Nai-Robbery?

As many of you may know Kenya’s capital has come to be known by this relatively unflattering nickname (and its not because there has been a sudden in-migration of dudes named Rob). This was definitely one of things I heard about the most as I prepared to come here, “Oh watch out, you’re going to get mugged” or “Dude, its rough there, there are kids with syringes… they’ll mess you up”. Frankly, this hasn’t been really substantiated by my experiences so far . I mean maybe part of this is that I’ve been dealing with the Shakespeare Lady and kids on bikes for the last six years, and so I’ve learned some common sense about living in a city with respect to watching my pockets and bags and generally being vigilant. And to be fair, I’ve also taken extra precautions to be in my hotel by nightfall.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been “mugged” in far more insidious ways, specifically by con-men and other people with various long, sad stories. Again, I came prepared for grifters to a certain extent; hardly a month passes in New Haven when I don’t hear a version of “My car needs a new oil filter and I just need X dollars. Give me your address and I’ll pay you back”. In fact, I even encountered a version of that one here, and when I did, I had no problem dealing with it. Yet there seems to be a trend in grifiting in Nairobi that seems particularly well suited to the kind of mark that I represent (White American College Student). On three separate occasions I’ve been approached by men who have introduced themselves to me as students, following small variations on this script: “What is it like in your country to be a student? I was going to go there soon to the university of to study . But I tell you, do you know ; that is where I am from, and I have had to flee. You see, we are staying with a church organization here, but I have no visa here and I must leave within a day; we are have been offered a safe place to stay in , but to get there we need for .” On first blush, this kind of story is very plausible (and I’m sure that at least one of the three that I encountered was being at least partially honest), but the tough thing about it (and the thing that makes it kind of suspect) is that it starts as a conversation, and then morphs into a request for money once you’ve gotten in too deep to extract yourself, which leaves you feeling kind of misled.

In some ways, I’ve had the opposite kind of interaction with the various taxi drivers/ safari operators stationed all around the city. The strategy for these fellows typically is to yell “TAXI, TAXI, TAXI” or “SAFARI, MASAAI MARA, SAFARI” at every white person that walks by. Sure, I’m certain some of these guys are simply not to be trusted, but by and large these guys make their money from their reputation, and they’re competing with each other. And in addition, they don’t start conversations under false pretenses, but rather put their wares right out there. Maybe this is overly simplistic, but it seems like a rule of thumb to follow is that the less someone tells you what they’re selling up front, the less likely you’re going to want to be to buy it. Moreover, a number of these guys continued to want to talk to me, even after I convinced them that I’m not going on a safari any time soon (and indeed some of the field locations I’m going to visit could very well make such a trip kind of irrelevant). Thus, some of the more interesting conversations I’ve had while here have come from “Safari?” “No, I’m not a tourist?” “You’re not? Well then why are you here…”