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I was walking out of a Nairobi movie theater last night. (Finally watched "Up." Enchanting.) An American friend saw this poster in the lobby and said: "Hey, a movie about the next Kenyan election!"
I laughed. Our three Kenyan friends didn't.
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Somewhere in Africa is written by McClatchy correspondent Shashank Bengali, who's based in Kenya and has reported from more than 30 countries.
Read Shashank's stories at news.mcclatchy.com or send him a story idea.
I would have laughed too.
We have been warned.
Posted by: Our Kid | October 08, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Hi Shawshank. Funny - but not. It's too close to true for your Kenyan friends...
Great blog. Still reading. You are linked at Holli's Ramblings :)
Posted by: Holli | October 08, 2009 at 05:22 PM
how optimistic you all are...i'm quite sure kenya won't have elections (free or otherwise) anytime close to 2012
Posted by: Yatin | October 10, 2009 at 12:44 AM
The problem with Kenya is that everyone's an expert, and usually not Kenyan.
Posted by: Gee | October 11, 2009 at 01:58 AM
lol. thats so funny yet eerie. i mean we all know that the 2012 conspiracy theorists argue that the world will either end or not be the same again after 21.12.2012. However, to a kenyan this appears to be not a conspiracy at all but rather a possibility that may turn into reality if the reforms are not implemented before the next general election. I dont buy that Maya calendar, Nibiru etc etc stuff but I really have serious concerns as Kenyan as to how that year may end and what will follow thereafter.
Posted by: Omondi Obura | October 13, 2009 at 08:47 AM
@Gee - I don't claim to be an expert, just someone who's lived here for four years and has an informed opinion or two. As you can see there are at least some Kenyans who share my pessimism.
Posted by: Shashank | October 13, 2009 at 08:55 AM
I don't see the joke.
What's funny, though is that that McClatchy correspondent isn't based in Mogadishu. Or Harare. Or Kinshasa.
Posted by: The Patriot | October 13, 2009 at 08:56 AM
"The problem with Kenya is that everyone's an expert, and usually not Kenyan."
I think that comment best applies to "Yatin," whoever that is.
I'm so bored with foreign comments about Africa. Give it a rest.
Posted by: Kenyanchick | October 13, 2009 at 09:06 AM
... and if 3 members of your family had been butchered in the last election, I'm not so sure you'd have found it funny either.
Posted by: Kenyanchick | October 13, 2009 at 09:11 AM
"I'm so bored with foreign comments about Africa. Give it a rest."
Bored eh? Aren't we all bored of the failures of African leadership. What a depressing story Kenya is, squandering its relative advantages and international goodwill to slide furhter and further into chaos... Kenya has clearly given it a rest when it comes to governance, economic management etc etc. .
Posted by: jkenya | October 13, 2009 at 10:01 AM
As a Kenyan i can say the title -- Dark Humor is spot on, and so is the poster: Remember, Judge Kriegler of the Kriegler commission said, come 2012 - if we dont reform - what happened in 2008 will be like a picnic in the park compared to what will happen in 2012. and so ... WE WERE WARNED.
Posted by: Munene | October 13, 2009 at 10:24 AM
I still have a problem with this dude, living the expatriate life in Nairobi ( correct me if I'm wrong, Shashank, but I reckon that you DO NOT live in Eastlands, but in what the press call "the leafy suburbs" like all expatriates do. I'm sure you drive a 4 X 4, spend your weekends in the Masai Mara, shop and generally hang out in the suburban Malls, where you can walk into a multiplex cinema and watch the latest-release Hollywood films, right?) Nairobi offers the perfect life for the expatriate, doesn't it? Sheltered from even the slightest excesses of political shenanigans. Is it a wonder that McClatchy chooses to base its Africa correspondent in such a sheltered city?
And this guy still has the impudence to scorn on such a sheltered life. And mock the country that so graciously hosts his expatriate excesses!
You've been around Africa, Shashank. And so have I: name five cities, in fact, three other cities on the continent where expatriates can live such a lavish life? I can't hear, you..what?
Now, Shashank, you've lived here for 4 years, but I wonder if you've got any friends in Buruburu. Have you been to the Mateso Bila Chuki pub in Eastliegh? Something tells me you haven't.
So, because you have no clue how the other 98% of Kenya lives, please do us all a favour and keep your jokes to yourselves.
And yes, some Kenyans do share your pessimism. And so they should. They have a right to. Our politics affects them directly. And so they have a right to the inside joke. But you don't. It does not affect you. I reckon you have flights booked out of Nairobi come November 2012.
So please shut up and enjoy the suburbs and multiplex movie theaters and the 4 X 4.
Posted by: The Patriot | October 14, 2009 at 03:09 AM
@Patriot: I do have a friend in Buruburu. In Eastleigh I go to the fried chicken place in the Andalus Hotel. But does it matter? And what's your point? Because I'm an expat, I'm disqualified from having an opinion on a place where I've lived, worked, paid salaries and school fees, drank coffee at Dormans and beers at Black Diamond, lost friends to AIDS and paid taxes every quarter for four years? I'll never be a Kenyan. But I don't live in a bubble, either.
So you're free to have your opinions about Kenya and I'll have mine. Here's another one: this country has serious problems, and a person who tells others to shut up about it ought to ask himself whether he's the one living the sheltered life.
Posted by: Shashank | October 14, 2009 at 05:36 AM
You have a right, dude, to any opinion you want. What you have no right to, is to laugh at us. And our politics, however broken they may be.
Posted by: The Patriot | October 14, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Gosh, people!! let's not overanalyze the humor. Sure, it's sad, and there's a lot of work to be done and it's all grim, but that honestly got a chuckle even out of me, and it wasn't meant to be offensive, and it'll only be so if we decide to make it so.
Posted by: Loco | October 15, 2009 at 07:48 AM
Shaskank, i think you have one more thing to worry about in Nairobi - ME! See you a Black Diamond...
Posted by: Maji Moto | October 15, 2009 at 09:54 AM
Hey. I agree with you that you have the right to your opinion,but I hope you can see how inappropriate your laughing at this issue is. I didn't even lose anyone and I still remember the violence like it was yesterday. My mother couldn't come home from her workplace for THREE WEEKS! A mob came to burn our houses first Thursday of that year and it was only by God's grace that I managed to call a friend who's dad is somebody big in the army and managed to stop them JUST as they lit their first tire. Think how much more hurting your laughing at it is to someone who wasn't fortunate enough to have such a friend,or lost their house,or their whole family. Please don't be so insensitive. It is sooo not funny. Incase you're unaware,there's already evidence that people are arming up for 2012,and with all this talk about it being worse than last time,I would love to fly out before then but like for many other Kenyans,that's a pipe dream. You're laughing about something that's extremely real for so many of us. Again I beseech you, please don't be so insensitive.
Posted by: hurtkenyan | October 15, 2009 at 10:27 AM
To Patriot, hurtkenyan, etc. - what's that old saying? oh yeah..."laughter is the best medicine"...give it a rest, people
Posted by: Yatin | October 16, 2009 at 12:22 PM
"name five cities, in fact, three other cities on the continent where expatriates can live such a lavish life?"
The "lavish" lifestyle (assuming that the corrspondent's is) is lived by black Africans no less than by others. Is there a law against that? Why so much bile at someone's lifestyle? Has anyone (e.g. expatriates) prevented you from living that lifestyle?
And as for the number of cities in Africa where you can live "a lavish life", what are we Africans doing about that?
"So please shut up..." - what a charming karibuni.
Posted by: woz | October 21, 2009 at 08:29 AM