Nairobi is a walking city
In my first week back in Nairobi, I made a few attempts at an early morning run before the commuters took to the streets. I was staying with a friend in the Westlands neighborhood, not near any parks, so I wanted to beat the traffic. Conclusion: it’s not possible to beat the HUSTLE (capitalization intentional).
As Nairobi still has some safety concerns, it’s not smart to run solo before sunrise. My first attempt was 7am (psshhh, amateur). Second attempt, 6:30am — just as the light comes. No matter how close my departure was to first light, I hit the streets to the HUSTLE. Rivers of Kenyans on foot, walking to work. Traffic already backing up. Kids getting scooped up for school. An energy in the air, mixing with the dust and the stares at this silly mzungu, sweating and battling with the 2,000 meter elevation.
I have a few hypotheses for why Kenyans are storming the streets at dawn. First, this part of the world is still closely tied to the movements of the sun. Many people migrating from rural areas may have been excluded from the modern grid electricity and, for many living in slums, electricity is expensive, grafted from the Kenya Power lines. Natural light is still the best option. Another important fact here — more than half of Nairobi’s residents live in informal settlements. That’s more than 1.5 million people. Let that sink in…
Second, I think it’s also a reflection that Kenyans are hustlers — hard working and driven to improve their lives. At the risk of overly generalizing, Kenyans will wake up long before dawn and travel hours to reach their job, or the prospect of a job.
Third, and most importantly, transport to work is an incredible challenge. It’s expensive, slow, and uncomfortable. 80% of transit rides in Nairobi are through informal private transit (primarily, matatu minibuses), which means people are paying the fully-loaded cost of the ride. In the US, commuters only pay 25–50% of the cost of their public transit, the rest being subsidized (yet another example of how the world’s poor pay more for basic services).
Most well-off Kenyans and foreigners will say “Kenya is not a walking city.” I would say this. There are essentially no sidewalks along the busy thoroughfares (the new sidewalks seem to be, ironically, reserved for elite neighborhoods where few people are walking). Road accidents are common (47% of Nairobi road fatalities are pedestrian). Roads are circuitous and indirect, given the hilly terrain and historic pathways. But, studies show that walking is the single largest mode of transportation in Nairobi. And, according to studies, 40% of Nairobi residents walk to work. Low-income residents walk more than 20km a day!
To say that Nairobi needs a light rail or metro system is obvious and frustrating. That’s the subject of another blog post yet to come (stay tuned!).
In the end, Kevin and I discovered a magical corridor through Nairobi’s City Park, connecting two major thoroughfares (see below). We ran through a flood of people, all streaming in the same direction from Meru-Nairobi Highway (and Mathare Slum) to Limuru Road. The passage was a beautiful 1km pedestrian pathway through lush forest. No vehicles beyond the occasional rogue boda boda (motorcycle taxi). Most people were walking in pairs or groups, chatting lightheatedly and seeming to enjoy the environs. This tiny strip is a vision of what a walking commute should be. Making eye contact with many of the pedestrians, I wondered, “Where are you going? What type of job do you do? How many kilometers do you walk every day? Do you enjoy the beauty and peace of this footpath? Or is this all part of the stress and exhaustion of getting to work?” I hope to have the opportunity to ask some of these questions soon.
