February 21, Tuesday

February 21, Tuesday   

Had a leisurely morning in the hotel room and left for the museum at noon.   O’Seismus had indicated that it would be safe for me to walk to the Nairobi National Museum, only about a 10 minute walk away.   Half the route was on the university campus and the other half was along a highway.  Unfortunately the part beside the highway was under construction and walking through it was not that easy, but I made it through, climbing dirt mounds and avoiding strewn garbage.   The Museum grounds where beautiful.   Located on “Museum Hill” the main building was built in 1929, but added to more recently:   Gandhi Memorial Hall,   Aga Khan Hall,  Churchill Gallery.

  Mother & Child sculpture at the entrance

 Nairobi National Museum sculpture and entrance
  One of the wings of the museum

I ended up spending about 3 hours walking through the exhibits.  

Prehistoric man section:   Turkana Boy, one of the best known specimens of Homo erectus,  almost complete skeleton, dated about 1.6 million years.   Estimated to have been between 9 and 12 years old, was 5’1”;  quite tall for such a young homo erectus.    Key features:  20% bigger brain that Homo rudolfensis,   smaller molars,  projecting lower face (not flat),  short forehead,  longer legs than arms.


Animal kingdom:   Lots of stuffed animals again, but some interesting facts.   Found out what a Honey Badger looks like (Name of the Lodge outside Moshi, Tanzania)

 Greater Kudu in the middle, Bongo on the right

Horns on animals:  short spiky horns are used to stab, usually in the rump or the belly;  curved horns are used to wrestle, they try to twist each other off balance;  thick heavy built horns are used to clash: bashing their heads together. 

They had a very impressive full elephant skeleton.

  Ahmed's Skeleton

Turns out this big guy was named Ahmed who lived on Mount Marsabit in northern Kenya.  This area has long been famous for its big “tuskers”.  Ahmed was the most famous because of his large and beautifully proportioned tusks.  In 1970, President Kenyatta granted that Ahmed should be given exclusive protection from poachers.   He was protected by two National Park ranges who followed him day and night.   He died in 1974 of natural causes and his skeleton holds a place of honour in the Nairobi National Museum.   He was about 55  years old when he died, based on his 6^th and last set of teeth.  Although not the biggest elephant, or the biggest recorded tusks, it was the size of his tusks relative to his fairly small body that was impressive.

  Poster of Ahmed

In the bird wing, I also learned the name of that blue iridescent bird I’d seen during my Tanzanian Safari:  

     Glossy Starling;

   as well as another huge 3 foot bird I’d seen sitting in tall grass: Kori Bustard.    It is the largest of the African bustards in East Africa. 

    Also saw a great example of a Crown Crane (the ones that had been dancing in Ngorongoro Crater).

But the best picture of the progress made in Kenya has to be this one
 Old wooden sandals  &  new sandals made out of tire treads !

I walked through the “History of Kenya” wing, which I also found very interesting.    This country also went through bloody revolutionary wars to obtain independence.  Kenyans were forced to serve during the 2^nd world war (along with Britain, their colonizers).   While serving in the war they were exposed to people from other countries who spoke of their independence.   “By 1950, KAU’s activities had shifted from the hands of moderates, led by Kenyatta, to militants based in Nairobi.  KAU radicals advocated for violence leading to the Mau Mau Uprising.  The colonial government’s response was brutal.  Sir Evelyn Baring signed the Emergency Proclamation” in 1952 and military reinforcement was provided by Britain.   KAU leaders were arrested and sentenced to imprisonment. Detention camps were built and were characterized by inhuman treatment leading to the Hola Massacre.  Pass books were introduced (just like in South Africa) to control the movements of the Africans.   Village reserves were created in the rural areas to limit communication and food supplies to the freedom fighters.  Decolonization and Independence was achieved in December 1963.   Kenyatta became the first president, after spending years in jail.  (Does this sound familiar ? ! ! )   He encouraged citizens from all communities to unite and work for the betterment of the nation.  His government aimed at eradicating ignorance, poverty and disease.   Kenyatta died in 1978 and was replaced by Moi (pronounced like ‘boy’) who remained in power for 20 years.   Kenya recently introduced a new constitution for their country.    It wasn’t all peaceful governing however, between 1982 and 1991 there was much repression, detentions and torture of alleged government saboteurs.   The struggle for democratic government continued and the return to multi-party politics came in 1992.    Quite an eye opener for me.

I then reluctantly went to visit one of the other attractions on the museum grounds:  the Snake Park !  I’m not a fan of snakes, reptiles, bugs, etc   but I decided to go see the exhibits anyway.
  Black Mamba
  Green Mamba
  Red Mamba
  Brown spitting cobra
  Monitor lizards
  African Rock Python,   and below detail of its coloured scales.
 
  and last but not least, a nile crocodile !

I had a small snack at the museum restaurant and then checked out the botanical garden area
  Medicinal garden with beautiful mosaic walk ways
  


I decided to go back to the hotel via taxi.  There were two of them waiting beside the gates of the museum and in the afternoon heat I did not want to go through the construction site one more time.  
I should mention that throughout Nairobi there was work being done to fix roads and sidewalks.   Huge holes left uncovered without barriers around them.  


Sidewalk tiles removed and piled up.   But not a lot of workers fixing the problems;  it just looked like about 100 projects on the go with none of them finished.   There was one particular excavation on the route between my hotel and the downtown core.  On my last morning in Nairobi, after 8 days here, there were finally workers on site filling up the huge hole in the ground.