On a lazy Saturday afternoon in mid-2019, I pulled up to the gate of a commercial building in the Yaya area of Nairobi. I had an appointment with my barber, a twice monthly sacred event for those who partake in such indulgences. There were two guards at the closed gate who immediately began conferring with each other in a fairly agitated manner.
I cocked my head to one side, wondering why the usual guard wasn’t walking out to undertake the vehicle security inspection as usual. After several interminable minutes, one guard walked to my car and said “Hii gari hairuhuswi kuingia, utaweka nje.” So there was the answer, my car was not allowed entry into a building that I had been driving to for the last 17 years and I was being asked to park outside. With as much patience as I could muster, I politely asked why. The guard, nervously shifting from one foot to another, answered that pick-ups were no longer allowed to enter the building environs.
