A Word About Time in Kenya

Most travellers from western nations come to Africa and to Kenya with the western mind set or value of time. Using European or western time in Africa is just about the fastest way to get tremendously frustrated by your travel experience.
 
When hosting guests from Europe, the US, and Australia, I jokingly tell them to get rid of their watches for their stay in Kenya. Unless they are here in Kenya for business meetings with their embassies, carrying a watch around and keeping tabs on the minutes and seconds will just raise their blood pressure for nothing. Why is this?

When sitting in an anthropology class years ago, I was taught that in Africa time is event oriented, when in the West it is ‘clock’ oriented. In other words, in Africa, breakfast is a time slot, lunch is a time slot, dinner is a time slot. In the west, breakfast runs from 8.00 am to 8.30 am. You simply do not get that in Africa most of the time and definitely not amongst the regular locals.

In Kenya, for instance, when someone tells you ‘let us meet at eight for breakfast’, they do not mean 8.00 am, but rather the event defined as ‘breakfast’ that could run from anytime between 8.00 am to anywhere in the range of 9.00 am. Most Kenyans do not consider themselves ‘late’ when they arrive at a meeting fifteen minutes late. When meeting with you, most people will keep to a range of between fifteen to thirty minutes past the time you agreed to meet. Keep your cool, they are not ‘late’ because the event has not started or ended.

And there you have the best way to understand time in Africa, and in Kenya particularly. For your own good, keep your watch away and go with the flow. Occasionally, you will meet the tardy fellow who will casually stroll in an hour after you agreed to meet. Yes, those annoy even the locals, but then again, we all have our tardy fellows in every society.

To keep sane, always give a range of fifteen to thirty minutes to any appointment. Give an allowance for the person to come fifteen to thirty minutes before or after your agreed meeting time and you will get on fine with the local community. Welcome to Kenya. Enjoy your stay here! To be safe with your cash, read here...

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