Anyone who occasionally escorts folks and friends to the airport, will know that parking is usually a nightmare on a week night. [Photo/ Lonely Planet]
Three weeks ago, while walking through Wabera Street, I ran into those men who are always there talking about politics. I overheard a man complaining about how we treat foreigners differently.
“Look, what happens when we catch the Chinese with suspicious devices that they use to hack into our financial systems, we only deport them. Try do something illegal in their country. These people are everywhere. They are even hawkers. Almost everything being sold in the streets is from China and their new stores. Look at what is happening in Eastleigh. We give foreigners so much space. Kenyans can’t hawk in the streets. But the Somalis can have their malls…”
On and on and on he went. I thought Somalis are Kenyans and have a right to run their malls without the hawkers blocking the path to their malls… But the man was addressing the class problem in Kenya. I had to pretend to be on a call so that I can listen to them.
“Kenyans are rotting in foreign jails and our government does absolutely nothing. Try breaking the law in Uganda and see what happens. In fact, if you were involved in an accident in Uganda, if you can abandon the car and run as far away as possible, you will rot in a jail.” Another impassioned young man urged on. Coincidentally, yesterday, Kenyans on the Namanga border protested against harassment by Tanzanians authorities as Magufuli’s nationalist push hurt Kenyans living in Tanzania, forcing many to come back. I think we have to decide on how to deal with TZ, either embrace them or we just ignore them and carry on with our lives.
But back to the xenophobic rant. The men were right that foreigners are treated differently around. I once saw Nigerians abuse and demean some watchman at Nakumatt Lifestyle, and man, I never wanted to punch a man so badly. But it depends, some foreigners, like Ethiopians are not as lucky, as they are routinely rounded and humiliated by our authorities, the fact that makes it doubly worse since they can’t speak English or Swahili.
A South Sudanese friend once told me that the police treat them as ATM machines once they arrest them for any misdemeanor. Luckily, in Kenya, you can buy your freedom, you just need to know the price.
And guys that is how xenophobia works. When you have a different set of rules for the elite, the rich and the monied foreigners, and the economy starts to deteriorate as it is currently (likely to be worse with the likely reelection of Jubilee, man, batten down the hatches, once Jubilee is back, it will be the worst 5 years of our lives that will take us at least 30 years to recover, take this to your Shylock, get the maximum loan).
So things will get so bad, we will start blaming the few foreigners for our woes and before you know it we are lynching them and being covered dutifully by Al-Jazeera and CNN. But the ordinary folk do not understand that the it is the broken systems, not the few foreigners in our midst that is responsible for our poverty. The same applies for the periodic animosity towards members of a certain community who every election cycle have to live in fear of being killed, their property being plundered, because they live in a “foreign land”. Funny, we think that where our ancestors live is our ancestral land. Few people give damn about history. Certainly, not a man whose only mission in life is to get the next meal.
Anyone who occasionally escorts folks and friends to the airport, will know that parking is usually a nightmare on a week night. Last night, while seeing off a relative, we looked for parking and saw somewhere indicated “long term” parking. We couldn’t find a spot for short-term parking, which we assumed meant not more than 15 minutes, more or less a drop off and picking point. You all know how spooky; the airport police can be. You can be arrested for something you don’t know is unlawful. So were relieved that long-term presupposes at least an hour or two, just what we needed so as to hand out with the relations, as they waited for their midnight flight.
When we went for the car, about 1 hour and 40 minutes later, I expected we will pay at the very least, Sh200. Shock on us, when the woman at the toll told us, at the very least we had to pay Sh700.
Wish they could indicate these things properly. I felt ripped. Next time you go there, have this in mind, better still take a Uber.
If you are an adult, kindly ensure your documents are always in order and forever updated. Your certificates, have them certified, your identification documents have them stored somewhere properly. If more than 18, please apply for a passport have it on the ready. These documents should be stored online in soft and quickly accessible copies. Make sure you are updated with NHIF, HELB and NSSF and other statutory bodies that take your money. Monthly dedicate an afternoon to ensure that everything is in order. You never know when you will have an emergency and you need to straighten things before you can be attended to in a hospital, and some god at NHIF who is supposed to append some signature is not around for two weeks.
In government offices, people who sign things are always in meetings or travelling. Everywhere, except at their desk. And you will learn the hard way that bureaucracy is not a good thing.
Editor's note: Follow Silas Nyanchwani on Facebook and visit his blog for more.