Lets Visit The Nairobi National Park

Are you bored in the house, alone or with friends and family and have no idea how to kill the boredom? Do you reside around Nairobi; or even the wider Nairobi Area?. Let me show you how you will manage to fly some time away from your boring day......Lets visit the Nairobi National Park.

This Sunday afternoon was a boring one; we got stuck with a sick cousin who had broken his hand badly in a playing spree. So we are all sited in the familys’ living room, just looking at him and wondering what to say next because we have given him enough sympathies and he dont wanna hear any more of it!! Then an idea comes….why don’t we visit the Nairobi National Park which happens to be just less than 1 KM from their house. Funny as it may sound; they live in Langata Ngei Phase II Estate, near the Langata Cemetery and they have never visited Nairobi National Park. 
Close as it is i.e. less than a KM, most us in the house who had come to pay a “get well quick visit” to the boy had not ever bothered to know what happens in that part of the city.  Since it’s a walking distance, we decide no cars…..and we take the short walk across Langata Cemetery to the Nairobi National Park Gate.

The Park

The Nairobi National Park is located just about 10KM from the city center and is a 15min drive from the city. Even with a bad traffic day; it would not take you more than 1 hour to hit the park.  Inside the park, there are four major places to visit; but we only visited the animal orphanage and the Rangers Restaurant.

• ·         The Nairobi Animal Orphanage
• ·         The Nairobi Safari Walk
• ·         Nairobi National Park Game Drive.
• ·         The KWS Rangers restaurant

The Animal Orphanage

The animal orphanage consists of animals that have been rescued from various parks, reserves or forests across the country. Usually, these are baby animals whose parents have died of diseases or have been predated upon or poached. These "baby" animals are brought to the orphanage to join other orphaned animals. Once in the park,they are fed with relevant meals and are assigned to caretakers who groom their cages and do general monitoring. The animal orphanage is the perfect place to see a wide variety of animals at close range in their locked-up cages. You may get to see Lions, Hyenas, Cheetahs, Leopards, Crocodiles, Buffalos, Impalas and a wide range of monkey & baboon families.

Park Entry Charges for Nairobi Animal Orphanage

Park entry fees is not an excuse for not visiting the world’s only closest National Park to a Capital City! The charges are affordable; Kes 150 for adult citizens and East Africans and Kes 100 for children.  Non-citizens and Non-East Africans pay $50 as park Entry fees.You must produce proof of identification with either a passport or national ID before entry.

Below are photos of some of the animals at the Nairobi Animal Orphanage.

Rangers Restaurant

After visiting the park, we enjoyed a handy glass of cocktail juice at the KWS Three-Star Rangers Restaurant. The restaurant is strategically situated to overlook the open park. From here you can view small monkey families which come as close to the refreshment tables as possible. They may even snatch a banana from your mouth if you are not careful!!

USE THE BEBAPAY CARD TO PAY FOR YOUR FARE

Have you heard of the new digital Matatu payment method? The newest method for paying your bus fare in Kenyan matatus is Beba Pay. The BebaPay program resembles the usual  “credit card” that you can use to shop is “outlets”. In this case, the outlets are the buses and matatus whereby Nairobi city travelers can use the “soft” money to pay for their bus fare.

The Bebapay card payment program is an initiative of matatu/bus owners and Equity Bank Kenya to enable city dwellers to avoid cash payments while traversing Nairobi estates.  The Bebapay Card enables customers to pay for fare without worries of carrying cash, or forgetting your fare change with the tout. It also cushions you from unwarranted fare rises implied by touts on any particular day.

How To Get The Bebapay Card

To get the BebaPay card, you should visit a BebaPay agent either at Kencom house or participating Equity Bank Agents. After the registration, the agent will issue you with a will a BebaPay Card; a type of a credit card that can be swapped on a credit card reader.

To pay with BebaPay, you must have loaded your card with “credit” and must produce the card to the matatu at the point of payment. Once the “credit” on the card is exhausted you can always visit an equity bank agent where you will pay to top-up the card. You can only top-up your BebaPay Card to a maximum of Kes 10,000 at any one given time. You can read more on the Terms of Use of the card, other benefits and FAQs

Where Can You Use The Bebapay Card?

Initially, BebaPay was introduced to Citi Hoppa buses. However recently, the program has been rolled-out to other city carriers including the famous Githurai buses like Paradiso Buses, ZamZam buses, Unified Poa buses plying the Githurai 45 route among others. The program is also available to the KBS buses.  Other companies are slowly taking-up the program by enrolling selected buses as a means of speculating on the effectiveness of the program.

More customers are expected to embrace the method as a safer alternative to using cash. We only hope the programs runs successively and do not collapse like the earlier Smart Bus Credit Cards Method.

The Idea Behind OLX in Kenya

In the recent days, OLX has grown its popularity and more and more people are getting rid of their un-wanted items by selling them on the olx.co.ke platform.The popularity increased even more following the recent OLX Commercial Adverts by Eric Omondi.

With Kenyans changing lifestyles every so often, the need to move to the latest trends is inevitable, subsequently creating the need to get rid of “old” or “outdated” items. While outdated is applicable to one person, it might be the “trend” on another person lifestyle.

A generic example would be a young man who decides to get rid of his 32” LED Samsung TV or his Samsung Galaxy S III mini because he wants a Samsung 55” digital smart 3D TV or a Galaxy Note 2. This could be because his income will be able to meet his new lifestyle level. That said, there is one person on the other end who is dying to own a 26” LCD TV leave alone a 32” LED screen!! That’s what OLX is all about; bringing buyers and sellers together.

Are items on OLX Quality

There is a misconception that stuff on OLX is in bad shape or outrageously old. While this may be the case, it is still possible to find unbelievably “cool” items on OLX. Personally, I have shopped around the site and believe you me; I have bought nice goodies at extremely fair prices. I have also sold items I cherished but had to let them go due to limitation on space, or just need to upgrade to a new level altogether. A snapshot of items I have sold on OLX can be seen below from My OLX account

How to Handle OLX Transactions in Kenya

However, buyers as well as sellers should be careful on how to handle transactions on OLX. It is always wise to be in a position to verify the ownership of the item you want to buy to avoid being caught in theft hurdles. It is also recommended that you go view the item you are interested to buy rather than just believing in the pictures posted on the site; they may not be the true pictures of the item.

OLX also cautions buyers and sellers to ensure they do not send money via untraceable means which include Money Gram or Western Union. It is also recommended to deal with people you have physically met or are in the same geographical regions.

I have had a nasty encounter with a conman who wanted to con me of a refrigerator. Read this encounter of the OLX con man here.

Safaricom M-Pesa Transaction Charges

The amendment of the Customs & Excise Duty Act-Finance Act of 2012 has brought an increase in 10% excise duty on all money transfer fees. With this, Safaricom, the largest player in the market for mobile money transfer services will see its customers pay more for the famous M-Pesa money platform. 

The 10% increases in M-pesa transaction charges will affect transactions ranging from 101 while transactions below 100 will remain unaffected. The increase in fees will be slapped on transactions involving transfer of money to M-Pesa customers, transfer to un-registered Safaricom numbers and withdrawals. The new M-Pesa Tariffs rates from Safaricom which took effect on 8^th Feb 2012 will be as follows.

New Safaricom M-Pesa Charges

Customer Charges
Transaction Range (Ksh)			Transaction Type and Customer Charge (Ksh)
Min	Max		Transfer to other M-PESA Users	Transfer to Unregistered Users	Withdrawal from M-PESA Agent
10	49		3	N/A	N/A
50	100		5	N/A	10
101	500		27	66	27
501	1,000		33	66	27
1,001	1,500		33	66	27
1,501	2,500		33	66	27
2,501	3,500		33	88	49
3,501	5,000		33	105	66
5,001	7,500		55	143	82
7,501	10,000		55	171	110
10,001	15,000		55	220	159
15,001	20,000		55	237	176
20,001	25,000		82	275	187
25,001	30,000		82	275	187
30,001	35,000		82	275	187
35,001	40,000		82	N/A	275
40,001	45,000		82	N/A	275
45,001	50,000		110	N/A	275
50,001	70,000		110	N/A	330
ATM Withdrawal
Transaction Range (Ksh)
Min		Max		Customer Charge
200		2,500		33
2,501		5,000		66
5001		10,000		110
10,001		20,000		193

The move was backed by Treasury and is aimed at raising revenue generated from the increasingly famous money transfer services; in a bid to assist the government handle its financial obligations.

In response to this, Safaricom’s CEO Bob Collymore appreciated that the government is taking measures to ensure it’s able to meet its financial obligations. He however raised concern that imposing tax on mobile money transfer was likely to raise a negative impact as it would widen the barrier of making financial services readily available; citing that such a move was untimely.