Around Kenya in 4 days and a year ( part 2)

The New Year adventure continued past the sad mercury laden mines of Migori to the Tanzania border , Isebania in particular. We met up with professor Sangai Mohochi and had a brief gander into Tanzania ( Serere) for a beer. Later we had some Orokore Beer made from millet, we sat around a car tyre sipping still fermenting beer from straws.

We took our leave from the professor and had a long drive out to Rusinga island. A beautiful place without much of the tourist trappings lakeside places have. The Suba culture is being revived with festivals. We woke up early and did a trip around Rusinga Island and visited Tom Mboya's Mausoleum. One of my high school's illustrious alumni. 

After another long day of driving and some fiddling with charging phones directly from a car battery ( another story on how many engineers does it take to charge a phone), we ended up in Naiberi River Campsite. It is more like a glamping spot and ideal for a quiet New Year's celebration around a fire in the main hall.

A late lunch/early dinner at Rift Valley Lodge Golf Club. We went for a post dinner walk on the greens and ran into herds of zebras and antelopes. No wonder this golf club is classed as one of the best in the Africa. All the excitement was followed by an uneventful drive back to Nairobi.

We arrived tired but energized the beauty and possibilities in Kenya. The roads need to be built, electricity needs to be channeled to houses, there is a lot to do. We look forward to hanging around and getting it done. Eric is heading back to his PhD at Harvard, Gichini will be doing something about the weather prediction and I have helped put Lori Systems on a solid technical footing and change the Logistics landscape.

Kenya Trip 2016 - Bustling Nairobi

This year I decided to visit Nairobi and Kenya in general after a long hiatus. I was there last in 2009, just before my family moved back. Otherwise most of my formative years have been spent there and I have many fond memories. So this year I decided to bite the bullet and visit the long lost high school and family friends. Arriving in Nairobi and staying in Kilimani was an eye opener. So much has changed in half-a-dozen years. Kilimani used to be farmlands and forests, now it is crowded with high rise apartment buildings.

Had to work hard to get past the Askaris at M-Kopa

Several successful start-up are located here as well. I managed to visit M-Kopa (which manages to turn a profit while selling/loaning solar panels to the poorest people), BRCK which has built one of the worlds first completely sealed and mostly waterproof educational tablets thanks to Qi chargers.

Apartments are being built everywhere in Nairboi

The top floor of the same building houses iHub, a co-working space allowing freelancers and start-ups looking for contract workers to meet-up and work together. The view from iHub is amazing as well.

The view of Nairobi from iHub, with a little bit of the human element

Gearbox is downstairs from iHub, it is geared towards hardware start-ups with soldering microscopes, lathes, CNC mills and of course a mandatory 3D printer. It is run by former theater props maker, skilled in wood and other materials as well.

My former high school friends have got their university educations in country or overseas and are itching to move forward with business plans. There is an IBM research lab and a Bitcoin start-up called BitPesa working in the remittances arena. I took UberX everywhere and stayed at an AirBnB with fibre access (albeit intermittent power). It felt like being in a hybrid world.

Three men on a pole - standard overhead cable fixing practice

Overall it was a great eye opener in the way Nairobi has changed in the last decade. A place to keep on the radar for future movers and shakers.