Today as a bit of a change of pace we went on a tour of the city of Nairobi, again with our own driver and car. It was more of a wander around than a specific tour and gave us a very brief exposure to the city, both the downtown area and the slum area Kibera (the second largest slum in Africa after Soweto).
We got a good over view of the downtown area from the top of a tall round building housing the Kenya International Conference Center and then walked around the streets of downtown for a while skipping between the buses and cars just like the locals. The place was packed with vehicles and at times the air choked with diesel fumes.
The heart of the downtown section of the city has the feel of a modern city with lots of banks, electronics stores, up market clothing stores, crowded car parks with expensive modern vehicles. But one does not have to venture far to find the 3rd world of broken pavement, improvised buildings, street markets and obviously poor people.