Karibu Mpeketoni!

Evening in Mpeketoni town from the Havana Club

I made it to Mpeketoni! Paul Mutinda – the secretary of the board for the Mpeketoni Electricity Company – happened to be in Nairobi at the same time as me. He became my unofficial guide from Nairobi to Mpeketoni and took very good care of me. On Monday we traveled from Nairobi to Mombasa on the coast then along to coast to Malindi.
The road from Nairobi to Mombasa is quite well known for its importance in trade for Eastern Africa and for its persistent state of disrepair. Mombasa is a major port not just for Kenya but also for many land locked countries like Uganda and Rwanda. Many of the goods that go to and from those countries pass over the road from Nairobi to Mombasa. Given its importance one would think that it is a well-maintained thoroughfare. Alas the road is constantly washed out from rains or simply slow going because of the potholes and bumps. Jeffrey Sachs in the “End of Poverty” book highlights this road as a key piece of infrastructure for increasing access to markets and reducing poverty.
It seems that either the World Bank was listening or else Sachs was pointing out a project that was already underway because the World Bank is currently overseeing a major overhaul of the road. A good ¾ of the 500km road was as well paved and as sturdily built as the freeways in the US. Unlike freeways in the US however, the road is two lanes the entire way and passes through the heart of many small towns. Our bus was constantly pulling to the side of the road to pick up and drop off passengers. When we weren’t stopped we were weaving into the lane of oncoming traffic to pass countless slow going cargo trucks. The terrain after leaving Nairobi resembled the high deserts of Arizona, but instead of juniper trees there were small African trees and instead of Elk there were elephant! (Just saw one small one). As we dropped toward sea level and came closer to the ocean the vegetation began to green up and become much more lush.
Without much warning, we suddenly diverted from our smooth ride to a road that rivaled many of the worst maintained Forest Service roads. Where the first ¾ of the road resembled Route 66 when it was first built, the remaining ¼ resembled abandoned sections of Route 66 today. We caught up with the World Bank highway construction progress and were diverted back onto the original infamous Mombasa Highway. The remainder of the trip to Mombasa went at a slow pace as we swerved around avoidable potholes and slammed into the rest. Specks of pavement were visible at some points, but the majority of this critical piece of road was dirt.
In addition to overhauling the road the Kenyan government has weigh stations to regulate the weight of the trucks. It seems that one of the major contributors to road wear is overloaded trucks. It shouldn’t be long before the project is completed. Judging by the amount of work put into bridges and culverts along with the smooth surface, the road should withstand much more than the previous piecemeal repairs to the original highway.

At Mombasa we turned north along the coast to the town of Malindi where we rested for the night. In the morning we hopped on a different bus to head toward Mpeketoni. Whereas the first bus rivaled any Greyhound bus in the US, the bus from Malindi to Mpeketoni rivaled a high school bus similar to the old Viking travel bus for those of us from Williams. But the bus company policy is not to let a single cubic foot of space on the bus go unfilled by a human body. A friendly bloke from the UK sat across the aisle from me on the trip, but aside from our initial greetings before departure, I hardly saw him again for the remainder of the four-hour trip. Instead I saw feet, backs, elbows and lots of butts! One child hanging on the back of her mom had a foot that fit perfectly between two of my ribs during the trip. Another lady managed to find a nice spot between my shoulder blades to rest her weight on her elbow.
And when a new person needed to get onto the bus or someone needed to get off, you shouldn’t expect to have the people in front of you clear the way, instead you just need to squeeze and wiggle your way through the bodies. If you’re lucky you’ll get a friendly person to push you along through the aisle.
Of course it is completely illegal to stack buses with people like that. We only had trouble at one police checkpoint where after some arguing the police asked everyone without a seat to disembark (even though we were in the middle of nowhere). It seemed to get a bit stressful for everyone for awhile – including me because I had no idea of what was going on – but after a while the bus pulled up the road a bit and loaded everyone back on. T turns out that the owner of the bus company is quite the power broker/tycoon and any problems with the police can be dealt with through a phone call between bosses. Once loaded we were back on our way. One of the police even hopped on the bus to act as an escort as the security on the road from Malindi to Lamu is not the best. The increased police presence and the escorts have helped to significantly improve the situation.
Before noon we turned off the road from Malindi to Lamu and took a detour to the Mpeketoni settlement scheme. The settlement scheme is composed of thousands of ten-acre plots held primarily by individual farmers. Homes away from the town center are commonly mud walls around a grid formed by small diameter tree trunks with thatched roofs. Along with a baboon or two there were plenty of people out tending to their fields or sitting out of the sun. At the heart of the settlement scheme is the town of Mpeketoni.

Another view of Mpeketoni from the Havana Club

As part of the terms of reference between ESD, the Mpeketoni Electricity Company (MEC), and myself, I had asked that MEC assist me with finding suitable accommodations and negotiating a fair price. Well they went all out. They have me set up at a three-story hotel/restaurant/bar called the Havana Club less than a block from the diesel generators and workshop where I’ll be working. The Havana Club will be responsible for my meals and laundry, and the caretaker of the place will help me with getting situated in town. They are going to have a hard time getting rid of me!

Once I got set up in the room the Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary (Paul Mutinda), and one of the board members invited me to lunch. Most of the conversation was in Swahili, but all of them are fluent English speakers. Today’s lunch was to get to know each other and to introduce me to some of the history of Mpeketoni and MEC. Tomorrow we will meet again to discuss the first items of business. Should be fun!

My “humble” living arrangements in a rural Kenyan town