Karibu Safari! My Kenya Experience
“The world is a big place, and there’s so much to see. I want to see it all, and experience everything it has to offer.” — Natsuki Subaru
Now, how to start this article has been sort of a dilemma even finding a fitting article title. Two weeks ago, I got the opportunity to speak at ETHSafari, a blockchain conference that took place in Kilifi, Kenya. Now this is me narrating my experiences to you as they happened from my memory. I may end up adding pieces from different parts, but it shouldn’t confuse you though, as my articles are just me having a more detailed conversation with you. Passing through the various points at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) to board my flight to Nairobi reminded me of how bad things are when it comes to Nigeria-related matters. At none of those seven checkpoints was I not asked for money by the staff there, a solicitation that I greeted with a negative response. I didn’t realise how bad it was until I did my transit through Addis Ababa Bole International Airport and finally landed at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. Now while I would like to continue to bash Nigeria, the article today isn’t about that. After all, I did that some months ago here.
Last year I really did want to attend the event but due to some unfortunate circumstances, I was unable to attend it. Here I was, finally in Kenya for this conference I was excited about. I got into my serviced apartment around 3 a.m. that Tuesday and it was a smooth experience, as I had already informed them of my arrival time. The morning after my sleep, I stepped out to Sarit Center, a mall, to get the Safaricom sim and enable M-pesa as the store at the airport was closed by the time my flight landed. The weather was different, it was chilly and the air smelt much better. I got the sim, opened an M-pesa account, went to a Bureau De Change to convert the small dollars I was with to Kenya shillings, and deposited it on M-pesa, all within 30 minutes. Queues were almost non-existent and I don’t know if to attribute it to the presence of efficient services or the lesser population compared to Nigeria or even both. M-pesa was so widely adopted that every single person I transacted with, from kiosk owners, to keke drivers to bikemen to hotels etc. all had an account with them.
I was almost lost at Sarit Center that day and even on my subsequent visits. It was that big and yet the Kenyans I met kept telling me how it wasn’t one of the biggest. I attended Builders Night on Wednesday and it was interesting to learn from the panels about payments in Africa and how we can improve the web3 infrastructure on the continent. I also got to meet former acquaintances like Eric Annan from AyaHQ, Songyi from Gatherings, and Yoseph Ayele from Borderless Africa, and I met new ones like Sam and Abigail from Kotanipay, Lord Ghost, GeekTutor from Google, Khadeejah from Celo, Galien and Miraculous.
The next day was the block train ride, and it was going to be my first time on a train ever. While I would love to travel from Port Harcourt to Lagos and Abuja easily by train, such infrastructure doesn’t exist currently here. The train ride was from the Nairobi Terminus to Mombasa Terminus and it lasted about 6 hours. The purpose of the train as part of the activity at ETHSafari was to make a way for people to network with each other and get familiar before the main events start. Edward Karani from GoChapaa, Chantal J from Blockchain Association of Kenya, Duke Song from BanklessDAO, and Felix Kiptoo from Blue3 DAO. While I was shy, I do not know why people still doubt this, I still ended up getting to talk with them, although I did sleep most of the journey. Later on, I got to see Marine Andraud (she has been so helpful for months now) from OP Labs, who I last saw at the Web3 Lagos Conference on the train and through her, I realised that Miss Purple from BanklessAfrica was actually close to my seat.
We got to Mombasa and a bus took us to Kilifi. Mine did break down but a replacement was available within 5 minutes and we were transferred to it. I was informed earlier about how hot Killifi can be but it was such a contrast to Nairobi. While waiting for the driver to take me to my lodging, I heard someone speak and I knew she was a Nigerian. I casually chipped in a talk and that was how I met Tolu, the amazing woman, who would later become my event buddy, wingman and my social shyness calmer. As we were headed to the same area, we ended up going together, together with Miss Purple.
Friday was the main event day 1 and I and Tolu arrived in the area early. My panel was Heartbeats and Hashrates: Human Stories Behind the Tech and while the questions were structured around Hashrates when it comes to blockchain network computational speed, we the panellists tried our best to share our perspectives as the human behind this tech. While I can’t say if it was a great success, later on, I ran into 3 different people who mentioned they listened to my panel and liked it, so that’s a success metric in my books. I quickly got to check out other talks and tried the food around. Day 2 was great too, I met new people, saw old ones, and had small chats.
Overall I discovered I am really not the one for long talks in a new crowd, except it's with a small clique. To me, that clique was Tolu, Miss Purple and later on, Aurelio. While I had high hopes for the afterparty on Saturday, the DJs kept on playing house music constantly and in the end, none of us was having it so we left. The conference was an interesting and insightful one for me. I got to talk with folks from other African countries, such as Tanzania, DRC Congo, Rwanda, Lesotho and obviously Kenya in person. At some point, we each got to share and compare our experiences from living in these different countries. A funny thing that happened was how I was anticipating seeing a particular woman, only for us to meet in person, and for me to see that the excitement was one-sided. Not only that, it was also me getting in my feelings when I saw her with another guy, who to me, wasn’t “just a friend” based on my observations. Human emotions can be unpredictable at times.
From my observations, a couple of Kenyans were sceptical about Nigerians. What can I say, both our good and bad citizens are well accounted for internationally. I tried some Kenyan dishes and while I found Pilau to be bland, I did enjoy the mashed potatoes and chips. I didn’t like Kenya shawarma and I also did try eating an octopus and while it wasn’t that delicious, it wasn’t bad either. I had to go to the supermarket to get groceries, so I could enjoy Nigerian dishes here, especially our beloved jollof rice which happened to be my last meal in Kenya. I can’t recall seeing any potholes around and I didn’t even see any bad roads. The roads have less traffic, and less noise pollution and apparently a lot of malls and stores are in Kenya. I almost made a bad financial decision to buy the Thrustmaster TCA Sidestick Airbus Edition, but I was saved by my phone battery almost running dead. So Santa, if you are reading this and I have been a good boy this year, you know what to do. I was helped by staff at the airport, mall, apartment etc. and at no point did anyone tell me, “Give us something for the weekend” or “Show me love,” phrases I got to hear in the first 30 minutes of returning to Nigeria.
There you could see that the tax from citizens is actually being used to develop the country. Oh did I mention that I didn’t experience a power outage? Nigeria when? Generally, the cost of living is higher there but it is worth it standard-wise. People pay a lot in Lekki and still get bad drainage, bad water and bad smell to mention a few. I saw quite a number of foreigners too and I realise it’s quite a hotspot for folks around the world. Another thing which was a culture shock was when an Uber driver drove to a particular place which wasn’t a fueling station to buy fuel. I asked if that was the black market and he said yes, to which I asked further about why he chose to go there and not a fueling station. To my surprise, he mentioned it was cheaper to buy from the black market. Can not be my beautiful Nigeria oh. If fuel is ₦590 at a fueling station, the black market will sell around ₦1000. Going to the florist to get flowers was also a fun activity for me, as they were so available and cheap compared to Nigeria.
I didn’t get to explore the Safari wildlife at Nairobi National Park or go karting at Whistling Morgans or even see how the nightlife is at a club/lounge, however, I did enjoy my stay overall. I got back to Nairobi some days later from Kilifi, stayed some days and then came back to Lagos, where I am currently writing from.
