Black and White in Nanyuki: Do We Have a Race Problem?

photo credit: google photos

Last year, I tried to get in one of the Poshest tourism facilities in Nanyuki and its environs. The driver who took me there had just dropped a group of my white colleagues and returned to pick me from town. It was my first time there and you can imagine I was agog with excitement. (Finally I get to use that word!) That is until I got to the gate and told I could not get in without paying an entry fee. 

The driver politely explained to the guard that I was part of the team he had just driven in and since I was in for dinner I would not need to pay as I would show my diner receipt on the way out. He even showed him the ticket the others had been given money gratis. All the time I watched the discussion between the driver and the guard without saying a word.  It sounded like a perfectly reasonable argument and I waited to be ushered in once reason had asserted itself.

However, the guard stood his ground, I could not get in without paying. “But the others were not asked for money on entrance?” the bewildered driver asked.  We have rules was all he got. Tired of the obtuse argument, he called one of the people in the advance party to come to the gate.  When the guard saw her talk to me, he his granite face relaxed into what he passes for a smile and he said I could go in without payment. My friend, who happened to be white but not more of a Kenyan citizen than the statue of liberty was scandalized. She was human enough to express her sentiments to the guard and used a healthy number of words I will not write on this blog. The guard was unrepentant. The only words passed between us were me asking him what has changed now that I am allowed to go in? He said everything. I am not sure if he was being sarcastic or dumb but  that was that.  

Ironically, I found myself and another black Kenyan welcomed very heartily to the same organisations hotel in Vancouver.  When the concierge heard we were from Kenya, they were so excited they even let us sit in a Ferrari packed out front and take pictures. We were not even buying anything but just popping in to look around.

Closer to town , about a year ago I walked into a major supermarket behind a group of foreign gentlemen all who had well filled backpacks. These were obviously filled with camping equipment and maybe chocolate bars.  They may have been filled with grenades and c4 for all the guards cared coz they let them breeze in without even a second look. I followed suit but came to a rude shock as they gave me the closest one can get to an anal exam without the squatting and coughing bits.  Apparently, while guards sometimes make their fellow Africans feel like Somalis going through Jomo Kenyatta airport or like a Middle Easterner after a “random” check in an American airport. White people seem to have an easier time. Less scrutiny and sometimes none.  In all fairness, these days I see both white and black people being frisked and/or let in without frisking with so maybe the place has grown less racist or sloppy, or both who knows?

Ultimately, in a town with a noticeably larger white population than most in Kenya, Africans ironically dish out most of the white privilege.  However, it is not limited to the guards and waiters.  In government and corporate arenas, being white in this town clears obstacles faster than you can say "Hakuna Matata"(everyone knows thats hogwash by the way).  Of course racism goes both ways with a huge number of Africans thinking it is ok to be rude and overtly racist to white people on the assumption that they are fair game. That is however a story for another day.