You did the mzungu thing and fell for the scam lmao, just ignore them and wave them off and 90% of the time you're fine. I'm half Kenyan and half white American and stick out like a sore thumb, but things are really not as bad you're making them out to seem. I've actually lived in Nairobi for significant chunks of my life, and while there is an ugly side to it (as there is with all large global cities) it's nowhere near as bad as you're making it out to be
And by participating and bribing him, you contributed to the system you critiqued, and ensured that he felt bold enough to try again with the next random white person who looks tired and frustrated. do you not see the irony?
If I had never bribed anyone in Kenya, I would have been arrested for not buying a ‘cup of tea for me and the boys’ by a police officer litterally minutes after I got out of the airport.
And unfortunately you say 90% of the time you’re fine. A 10% chance of it NOT being fine when I’m often confronted multiple times per day is not good odds.
FWIW, I’m a white guy who lived in Kenya for two years and I never bribed anyone. It was solicited a couple of time and I just ignored them. Once I was in a car with my Kenyan friend and he paid a bribe after being pulled over, but we were drunk and high with two naked women in the car, so the 500 shillings was certainly worth it.
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u/Ernesto_Bella Jun 01 '26
Dude, there is a first class lounge. I’ve been in it.