Tuesday 8th August – Day Three – Nairobi to Kajiado
Today is Kenya’s eagerly-anticipated general election, where President Uhuru Kenyatta is aiming to be re-elected if he can overcome long-time political rival, Raila Odinga.
Politics is often a much more emotional topic in Kenya in comparison to the UK; rallies are well-attended and party flags are adorned on clothes, cars and houses in the lead-up to the big day.
Schools, businesses and everyday life is virtually shut down on election day. This meant that the roads in Nairobi, the capital, were the quietest – almost eeriest – I have ever seen in 10 years travelling to Kenya.
We set off from Kikuyu Town – a small suburb of Nairobi – at 7.45am and quite literally raced around the new Chinese-built Southern Bypass. Considering yesterday’s tough climb out of the Rift Valley, the gentle tail wind meant we reached average speeds of around 24mph, which is pretty good for amateurs on hybrid bikes.
As we veered off towards the notoriously-busy Mombasa Road, we peddled past Nairobi National Park and saw gazelles, buffalo and an array of birds – perhaps thankfully no lions, given the holes in the fence!
Nairobi is one the most congested cities in East Africa and it was a huge helped to see virtually no traffic on the road. We sped out of the capital and headed south to the small town of Kajiado in good time and were enjoying lunch by 2pm.
Today’s ride was the longest so far at 65 miles and meant we had now tallied up 160 miles in total.