Forget Kibera Slum, Kenya is in Masaai Mara

My journey to the Masaai Mara region started with an abrupt phone call from my Editor in Kampala. Initially I thought I was stopping in Nairobi considering that the details he gave me were scant. Nonetheless, my adrenaline levels hit peak levels considering it was going to be my first time. A feel of fear mixed with excitement engulfed me. I had heard many stories about Kenya from my Kenyan friends and I was wondering how I was going to survive there. Well, from Mukono to the Busia border took less time and here I was in Kenya. Nothing much to see in the country side considering that it was at night. Enter Nairobi: And all my doubts were put to rest. As I was to later find out, half of the people in the bus were part of the team that was going to cover Kampala Coach’s launch of the first East African domestic tourism tour. With journalists from NTV Uganda, Daily Monitor, and The New Vision, we arrived in Nairobi at 7:30am and we were immediately welcomed by the jolly Arie Wambani (Head of Tourism Kampala Coach) who took us to our Hotel to freshen up and prepare for the press briefing. Being journalists, flexibility is in the blood, it took us one hour to freshen up and have our breakfast that left my mouth agape. With milk tea, bacon, toasted bread, sausages, a glass of juice, cornflakes and fruits and an efficiency and effectiveness that would leave most hotels managers in Uganda and Rwanda questioning their staff, it was a sign of better things to come. After the brief press-conference that lasted two hours it was time for a grand tour and this I did with NTV’s Chris Ochamuringa and Abubaker Muwonge who were shooting a documentary. What better way to get the real feel of Nairobi. The first thing that struck me about Nairobi was the cleanliness. It was kind of a replica of Kigali though there is still a problem of littering. Car parking is specific and city personnel are not to joke with when it comes to penalizing offenders. Life is fast, actually people have no time to walk, and they run which gives on a sense that in Nairobi only one job can keep a person busy unlike in Kampala where two jobs might be needed and Kigali. Their effectiveness leaves one baffled. A job that can be done by three people in Rwanda can be done by one person in Kenya. A walk around Nairobi will surely leave you with a great admiration of their skyline. The Times tower which is the tallest, stands in a not so far distance from Nairobi’s symbolic Kenyatta International conference center. Major businesses are all around the central business district. With the help of towers, the offices are many but in nicely built towers. Eco-bank tower, Jubliee tower, sixeighty hotel, and the media East Africa’s media wonder Nation media group. The tour in Nation Media offices left me challenged and questioning how far the ladder I want to climb in journalism. With Kenya being in the news for all the wrong reasons, from political violence, high crime rate, corruption, leaders facing the Hangu ICC to having one of the biggest, filthy slums (Kibera) it was a relief. At least with Kampala Coach having introduced a discount package for a six day tour in Kenya, people will be able to see a different side of Kenya. After shooting the documentary and conducting various interviews about Nairobi’s life, fatigue took the best of us as we had an early, morning to the Masaai Mara region. After a hot shower, I relaxed on the King size bed in the room, sent for a drink and proceeded to watch the Hague hearings where Kenyan politicians are being grilled. Citizen T.V was interviewing a female politician who‘s running independently next year. After sleep took the best of me, a phone call in the morning, I jumped in the shower, had breakfast and voila!! We are on the bus to the Masaai region. With 15 to 20 journalists mostly from Kenya, fun was guaranteed to the maximum. Pleasantries were done on an individual level and our journey started off with a stop-over at Nakumatt supermarket which actually makes the one in Kigali look like a market stall. It’s so big that they had to install elevators. Some of us failed to find our way back and had to ask for directions. Throughout the journey we were exchanging debate with our Kenyan counterparts until we got to the Rift Valley and most of us had to hold our breath. I’ve never seen such beauty. In an over-lapping fashion, the Savannah grassland graces the Kenyan Landscape with beauty and elegance. And we arrive in Narock where we had lunch in a picnic style. Next stop: Masaai Mara. The Masaai people are a proud and beautiful tribe maintaining their nomadic traditions in spite of encouragement from the Kenyan government to modernize their way of life. Their source of wealth is in their cattle herds, the most important factor of Masaai existence. Our Bus passed many circular compounds of dung covered huts, Masaai warriors tending cattle and the women, wearing endless rows of colored beads and long earrings, sometimes carrying huge bundles of sticks to build their huts. Adults and children never failed to wave and smile. We arrived at our destination Olabaii Eco-site camp in the evening when the cold had started setting in. There was a disappointment on many people’s faces as they expected the splendor of a hotel only to be welcomed by tents, pit-latrines and lamps. Olabaii Eco-site camp is one of the seven natural wonders of the world. There’s nothing concrete there. The tents are removed when there are no visitors, water is boiled using a heater that is made locally using firewood and transferred through a pipe. After the fire was made, journalists gathered around and in their ritual debates ensued from religion, regional and international politics, education, relationships (which took the biggest part of the night) and finally football since Uganda is playing Kenya soon. Amidst all this, drinks were flowing, food and when some of us couldn’t handle anymore, we retreated to our tents. They were warm enough and we slept comfortably only to be woken by howling of the hyenas that sent shivers up my spine. Masaai Mara National Reserve is Kenyas supreme wildlife reserve. Everything about this reserve is terrific. The wildlife is abundant and the gentle rolling grasslands ensure that animals are never out of sight. Birds, too, are abundant. Including migrants, well over 450 species have been recorded, among them, 57 species are birds of prey. The climate is gentle, rarely too hot and well-spread rainfall year round. Rain, when it falls almost always chooses the late afternoon or night. Between July and October, when the great wildebeest migration is in the Masaai Mara National Reserve, the feeling is incomparable. Masaai Mara is one of the best plains game reserve where you can actually encounter all sorts of animals in a five-mile radius: A pride of lions can be spotted but, the last time we visited the Masaai Mara it was late in the day and they had taken to napping, a cheetah resting under a tree shade, a pair of ostriches walking the open stretches of the savannah. The National Reserve lies about 270 kilometers from Nairobi, and takes about 4 to 5 hours by road. There is an airstrip with scheduled flights, twice daily from Wilson Airport Nairobi, which takes about 40 - 45 minutes. The reserve is about 1510 square kilometers. The wildlife is far from being restricted within the reserve boundaries, and an even larger area, generally referred to as the dispersal area extends north and east of the Masaai Mara National Reserve. Masaai communities live within the dispersal area with their stock, but a century of close association with the wildlife has resulted in an almost symbiotic relationship where wildlife and people live in peace with one another. The first sight of this natural wonderland is breathtaking. Here the great herds of shuffling elephants browse among the rich tree-studded grasslands with an occasional sighting of a solitary and ill-tempered rhino. Thomsons and Grants gazelle, Topi and Eland and many more species of plains game offer a rich choice of food for the dominant predators; lion, leopard and cheetah which hunt in this pure wilderness. The richness of fauna, this profusion of winged beauty and the untouched fragility of the landscape, are all subordinate to the Maras foremost attraction, the march of the wildebeest. As told by our Masaai warrior guide, each year, far south in the great vastness of the Serengeti, the wildebeest raise their dignified but quaint heads, sniff the air and, as if by one accord, start the long trek to the Kenya border and the Masaai Mara. After exhausting the grazing in Tanzanias northern Serengeti, a large number of wildebeest and zebra enter the Masaai Mara National Reserve around the end of June drawn by the sweet grass raised by the long rains of April and May. Driving in the midst of these great herds is an unimaginable experience. Whilst the eyes feast on the spectacle, the air carries the smells, the dust and the sounds of hundreds of thousands of animals. There is probably nowhere else on earth to compare with this wildlife marvel. But the trek is costly. Once the Masaai Mara National Reserves grass has been devoured and when fresh rain in Tanzania has brought forth a new flush there, the herds turn south back to Tanzania. Although July, August and September are the months when the Masaai Mara plains are filled with migrating wildebeest and zebra, there is much resident wildlife year round. Apart from the better-known species there are numerous opportunities to add some of the rare and less frequently seen animals to the visitors checklist. In the southwestern sector, you may be lucky enough to see roan antelope, a handsome creature regrettably rare countrywide. Bat-eared foxes peer from their burrows and there are thousands of topi, an antelope rarely found in other major parks. The combination of a gentle climate, scenic splendor and untold numbers of wildlife makes the Masaai Mara Kenyas most popular inland destination park. After a day and a half in the Masaai region it was time to pack our bags a happy and refreshed band, ready to head for Nairobi. The drive was bumpy, tough, fast but exciting. The greenness of this part of Kenya came as a big surprise. No wonder the early colonialists made their homes in these cooler highlands near Nairobi, movies have been shot there and celebrities have camped and proposed from there. At last we were out of the potholes and pits onto a tarmac road leading into the city and although the road was busy and driving is on the left there seemed to be very few similarities with Rwanda driving rules. Once back in Nairobi, we had a quick snack as the bus back to Kampala was almost setting off. Ends