short time I was there I can say that: - The people are very friendly, outgoing, like to party a lot, enjoy going out and having fun. They are very proud of Kenya and being Kenyan, although they realize the challenges they face.
- Even if the impression I had initially is that it is really dangerous and unsafe, there was a lot of people walking on the street up to 10-11pm. So my impression is that you should be careful not to go out with expensive clothes, watch, camera, etc. and not to enter certain areas, for the rest it's OK.
- There's a big gap between rich and poor (as on the street you can still see BMW MIII, Toyota Prado, etc. and people without even shoes)
- Their Handcrafts are amazing, specially the sculptures made out of ebony, soapstone and other types of wood
- Public transport is heavily used and semi organized. I could see very long lines of people waiting for the buses next to the hotel at the bus stop, but they were queuing in an organized manner (something you don't see that much in Venezuela)
- They could benefit a lot more from Tourism but insecurity is the major concern for travellers
- There's a big Indian Population in Nairobi (but more of that in next posting)
Labels: Travel |
