Having had a strong international presence since colonial days, the town is clean and well-kept, with high-quality facilities and good infrastructure.

The Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy is just a short car ride away from the town, with a stunning wildlife density and diversity.  With Mount Kenya as a backdrop, game drives become an even more spectacular experience.

Nanyuki is also immediately adjacent to the Mount Kenya National Park, and and a gateway for those climbing the mountain.

While the mountain climbing project will have to wait until later this year, we definitely didn’t miss out on the game driving during the short Easter break.  My new Nissan X-Trail was just begging to make its game drive debut, so how could I disappoint it?

The ride from Nairobi was smooth using the new Thika Superhighway. After the end of the highway, the road is still good, so travellers can brace themselves for a pleasant ride, with beautiful sceneries.

Things tend to be fully booked quite a bit in advance for Easter. That included all of the lodges in the area, so we ended up at Kongoni Camp, a simple but pleasant hotel with an impressive cuisine: While their service may not be the fastest, the food is certainly worth waiting for. If you are staying elsewhere in Nanyuki, a dinner at Kongoni Camp is still a worthwhile experience.

The Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy is accessed through a 30 minute car ride, first on a potholed road past a military base, then a dusty rough road. Once you get there, brace yourself for an exciting wildlife experience, as this park has all the big 5, as well as a Maasai Mara-like density of wild animals.

The Serena Sweetwaters Camp, located in the middle of the conservancy, offers a nice opportunity for a lunch break. Relatively expensive after Kenyan standards, but at least Serena will never disappoint with their food.

Nanyuki is also a natural departure point for climbing Mount Kenya (one of those things still on my to-do list). Hopefully, my next post about the town will be a narrative about a trek to the top.

A tasty feature of the north-western part of the Mt. Kenya region is the mountain trout – a local delicacy available in many of the restaurants in the area.  No visit to Nanyuki is complete without it!

As we were not in a great hurry when returning to Nairobi, we decided to do a little detour, around the north side of Mt. Kenya, through Meru and Embu.  The beautiful sceneries, with vast farm fields and green, lush hills and valleys, added some splendid sightseeing to what was already a great Easter trip.

Since last year’s terror attacks in Oslo, my blog had gone into a state of quasi-hibernation, and after the database crashed, it was also inaccessible for a couple of weeks.

Easter turned out to be a good occasion to restore my blog, and to get it back online.

The blog is now up and running again, and I once again state my intention to be posting more frequently!

The announcement had barely been made before the debate was on in every office, café, bar, and online medium on whether this was a curse or a blessing.  Online news sources and blogs went into a frantic mode, jokes immediately started flying on SMS, and Facebook statuses about the oil discovery generated instant and intense debates.

Pessimists predicted that Kenya would be overwhelmed by the oil curse, that thuggish politicians would get even greedier and more ruthless, and that local militias would pop up in Turkana to start a secession war. The optimists, on their side, saw a rapid transformation of Kenya into an Emirates-style oil haven in Africa.

As usual, the probable scenario is most likely something in the middle, i.e quite far from both the most pessimistic and the most optimistic predictions.

It is true that for many African countries, discoveries of vast mineral resources have often been a curse rather than a blessing. Also, few would deny the fact that a significant share of Kenya’s politicians are thuggish to the point, where vultures might feel insulted by being compared to them. Those are the main reasons why pessimists seem to think that striking oil in Turkana spells unrecoverable doom for the Kenyan state.

I would consider myself a careful optimist in this case:  Careful, because most members of the old political class in Kenya make Al Capone look like Mother Theresa. Optimistic because of the direction I have seen Kenya take over the soon to be 10 years since I first set foot in this country.

Since the dawn of Kenya’s Second Republic in August 2010, an increasingly independent judiciary, has emerged. Under the leadership of a former civil society activist, courts are increasingly displaying their teeth and claws, and their readyness to use them. Free from political interference, judges are no longer afraid to step on any toe in the country, regardless of the office held by its owner.

An activist, vigilant civil society won’t hesitate to expose rot, and to drag politicians overstepping their mandates to court. Kenya’s increasingly powerful civil society has long and old traditions, but the new independence of the judiciary, make them a far more formidable force.

A fierce, free and fearless press has since the demise of the Moi regime, developed into a key force for transparency. As the Standard raid in 2006 showed, any attempt to muzzle them will backfire terribly!

Combined with the increasingly stronger determination of people to stand up and say “hell no!” to corrupt politicians, and the emergence of an almost American-like constitutional vigilance, Kenyan “wananchi” (common people) are unlikely to quietly accept future attempts by politicians to serve their own interests to the detriment of those they purport to represent.

Of course, no force in the world will ever stop the sharks of impunity from attempting to grab their unfair share Kenya’s potential future oil wealth, and we only need to look to Angola, Nigeria or Equatorial Guinea  to see why that resource can be a curse. Kenyans should brace for a continuous battle, in which the old political elite, and their new sycophants, will use every trick in the book in the battle for the black gold in Turkana.

If the fight is kept up, it is not just plausible, but even probable that in the years from now, until the oil money starts trickling in, Kenya will manage to build a strong and fairly transparent institutional framework that will allow the oil money to benefit the country, and the communities from the areas where the oil will be pumped up. In that case, the discovery made on March 26th will turn out to be a blessing.

With its population of 1,5 million people, this small, oil-rich  West African state takes a laidback attitude towards publicity and tourism: A business visa will set you back with $200 ($240 for tourists), and it has to be obtained in advance from a  consulate, whose contact information in the Nairobi case , were a well-kept secret.  With its oil wealth, the country seems to be in no hurry to attract more visitors than necessary.

After sorting out the visa, the remaining arrangements were the same as for any trip abroad.  Like many African countries, Gabon actually requires a vaccination card. Unlike many others, they actually check if you have it. Those travelling without one, will have a delightful encounter with the airport vaccination services – an experience that will set them back with XAF 15000 (USD 30).

My first impression of Libreville was that of a clean and well-kept town, with nice, decent roads, and modest, yet modern buildings in the central areas.

The Gabonese will complain how jams are horrible and that people drive like crazy. For someone used to Nairobi, that is an exaggeration!  Compared to most African capital cities, Libreville is calm, orderly and seemingly well-governed.

In Libreville, the menace of minibus taxis, the scourge of many African cities, has been successfully phased out, contributing significantly to a somewhat orderly traffic situation.  Travellers may however get surprised by the fact that most taxis operate on a sharing basis, so don’t think you’ll have a taxi for yourself unless you’ve specifically agreed so with the driver, at a premium price.

Being a coastal town, Libreville has a rich variety of seafoods to offer.  Most of the best restaurants in town are concentrated on the Montagne Sainte, where, among others, you can find the only, yet quite classy sushi restaurant in town.

Le Meridien hotel, one of the best in town, has a nice poolside restaurant by the sea, where the waves and the fresh sea breeze offer a perfect atmosphere for a nice seafood meal.  The grilled prawns are highly recommendable.

That Libreville does not match Paris, London or Dubai when it comes to shopping, is an understatement. However, the Mbolo mall offers a good, modern supermarket, and some good quality shops for electronics and clothes (including Hugo Boss).

The Marché Artisanal offers a wide selection of local handicrafts and souvenirs, some of them high-quality. This is a good place to buy souvenirs, however, not cheap ones. Remember to bargain hard, as the starting offer you will get, is likely to be at least twice to three times the right price.

Unless you like getting disappointed, shed your expectations for airport shopping when leaving Libreville.  They do have a few single malt whiskys, and some of the standard booze you’ll find in any airport tax-free shop. Some seriously overpriced perfumes are also available.

All in all, Libreville was a pleasant experience. There is only so much one can do when passing by a town for a few days on a short business trip. In any case, I will make sure to see more the next time I visit Gabon.

At some point in the late evening hours yesterday, the press seems to have discovered the political manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the Oslo bombing. Shortly after the press had started referring to the document, I received a Facebook message from a former college mate, with a link to a PDF file. “It’s the manifesto of the psycho. It was just confirmed on TV that it’s the real thing!”. For a moment, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to read it, then curiosity took overhand!

Entitled 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence, the document is a full 1492 pages long.  For obvious reasons, I haven’t read all of it, and I frankly don’t see myself sacrificing the number of hours it would take to plough through it all.

The sections that I did read, scared me, though! While some commentators seemed to believe that this was a young loner, radicalized through extremist websites, and driven to commit the attacks as an act of desperation, his manifesto paints a completely different portrait altogether.

Obviously, the man is an ideologically schooled extremist, continuously radicalized over more than a decade. An ardent islamophobe, he propones an extreme brand of Christian conservative euro-nationalism.

He aligns himself with hardline Serb nationalists, and the most extreme Israeli nationalists, such as Avigdor Lieberman. He explicitly supports ethnic cleansing at a continental level, and deems the English Defense League too moderate.

Anders Behring Breivik advocates a Europe-wide, violent revolution, with mass executions of about 200 000 people (politicians, business leaders and media figures), and ethnic cleansing of millions. Viewing Turkey as an irredent land of Europe, he proposes to expel millions of non-Christian Europeans, and supporters of multi-culturalism to that territory, as part of a program of ethnic and ideological cleansing.

After the revolution that he advocates, a new government is to be constituted by a conference of military and church leaders, setting up a new system where the latter two have a significant influence.  In practical terms, what he advocates is a semi-democratic, church controlled system. Ironically, that would probably end up similar to what Iran has today.

He explicitly endorses the concept of theocracy, and calls for the restoration of traditional, patriarchical structures in European societies.  Skimming through the document, one could be forgiven for for thinking that Breivik has taken an Al Qaeda manifesto and replaced “Muslim” with “Christian”, and “Arab” with “European”.

Now, for those who have already concluded that this guy is a nazi, hold your horses: He distances himself from NSDAP. Not on the basis of a major ideological gap, though, but because he disagrees with their views on Jews. He sees the Jews as key allies in the Middle East, and believes that it would have been a better “solution” for Hitler to deport the Jews to Israel, rather than killing them!  It should come as no one’s surprise that the issue of Palestinians having a legitimate claim to their own land does not bother Breivik much! Furthermore, he believes that NSDAP’s “tactical mistake” of killing all those Jews, alienated a lot of “cultural conservatives”, and radicalized those “cultural marxists”. Really? Duh!

Despite obviously advocating the creation of some type of European super-state, he vehemently rejects the EU, arguing that it is a conspiracy by the elites, conspiring to take power back from the people. In that sense, his views are quite compatible with those of some Norwegian anti-EU campaigners.

Isn’t it quite ironic, though, that someone who dedicates so much effort and energy to a paranoid fear of “islamic extremism”, ends up advocating an Iran-like system, and sounding like a Christian parallel to Al Qaeda?

What scares me the most, is not the evidence that the attacks were meticulously planned for years. Breivik’s description of a Pan-European network of ideologically schooled, nationalist extremists is far more unnerving.  It might all be a product of his imagination, and I sure hope it is. The fact that Breivik was able to plan, prepare and carry out his attacks without any alarm bells ringing, proves that he was more than just some crazy extremist acting out of momentary rage, though.  If a Christian/nationalist network of Al Qaeda-like radicals has been able to build up under the radar of European intelligence services, then we are in for some serious trouble!

Armed soldiers on Karl Johan Street

Yesterday was a day of collective shock and paralysis in Norway. The reality had only begun to sink in: Norway had been hit by a terrorist attack, leaving at least 92 people dead, most of them teenagers.

Oslo seemed like a city at war: We are used to seeing armed police only when super VIPs, like US, Russian or Chinese leaders are visiting. Otherwise, we take pride in our unarmed police.

Armed Police in front of the City Hall - a rare occurrence in Oslo!

The day after the terrible attacks, police wielding MP5s was hardly even the most noticable feature in Oslo: Government buildings were guarded by armed military personnel. An unbelievable sight in Norway!  The blocks and streets surrounding the Government HQ area were sealed off, heavily guarded by soldiers with HK-416s.

It felt like a siege. It was the first, and, hopefully, the last time in my lifetime that anyone will ever see something similar in Oslo!

Military vehicles in front of the Royal Castle

After walking around, taking some photos, I met up with a friend who had been in the vicinity when the bomb went off. We met up at a café just opposite one of the military barricades, talking about what had happened. With him was a lady who had been in the VG building, facing the PM’s office. Like the other people in that building, she had miraculously escaped without injuries, and had been one of the first people out on the street after the blast, witnessing the epicentre of the damage first-hand.

We sat there for hours, talking about what had happened, and about the unreal feeling of being in a city under siege: As far as I know, there has never been a situation since WW2 where armed soldiers have been deployed to seal off parts of the city centre in Oslo.

We we later joined by 2 more people, yet the conversation topic remained the same.  We were all constantly on our phones, checking the latest news updates as they came in.

Someone eventually suggested that we go watch a movie to get our minds off the attack, at least for a while.  I was quick to open filmweb.no and check what was on. Evidently, in late July, even the movie theatres are in a summer vacation state, so there wasn’t much on, besides Harry Potter. We all found that to be a good alternative, though, as we could be sure that in Harry Potter, good would prevail over evil. A nice break from the current sad reality in Oslo.

At 15:22 CET, a bomb went off in the government HQ area in central Oslo, killing at least 7 people, and injuring many more.

My current visit to Norway became memorable in a way I never expected: At the time when the bomb went off, I was at Nesodden, a few kilometres outside of Oslo, yet I clearly felt the shockwave.  Too powerful to be thunder, I was quite sure it had to be an explosion, and since it came from Oslo, a terrorist attack was one of the first things that came to my mind.

Less than 5 minutes later, Aftenposten.no started reporting of a major explosion at the government HQ. Although it was still unclear at that time whether it was an accident or an attack, clearly, an explosion that powerful at the PM’s office was unlikely to have been caused unintentionally.

I was about to go catch the ferry across the fjord, to visit a friend in Oslo.  As I arrived at the ferry terminal, there was that extraordinary, paralyzed mood, where the attack was on everybody’s lips. I heard some people referring to reports of scores of bodies in the streets, and total chaos with police chasing even the wounded away from the area. Some people I spoke with had heard of 2 explosions just after each other. Clearly, we were under attack.

Approaching the city by ferry, a smoke plume was visible from the Government HQ area. Some people had heard that all public transport had been shut down, and that people were being told to leave the city centre.

To my surprise, the street tram from Aker Brygge was still operational, and I jumped on the number 12 to Majorstua. Expecting to walk, I had already called my friend and told him I was going to be late.

Instinctively, I had started SMSing those of my friends who were likely to be in the city centre, asking if they were ok. Fortunately, everybody was fine, although some had been dangerously close. Some phones and messages came in, asking if I was ok too, to which I could answer: Yes, I’m in the city centre, and I’m all fine!

At my friends place, the mood was surreal. He and his wife were paralyzed in front of the TV, zapping frantically between Norwegian channels, CNN and BBC. Every TV channel in the world, it seemed, was covering Oslo live.

An exceptionally tasty dinner, and some nice wine were consumed in front of the TV screen, as our minds and conversations were focused on the developing story, and the potential implications: Would Norway react in panic, letting paranoia consume us, abondoning core liberties the way Americans did after September 11th? Would this spark a wave of violence and hatred againt Muslims and non-Western minorities across the country?

Then came the news of an ongoing shoot-out at Utøya, at the annual camp of the governing Labour Party youth wing!

As if a bomb attack against the PM’s office was not enough, someone was now shooting at teenagers at a youth political camp! This was insane. The attack had turned into an assault on our democracy itself!

Walking home through the city centre later that same evening was a weird and discomforting feeling. Oslo, usually teeming with life on Friday nights, was empty, deserted, a ghost town.  Walking past the National Theatre station at 22:30, I was the only person there. I can’t recall having experienced that before, at any time of the day or the week!

As it has later turned out, the two attacks seem to have been carried out by only one person. A Christian fundamentalist, racial supremacist called Anders Behring Breivik. One of those lunatics who sees every non-racist white as a traitor, and every non-islamophobic government as part of a “global conspiracy”.

Already a decade and a half ago, Timothy McVeigh reminded us that terrorism is my no means the sole prerogative of Muslim groups. Now, Norway has been hit by one of the worst terror attacks ever in Europe, and it was carried out by a white, christian supremacist.

I don’t care who carries out such disgusting acts of cowardice. Whether they do it in the name of a religion, or some wicked belief in the supremacy of their own race or political views, they all represent little more than a fundamental lack of respect for human lives. When the victims are teenagers, killed because of their political sympathies, the whole thing becomes sickening beyond belief.

I am happy, though, that Norway does not have the death penalty. Anders Behring Breivik has the right to live – a right he denied to at least 92 innocent people. Let the man rot in jail, spending every miserable day of the rest of his life thinking about the innocent people whose deaths he caused!

Wisdom dictates when to avoid driving at all costs: At the beginning of month, when people have just been paid their salaries, every Tom, Dick and Harry puts a KSh 1000 worth of fuel, and takes the car that is otherwise parked. That’s why, at the beginning of the month, the streets are crowded with small cars, and drivers with dubious traffic skills. As the end of the month gets closer, only the big cars, driven by those who don’t need to worry about affording the fuel, remain. A first-time visitor arriving on the 31st can be forgiven for believing that every Kenyan drives an SUV.

Special occasion days are highly susceptible to jams, and if it rains heavily, brace yourself for an average speed om 1 km/h, while praying you won’t run out of fuel!

The well-informed driver may know some smart shortcuts to dodge the jam, but more often than not, a shortcut is the longest distance between two points, as too many of the other drivers are equally well-informed!

Despite a significant improvement of the roads network in the recent years, under Kibaki’s presidency, the “missing links” still scar Nairobi’s road network. These are main roads that were planned, but never built. Often encroached on by small slum settlements, a few ones have been cleared of squatters, and now provide a dusty, bumpy alternative for drivers desperately attempting to evade the jams on the main roads.

Every other such “missing link”, it seems, is unfinished due to the gazillion small rivers that run through Nairobi. Looking at your GPS map, you may see a road that connects 2 or more main roads, and that miraculously is devoid of jam, only to discover that the “road” suddenly runs into a steep dip, and then disappears into an undrivable nature trail crossing a river. So dear Nairobi City Council, and dear Kenya Urban Roads Authority: Can you please build a few more bridges, dammit?

GPS navigation systems are yet to get widespread, as navi maps for Nairobi are yet to be made avilable. That, of course, is no problem for anyone with an Android phone that has Google Maps! Try not getting arrested for reading maps on your phone while driving, though, as police take a very keen interest in such transgressions! Tinted car windows are highly recommended!

Yesterday being Valentines Day, with heavy rains descending on the city, the circumstances were right for the perfect jam! My girlfriend, Beatrice, was getting home from work early. As the skies unleashed their torrents, she attempted to cut the jam by doing one of the infamous “shortcuts”, through South C. Big mistake! 5 hours later, skipping any romantic prelude to the dinner, a starving couple was rushing to the restaurant, where we were ridiculously late for our booking. It was 11, so the kitchen was just about to close, but only just! Better late than never, and for sure, we were the last guests to get served!

So is a Nairobi without jams even conceivable? A lot has happened with the roads under President Kibaki. The only problem is that so much more still needs to be done! Some very promising projects are going on, with the Japanese funding the Western Ring Road (planned in 1963!), and the EU funding the Northern part of it, it may soon be possible to drive from Ngong Road to Ngara without encountering a roundabout. With other ongoing projects, such as Thika Road being upgraded to a 12-lane superhighway, Ngong Road and Langata Road being upgraded to dual carriage, and the Northern, Eastern and Southern Bypasses diverting transit traffic away from the city, things are likely to ease up a bit. But how much does that help, when the number of vehicles keeps rising exponentially?

Eventually, what Nairobi needs is a proper high-speed, high capacity mass transit system that can make it possible, and even comfortable for people to leave their cars at home. Until then, brace for more endless hours in the jam!

Prices are fixed, and surprisingly good, and the staff are not pushy in any way, yet they are always happy to assist and advise, and to answer any questions.

The quality of the handicrafts is also supreme, so forget the hassle of the Maasai Markets, with pushy sales people always looking for an opportunity to rip you off!

In addition to the handicrafts, they have a discreet little garden restaurant, called Veranda.

So discreet is the place, that you may almost fail to notice it when passing by, yet doing so would be a tragic loss!

With more space between the tables than most other garden restaurants, this place offers lovely meals with real privacy. Tables are are also surrounded by trees and bushes, so it’s really Garden restaurant with a capital G!

Whether you are out for lunch or dinner, or just a cup of coffee with some snacks, this is a place you should try! They have nice, home made cakes and a nice litte selction of coffees and teas.  They also have a really mouthwatering lunch menu.

The seafood is particulary nice, and I can warmly recommend the seafood salad. It is dimensioned for the hungry visitor, and they even have an exquisit, home made salad dressing (not many places in Nairobi have that!).  The curry prawns are allegedly also amazing, although I am yet to taste those ones. That’s on my list for the next visit!

Waiting for the food to get served is something one has to get used to in Nairobi, so noone should expect to get their food very quickly anywhere. That is another nice surprise at Veranda: Of course, they couldn’t rush it, but as our food to a bit long to prepare, they treated us with their baked oysters with parmesan cheese while waiting. An appetite sharpener of sorts!

Most aspects of Veranda seem to merit something close to a 10 out of 10. Even their macchiatto, and their fresh, home baked carrot cake would be worth the visit alone.

Polite, friendly and attentive waiters – a true rarity in Nairobi – also give the place a very personal touch!

Another must-visit, that prompted a blog post of its own! Don’t forget to pass by their shop!

Having been a terrible blogger lately, I finally got some inspiration back today, after visiting Rolf’s Place, in Ongata Rongai. This place does not in any way have the fame it deserves. Being an avid explorer of the restaurant scene in Nairobi throughout the past decade, even I had not heard about it until a few weeks ago.

With my parents spending the first 4 months of their retirement in Kenya, my girlfriend and I are making a point out of showing them places you won’t necessarily find in the tourist guidebooks. As a friend had warmly recommended that we check out Rolf’s Place, we googled it, called and made a reservation (which turned out to be a smart move, as we saw several guests without reservations getting turned away).

Getting there is a pretty quick and pleasant drive on a Sunday, as there isn’t too much traffic, and the road is smooth until the last few hundred meters. After branching off from Magadi Road, the road gets a bit bumpy and dusty, and then, suddenly, you are there!

Rolf’s Place lies on top of a cliff, overlooking a small river valley, so needless to say, there is a quite splendid view from the restaurant. The only way to get there is across the suspension bridge, so already there, you get a clear indication that this is going to be an experience quite out of the ordinary.

The building – a small and exquisit hotel in addition to the restaurant – has a very obvious touch of classic German architecture, mixed with some local design that inevitably involves Kitengela glass!

The owner and chef, Mr. Rolf Schmid, from Germany, is ever-present with the guests, ensuring a strong personal touch, and the characteristic German perfectionism and attention to detail.

When the waiters tell you that the Zanzibari Coconut Fish Soup is the best in Nairobi, that is no exaggeration, and skipping it would be a tragic loss for any first-time visitor. The restaurant has its own fish pond, so their fish is as fresh as it gets! The chicken à la Kiev is absolutely delicious too!

Although I was not really in the mood for dessert, an accidental look at the menu triggered my addiction to tiramisu. Fortunately, the one they have, ranks among the best I have ever tasted! Except for the fact that they were a bit slow to bring the coffee, the service was also close to perfect.

They also have hotel rooms that are not even very expensive, a nice swimming pool, a steam and a sauna. Doubtlessly something on the to-do-list for a weekend in the nearby future.