Now, things are different. Now, Nairobi is shut down because of COVID-19. Travel in and out of the city is banned, and there’s a countrywide curfew from dusk to dawn. Social distancing regulations announced by the government early during Kenya’s infection mean that restaurants and eateries remain closed, unless they meet stringent health requirements.
I walk around my neighborhood in the evenings. All the mutura joints are closed. I call Clifton, ask him if he’s been able to eat mutura ever since all of this began.
“No,” he tells me. “All my usual guys are closed.”
We talk some more. “Usually these guys open late in the afternoon, saa za ulevi,” he says. “But now with the curfew, they have a very small window in which to sell the stock.”
Nevertheless, we go on. We mutura lovers persist.
I go to my mutura place.
“Niekee ya forty,” I tell my mutura guy.
