In my first article, I talked about why I went to Nairobi, and shared some of the nerdy bits of my trip.

However, in between all the technical things I did there, I also had the opportunity of getting to know the city, its people and a bit of its culture. That part of the story is what gives the title to these two articles, and it is what I ultimately want to share with you all.

I think I mentioned this was my first trip to Kenya — and to Africa in general. As a Latin-American, and a person who´s had the opportunity to work with people in need since I was a teenager, I thought travelling to Africa would not make so much of an impact on me. I have seen and experienced poverty, violence, inequality, lack of opportunities, classism, and corruption first-hand. I used to work as a catechist at my local church, for about 4 years, with children from 8 to around 12 years-old. I will never forget when after asking “what do you —kids— wish to pray for?” one child said: “I want to pray for that my father stops being violent with my mom”. In her innocence, she openly talked about an issue that I know affects many families in the world, specially in developing countries.

So, I thought, going to Africa cannot be that different, can it?

The short answer is yes, it can. The long version would be “yes, it can, and it´s a lot worse than I´ve ever experienced before, and so sad that you really have to keep your mind cold in order not to break in tears while walking, on an average night, through the city centre”. I must admit it was tough; it was frustrating; it was difficult to deal with the sense of urgency that asked me to do something about what I was seeing, and with the impotence for not being able to do much.

And here is the tricky part: Nairobi, under a Sub-Saharan African perspective, is actually a pretty advanced city. Crazy, isn´t it?

I haven´t mentioned it before, but I have a master degree in political economy. While thinking about topics for my thesis, I was analysing two very well defined economic phenomena, the Dutch disease and the Resource curse. Both of them are related to failures in resource rich countries to administer the riches they are blessed with. More specifically, it is relatively well documented that, for some countries, one of the main reasons natural resources become a curse instead of a blessing is because of corruption and the failure of national institutions. And guess where you can find the most prominent examples of the curse | … think…| … think…| …exactly! Africa.

Now, let´s be fair, corruption is everywhere, in North and South America, in Europe, in Asia, and, of course, in Africa. The problem is that in Africa is present everywhere, and you don´t really need to dig deep in order to see it. This is confirmed by the Corruption Perception Index, which ranks Kenya 136, out of 175 countries, in 2013.

Poverty in Kenya is at about 46% of the total population, and the country is in a race with Uganda for being the first East-African country to export oil. The question is, given the high levels of perceived corruption, where will the money end up? How will the country avoid the resource curse?

Inequality is also a big issue. I had the opportunity to drive around the city and see the extreme inequality and its ugly face. While you have people living in extreme poverty conditions at one end of the city, Nairobi, you have people living with European standards on the other. It is shocking to see the amount of luxury cars that ride on the streets of Nairobi: BMW, Audi, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, you know...all the big brands were represented there, in a country with 46% of the population living in poverty.

It was quite disturbing the amount of young people that approached me to ask about ´ways of going to work to Norway´. They are educated, talented, but have no opportunities. On the other hand, I was at many shops that were clearly overstaffed: instead of having one or two people to do a simple job, they have five. Sometimes I felt I was at the mecca of inefficiency. However, I couldn't resist feeling glad as well, because thanks to the fact that many shops are overstaffed many more people have jobs.

Talking about things difficult to understand, there is the fact that the city of Nairobi has been taken completely over by private guards. As you may know, Kenya is under constant attack by the terrorist organisation al-Shabaab, due to the involvement of the Kenyan army in the military conflict in Sudan. Therefore, the perceived insecurity by normal citizens is high. In order to respond to the constant threat of a terrorist attack, all public places have one or more private guards checking, using metal detectors, everyone entering into their premises. The reason behind this massive deployment of private guards is understandable: they feel more secure with than without the guards. However, the attacks have not stopped, and it is likely that private guards using metal detectors little can do if a terrorist attack is to be perpetrated.