So yes, that is razor wire and electric fences adorning everyone's front, side and back yards. Once you are inside the gates the gardens can be completely beautiful and the houses impressive. It is just that often from the road all you can see is the roof of the house. |
| For many people Mpesa is their main "Checking account". |
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| Pretty common practice is both razor wire and electric fence on top |
Here you can see the Minaret from the local Mosque. Those little dots just under the opening are loud speakers - and yes we can hear the calls regularly. The ones at 5am take some getting used to.
I was in the supermarket the other day and where they sold light bulbs and other hardware they also had coils of barbwire. Now that is different from home.
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| Here and there you see a little individual expression in the fortifications |
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| More Coke! Here is a neighborhood general store. looking down the street you see the endless concrete walls |
When I got to the market the first thing you see are some produce stalls, then came this really cool fried fish stand. They kindly let me come back and take all the photos I wanted.
That looks like some of the hand hammered woks I saw being made at the Jua Kali market in another post. The fire stands also look like some of the goods that were made there totally by hand.
That is all Talapia, They scale it, put a couple cuts in the sides, and throw it to the grease. Looked pretty good. Probably not so good for you.
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| Scaling Fish - here is a guy who works hard for his living |
There must be 6 shops all just the same right next to each other and the competition is intense for the customer. Close to a dozen of these guys in the white coats descended on me, ringed around and all tried to sell me their raw fly covered goat chunks at the same time. I had some fun with it and bystanders were all laughing while they watched me trying to extract myself. I ended up buying a Kilo of grilled goat from this guy at the bottom. 
Wow, the means that are used to keep the primates out of residences and businesses makes it all look like a correctional center! We can better appreciate our squirrels and possums as they don't require such extreme means to keep them out of the living and working areas. Keep the photos coming.
ReplyDeleteThe fencing is intended for keeping out burglars rarely ever any "primates". In neighborhoods where baboons and monkeys are a problem (those near Nairobi National Park or Karura Forest and other less settled areas), such fortifications don't do much good since the nuisances will get into the compound through dropping from overhanging trees or simply by scaling up the rough wall. The broken bottles are usually found in older neighborhoods and were probably set up when most home invasions involved physically climbing the wall with a ladder. Nowadays, most robberies involve entry through the gate at gunpoint where either the guard \ ("watchie") or owner ("mwenye-nyumba") is accosted by well armed assailants who will then round up all members of the household, rob them of all they want and then leave with their victims tied up.
ReplyDeleteThe barbed wire + electric fence setup are found in businesses or newer high-class residences \ flats and are matched with an alarm system of some kind to alert the contracted private security company (there are many) and then the policy in the case of a break-in.
TL:DR: As a Nairobi native, this has been something I have grown used to, but may seem kind of strange to a foreigner. I guess we Nairobians admit we are surrounded by insecurity and will take any steps to prevent it from happening to us. You might have seen thick thorny hedges around more affluent homesteads in estates in the greener outskirts (bundus) -- in my opinion, these are more effective deterrents.
Also, fried fish is great if well prepared especially if its a new "catch" (brought in that day). Most Nairobians would probably subsist on a constant diet of fried fish and nyama choma if they could afford it -- the two are considered delicacies that cut across all economic strata although most Kenyans will look for more occasions for goat meat than fish.