Category: Observed
Fastenating
Here’s a collection of interesting jua kali methods of temporary and permanent joining and fastening. Imported screws and nails are often too expensive to use regularly, which leads to some creative workarounds.
The far and out dominant mode of joining in these parts is electric arc welding. Owning a welding machine has become a right of passage for opening a business in metalwork.
Banks
Why are these banks labeled 2010? I asked the same question myself. Kenyans at the BOP tend to save money on an annual basis. Banks do well at the start of the year.
Menaces of the road
Driving in Kenya is a skill I don’t hope to have to master. Urban and rural roads present their own obstacles—from impassable roads to gridlock traffic—but comprise the same players. Here are some of those players:
After the female head, carts are the most basic form of cargo transport. “Drivers” pull heavy loads up steep slopes. This man is bringing water to a market. Clean water is scarce in both rural areas and in the cities, where water salesmen tap into the municipal water lines.
Maseno
I have moved into Maseno University, where Sharon and I will be staying for the next few days and again for a couple of weeks later in the summer. Power is unreliable here, as is water—partly because the water isn’t always running, but mostly because I suspect the water to actually be tiny drops of solid ice.
Kisumu wholesale district
Though Kisumu has very little manufacturing capacity, it has a huge industry of imported goods from Nairobi. Driving through the wholesale district, you quickly realize that Kenyans take the aesthetics of their storefronts seriously. It’s a typographer’s dream. The typography itself isn’t anything special, but it turns out that pretty much anything looks great painted by hand with crisp edges and bright colors (though the variety is impressive and makes you wonder where these painters draw their inspiration).
Everything in Kisumu is an “enterprises” or an “investments” no matter what it sells.
A night in Nairobi
I spent one night in Nairobi and here are some initial impressions from walking/driving around:
Nairobi is a city of contrasts. It can be jarring initially to see farm animals next to modern malls.
Making Do is an investigation into systems of innovation in Kenya's informal economy. Learn more and read the book online or in print here.
I'm Steve Daniels. I study the transformative impact of technology on individuals and societies. I am the founder of the Better World by Design conference at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design and Analogue Digital, a publisher of content related to global cultures of technology. Currently, I work at IBM Research, where I study mobile social computing in emerging markets.
I am particularly interested in how people create, adapt, and use technology in resource-constrained environments, which I have written about in Making Do: Innovation in Kenya's Informal Economy.
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