Dennis Kioko

Foreplay  Boarding the train at Imara Daima Railway station  Today morning found me walking to the bus stop as usual. This usually involves crossing the highway we call Mombasa Road, where we don't have foot bridges. Perhaps, there would be foot bridges if the government did not have to spend money on designing logos, branding stuff and Mercedes Benzes for visitors. Government aside, I usually check if there are lots of people at my bus stop, and if so, do a 10 minute walk to the next one. See, our bus stop has too many people at peak hours which means you have to spent 30 minutes there or start off your day with a short run, after a bus. Inside the train, with one of the guards employed to watch the trains Today, it did look busy, they didn't appear to be many people, but there were police officers. A lorry carrying ballast had tipped over by the side of the road, and this was slowing down traffic, probably people stopping by to watch. 3 officers, thes...

Part of Kigali by night, including part of KG 7 Avenue My Kenyan pal came and sat next to me at a conference. She rummaged through her bag, before suddenly standing and heading out of the conference room- she had left her expensive camera at the table where she was having tea, outside the large conference room. she came back a while later with her camera. She told me if this was Nairobi, for we were in Kigali, she would not have found it. The Size Kigali might be a small city, of 1 million residents, in the country of 12 million. Rwanda's 12 million might not seem many compared to Kenya's 40 million, Ethiopia's 90 million or Nigeria's 168 million. They however are the most populous country - by virtue of population density at 400 to 407 people per square kilometre, due to the country's size. Kigali though, small as it may look like - It appears built out over a series of hills surrounding one hill - is quite spacious compared to Nairobi. A good number of...

Delhi Gurgaon, New Delhi This bit has been written months after the former bit. Sadly,  I have little medium and long term memory,  the omissions may be glaring. It is continued from part I We got to Delhi at almost 2 AM in the thick of the night. Delhi is an expansive city, with lighting on and off,  a greater part of the city is illuminated,  and the main roads around the city can be mapped from the air. There’s also a good part of the city that remains unlit. Indira Gandhi Airport itself could do with better lighting especially on the apron side (where planes are parked). There’s just barely enough light here. The airport here is quite large - Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is one of the smallest,  actually,  the smallest country airport I have been through. At the airport,  a guard did stop our troupe of 5 black people,  inspected our tickets,  and our yellow fever booklets,  before letting us through. He did n...