Street crime in Nairobi and Mombasa

I'm going with a group of students to Kenya shortly, and have to
prepare for the trip. While Nairobi and Mombasa in th 70's was
perfectly safe, I've heard other rumors now. Can the students (age 19)
be left alone in the two cities at daytime without problems? Or what's
the situation right now?

Geir
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On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:46:58 +0200, Geir
wrote:

I'm going with a group of students to Kenya shortly, and have to
prepare for the trip. While Nairobi and Mombasa in th 70's was
perfectly safe, I've heard other rumors now. Can the students (age 19)
be left alone in the two cities at daytime without problems? Or what's
the situation right now?

Geir,

the most important point is that they should not carry bags, no
jewellery, no watches, nothing that has any value. They should
carry only some money and should hand it over if they get
robbed.

Actually, I wouldn't walk through Nairobi at all these days.
Better to take them to places like protected shopping malls by
bus and let them walk inside the mall only.

Hehe, let them have lunch at Kariakor Market. (:-)

Mombasa is better, but not entirely safe either. I think they
can walk through the old city. I haven't been in Mombasa in a
while. Does anybody else know more about Mombasa?

Take them to Lamu. There you may have to worry about the beach
boys, but those don't rob much, they only steal, mostly. Lamu is
safer, because there is still some of the old (Muslim) culture
left. The system of thieves and robbers and the police can't go
too far, because it would lead to public resistance. Everybody
knows everybody else, so the people in Lamu know fully what's
going on. That's certainly different from Nairobi. If you take
them there, don't let them walk out of the town, out of sight of
people. As long as they're among the people, they are safe.

If you know anybody reliable, who knows Kenya very, very well,
ideally an indigenous person, hire him as a security consultant
and guard. But you have to know him so well as to be sure he
doesn't call in his friends. (:-)

Ask yourself the question, what do I tell the parents when
something happens to one of your young people? The range goes
from a psychic trauma from being robbed, which can be bad
enough, to contracting AIDS while being raped, to being killed
outright. Sure, the risk of this is not too high in a short
time, but these things do happen, and nobody will tell you for
sure how high the risk really is. From the tales of car-jackings
and robberies I can only deduce that the risk is not very low,
but I cannot put a number on it.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 19:46:58 +0200, Geir
wrote:

I'm going with a group of students to Kenya shortly, and have to
prepare for the trip. While Nairobi and Mombasa in th 70's was
perfectly safe, I've heard other rumors now. Can the students (age 19)
be left alone in the two cities at daytime without problems? Or what's
the situation right now?

Geir,

the most important point is that they should not carry bags, no
jewellery, no watches, nothing that has any value. They should
carry only some money and should hand it over if they get
robbed.

Actually, I wouldn't walk through Nairobi at all these days.
Better to take them to places like protected shopping malls by
bus and let them walk inside the mall only.

Hehe, let them have lunch at Kariakor Market. (:-)

Mombasa is better, but not entirely safe either. I think they
can walk through the old city. I haven't been in Mombasa in a
while. Does anybody else know more about Mombasa?

Take them to Lamu. There you may have to worry about the beach
boys, but those don't rob much, they only steal, mostly. Lamu is
safer, because there is still some of the old (Muslim) culture
left. The system of thieves and robbers and the police can't go
too far, because it would lead to public resistance. Everybody
knows everybody else, so the people in Lamu know fully what's
going on. That's certainly different from Nairobi. If you take
them there, don't let them walk out of the town, out of sight of
people. As long as they're among the people, they are safe.

If you know anybody reliable, who knows Kenya very, very well,
ideally an indigenous person, hire him as a security consultant
and guard. But you have to know him so well as to be sure he
doesn't call in his friends. (:-)

Ask yourself the question, what do I tell the parents when
something happens to one of your young people? The range goes
from a psychic trauma from being robbed, which can be bad
enough, to contracting AIDS while being raped, to being killed
outright. Sure, the risk of this is not too high in a short
time, but these things do happen, and nobody will tell you for
sure how high the risk really is. From the tales of car-jackings
and robberies I can only deduce that the risk is not very low,
but I cannot put a number on it.

Hans-Georg

--
No mail, please.