With Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda set to host the Africa Cup of Nations in 2027 under the Pamoja Initiative, The Observer had a practical feel of how it would be for football fans to travel across the three countries by road.
The trip dubbed, Road to #FIFAfrica23 was organized by The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA), a civil society organisation that promotes internet freedoms across the continent. For the last 10 years, CIPESA has been organizing the Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica), and this time it was held at Hyatt hotel in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Led by Andrew Gole, a digital rights activist, who last year rode his BMW 1200cc bike from Uganda to Lusaka, Zambia, this time The Observer was invited as the lone media house to accompany a team of activists for a 10-day trip spanning over 3,624km. Gole, as expected, rode his bike, while the other activists under their Defenders Protection Initiative (DPI) were in a passenger service van.
The initial journey plan was to cover 653km from Kampala to Nairobi via Nakuru starting Thursday, September 21. However, due to logistical challenges, the start journey was rescheduled to Saturday, September 23. Set-off time was 6 am. The journey to Busia was so smooth and by 11am the team was already clearing through the one-stop border.
But because one of the team members lacked a passport and was using a temporary travel document, there was a significant delay of nearly one hour at the border into Kenya. A travel agent helped quicken the process of the bike and van clearance to cross the border into Kenya.
The team would later regret their choice of skipping Namawojjolo's roast chicken as there were no roast meat markets on Kenyan roads - with the only snack on the roads being roasted maize. The road to Kericho was rough and by 6pm, the van's brake discs had succumbed to the long journey pressures and we had to make a stopover for repairs at Shell petrol station in Salgaa town along Nairobi road en route to Nakuru.
By the time we made it to Nairobi at midnight, everyone was exhausted and many settled for the cheapest available lodge - a miscalculation as the stinky rooms and cockroaches made cheap things really expensive. Kenya's rich Airbnb housing system makes getting accommodation across the country easy for travellers, the only catch being a demand for a down payment and mostly via mobile money.
But registering for a sim card as a foreigner is not so straightforward. Airtel allows up to three sim cards per passport while Safaricom complicates it as you have to go to their headquarters in Nairobi. As early as the next morning, home food sickness had already hit many on the team, and the search for Café Javas beckoned.
Just like in Uganda, CJ's in Nairobi are usually filled to capacity and the food tasted just like back home in Uganda. The team had some time in Nairobi as the van was taken for more repairs in Kirinyaga. Gole's well-branded big bike attracted curiosity from onlookers at Koinange street in Nairobi. Many mistook the Internet freedom tagline to mean free internet.
The next destination was Mombasa via Voi, a journey of 439km. Similarly, there were no street foods on this route and we had to do mostly with biscuits and juices. After getting lost a couple of times, the team eventually crossed the unmistakable Mombasa ivory tusks at around 9:46 pm.
The excitement and Ugandan numberplates effectively attracted Kenyan police and with the knowledge that Ugandans struggle with the Kiswahili language, the two officers who were later joined by others, demanded for tourist permits or Ksh 20,000 bribe.
Luckily, we were in the company of a Kenyan lawyer who put them in their place. Whereas in Uganda police officers attempt to hide their corrupt tendencies, in Kenya they are quite straightforward, terming it as 'WiFi password'.
The most bizarre bribe demand though was from traffic rules enforcers in Kilifi in Mombasa who claimed all branded vehicles entering their constituency have to pay branding and marketing fees. The starting figure is always as high as Ksh 20,000 (about Shs 500,000).
With our Kenyan lawyer asking them to quote the law under which they were holding us hostage, they eventually let us go without any payments.
KENYA TO TANZANIA
The Lunga Lunga border crossover from Mombasa to Tanzania was one of the worst immigration experiences for any foreign traveller. For unknown reasons, the Tanzanian immigration officials felt offended that Ugandans could not speak Kiswahili. They simply ignored us for nearly three hours and the sweltering heat - hitting 34°C - did not make the wait any easier.
Then officials are too rough and careless about how you get introduced into their country. They will interrogate you about why and by which means you are in their country; where you are going to stay (you must know the exact street) and when you will be leaving - a communist country at its best.
Forget East African Community ubuntu. Apart from the good roads, in the countryside of Kenya and Tanzania, it is extremely hard to tell that these two countries are middle-income countries and Uganda is not. Everything seems the same; the poverty levels in all three countries are very glaring.
If getting a Kenyan sim card was hard, getting Tanzanian lines (whose prompts are entirely in Swahili) was even harder. The verification process can take up to more than one hour and even then, there is no guarantee that they will be activated.
To this date, some of the lines we registered for are yet to be activated. And you need a Tanzanian line to stay online as the Kenyan ones lose network connection almost immediately you cross the border. Surprisingly, the Vodacom internet is way slower than one would imagine.
Many visitors will find Tanzanians slow; from taking food orders and fueling cars, to clearing you into hotels - everything is done at snail's pace. And this is coming from Ugandans, who are considered slow themselves by many. From Msata town, the team headed to the historical Bagamoyo.
It looks to be in ruins but has the most hospitable population of all Tanzanians that we came in contact with. The men tend to keep at the ocean while the women are mostly in the adjacent fish markets and restaurants. From blue and green fish to iridescence (changing colour) fish species, here you will see it all.
And sugarcane juice seems to have originated from here. It is pure, natural, very authentic. We could not get enough of it and bought drinking water just to have enough containers to carry away as much sugarcane juice as we could.
MUSEVENI AND SULUHU
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President Yoweri Museveni perhaps will be elated to hear that Uganda is no longer associated with former President Idi Amin Dada and foreigners have replaced Amin with his name and asked us constantly about his longevity in power.
President Samia Suluhu who replaced John Pombe Magufuli seems to have lost the earlier appeal she had amassed amongst Tanzanians. Many were accusing her of undoing Magufuli's achievements within the shortest time and bringing corruption back into public offices.
"During Magufuli's time public offices served people quickly and for free. Now with this woman in power, we have gone back to bribing so as to get slow public service. She has even sold the harbour to the Arabs and Chinese. Man, the country misses Magufuli," said one youthful farmer in Sekei.
Tanzanians are quick to tell you about peace and no corruption in their country; the traffic officers in Sekei beg to differ. Like their Kenyan counterparts, they demand bribes without any country image scares.
Crossing from Tanzania to Kenya via Namanga border was equally cumbersome with only two officers out of the possible six attending to hundreds of travellers. The other two female customs officers were on their phones all the time, oblivious to the long queues.
Meanwhile, the police officers in the parking area will demand all luggage be taken out of the van for a canine inspection, or be left in the van at a fee (read bribe).
At Busia border, the Ugandan officials were surprisingly extremely happy to receive us back as if they had been made aware of all our border troubles.
