Election time in Kenya: will it be Odinga or Ruto?

Kenya has decided, we just don’t know yet who has won - will William ‘Hustler’ Ruto (pictured above during a rally in Karatina), or opposition veteran Raila ‘Baba’ Odinga be the next president of East Africa’s second largest economy? I’ve tried to answer that question in this piece for Dutch daily De Volkskrant, which also focuses on why this time around, the ethnic factor might be less important. In addition, you can listen to this radio segment with Met Het Oog Op Morgen presenter Chris Kijne, which was aired on NPO Radio 1. I also answered some questions about how Kenyans have prepared for Election Day, in this small online piece for De Volkskrant’s website.

A reportage for De Volkskrant: how Masai are evicted from their land in Northern Tanzania

In northern Tanzania, 165 thousand Maasai herders are driven from their land. After a violent crackdown by the Tanzanian police, at least 2,000 Masai are said to have fled across the border to Kenya, where they are taken in by other herders. "This is an untenable situation."

You can read the whole story in today’s edition of De Volkskrant, or click here. Alternatively, you can listen to this NPO Radio 1 interview with Simone Weimans in Met Het Oog Op Morgen.

For De Volkskrant: my profile of the best soccer player of Africa, Sadio Mané

For the second time in his carreer, Sadio Mané has been named the best African footballer of the year. In Senegal, where the soccer player is born thirty years ago, the 'silent, smiling assassin' is mainly known as a sober do-gooder.

For De Volkskrant, I wrote a profile about the shy but generous soccer player, who has transformed Bambaly - from the millions he makes, hundreds of thousands of euros went into the village he grew up in, in the south of Senegal. You can read the piece by clicking or tapping here (in Dutch).

New work voor de Volkskrant: an interview with Arie Kievit about mica mines in Madagascar

In southern Madagascar, children get mica from handmade mines, photographer Arie Kievit saw when he was there with children’s rights NGO Terre des Homes. Plate mica as a raw material is indispensable for our cars and electrical appliances. I interviewed Kievit for today’s edition of De Volkskrant.

Bureau Buitenland Uitgelicht: how Eliud Kipchoge is setting up a bicycle training camp

The Greatest Of All Time (🐐), also known as Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, is setting up a new sports camp as part of his own training camp in the northern village of Kaptagat, near Eldoret. With radio host Sophie Derkzen in NPO Radio 1 programme Bureau Buitenland, I talked about what this ‘INEOS Eliud Kipchoge Cycling Academy’ can mean for the cycling scene in Kenya.

Click this link to listen to the radio segment.

Column for De Volkskrant: are the Dutch the 'Maasai of Europe'?

In the Netherlands we have far more cows than we need, I tell the Maasai elder. He nods approvingly.

The Netherlands feels far away, here in a house made of cow dung and sticks in southern Kenya. It is hot and stuffy in the manyatta, where I sit on a small wooden stool between eight playing children. My eyes sting from the smoke that comes from a small fire, above the flames a blackened pan with heated goat's milk boils over.

Even the contrast with the capital of Kenya, which is a few hundred kilometers to the north, is large. In Nairobi, the metropolis where I have now lived for about four and a half years, I have superfast internet everywhere, my girlfriend and I order sushi through Uber Eats and our baby crawls around in Pampers – no, over there, the difference with life in The Netherlands is quite small.

Yet today the men and women who are seminomadic Maasai pastoralists from southern Kenya, want to talk about the similarities. Like the Karamojong, Fulani, Samburu or other herders and hunter-gatherers I've met in recent years, they mainly focus on what connects us.

'Do you also have cows in the Netherlands?' is the first question I get when I ask after the newspaper interview whether they also have any questions for me. Yes, I answer, much more than we even need. Ole Ndaika, the elder I am interviewing, nods approvingly.

I know why the old man likes to hear this: for the herders who roam here in southern Kenya with their cattle, cows are the greatest asset – just like for farmers in the Netherlands. The more cows you have, the richer you are. Ole Ndaika may only wear a checkered shuka cloth over his underwear, but with his hundreds of cows he is also a multimillionaire (in Kenyan shillings, yes, but still).

Then my translator tries to explain what I say next about the ongoing nitrogen crisis in the Netherlands. The elder looks at me in surprise: isn't cow manure good for the environment? I decide to take a different approach and say that there is actually too little land in the Netherlands for farmers and their livestock.

'Mmm', Ole Ndaika agrees again. ‘Just like here.’ And so we come back to talking about why I'm here in his house in the first place: just like in many other places in Africa, the way of life of the nomadic shepherd is under pressure – I'm writing a story about that.

On my way to this Masai settlement I could clearly see the cause of the problems: along the road large tracts of land have been fenced off. The land that remains for the itinerant herders is also shrinking due to climate change, or they have to make way because the government wants to turn the grazing area into a wildlife park.

Ole Ndaika, despite the challenges, is cheerful. After all, he still has a lot of cows, his walking savings account is filled plenty. The longer we talk, the more excited he gets. Are the elderly in the Netherlands addressed differently than young people? In addition to cows, the Dutch also keep goats?! The distance between the Netherlands and the Kenya of Ole Ndaika is getting smaller and smaller – we actually are a lot alike.

When I say that I should probably hit the road, the man smiles and gives me a firm handshake and a slap on my shoulder. 'We are all family', Ole Ndaika concludes with a laugh. 'Now I get it. The Dutch are the Maasai of Europe.'

Read the original column (in Dutch) on the website of de Volkskrant.

New work for de Volkskrant: how Nairobi's bicycle riders are fighting for their rights

In the hilly Kenyan capital of Nairobi, a growing number of cyclists are hitting the streets. In monthly bicycle demonstrations, they are demanding more rights and safety. Cyclists hope that the introduction of e-bikes could gain momentum for cycling.

To read my first Volkskrant reportage, click here.

I'll be the new Africa Correspondent of de Volkskrant

Some personal news: from today onwards, I’ll be the new Africa Correspondent of Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant! From Nairobi, Kenya, I’ll be covering stories in West, East and Southern Africa. Next to my work for the newspaper, I will still be available as a freelance photographer. For anything Volkskrant-related, drop me a message at joost.bastmeijer@volkskrant.nl!

New work for The Telegraph: Nairobi celebrates Queen's platinum jubilee

Prinicipal beacons commemorating Queen Elizabeth’s platinum jubilee have lit up the night sky yesterday, as ceremonies took place right across the Commonwealth. For The Telegraph, I attended such a ceremony in Kenya, the country where she acceded to the throne, after King George VI had passed away in 1952.

My last piece for Trouw: an interview with 'starchitect' Diébédo Francis Kéré

On Friday, Burkinabé architect Diébédo Francis Kéré will receive the profession’s highest honour, the Pritzker Prize. In my last piece for Dutch daily Trouw, I interviewed Kéré about his work, inspiration, using locally available materials and his quest to inspire young Africans to build their continent.

To read the interview, click here or buy a copy of today’s newspaper!

Mediastorm beeldcollege: why Africa needs more correspondents

Mediastorm, a television programme about media logic and stories behind the news, asked me to talk about my day to day work in African countries. How do you take pictures in an IDP camp where many people are suffering? And how is the way we perceive Africa linked to the small amount of correspondents that are active on the continent? I tried to answer some of these questions in Mediastorm, which was aired last Saturday.

Op1 interview: drought in East Africa

While the world is focused on the war in Ukraine, there still is a drought ongoing in the Horn of Africa and parts of East Africa. Together with Saskia Houttuin, I talked in Dutch talkshow Op1 about what is happening in Somalia and how Putin’s war is making the situation even worse. To watch the interview, click here. To watch the whole episode, hosted by Hugo Logtenberg and Nadia Moussaid, click here.

Sex work, China and Nairobi's nightlife: the art of Michael Soi

“I like to let corrupt Kenyans take a hard look in the mirror, to show them how greedy they are. I just can't stand the hypocrisy. If you like going to a prostitute, why shouldn't I make a work of art about it?”

Kenyan artist Michael Soi (1972) doesn’t shy away from controversy. His bright, colored paintings are about political sensitivities and sex work, and he finished a series of 100 artworks on the Kenyan-Chinese relations. But the Chinese are not happy with his statements about their "political interference" in Africa.

To find out more, read the full piece (in Dutch), tap on this link or get a copy of Trouw!