A tale of two cities (or countries)

My dad's old house was built in two phases. The original bungalow was built in 1946. He extended the house in 1976, shortly after buying it. The house is therefore a product of two different periods, and two very different Kenyas.

Between the late 1950s and early 1970s, all Africa countries (ignoring the anomalies of "Rhodesia" - Zimbabwe, and South Africa) gained independence from colonial rule. Kenya obtained it's independence from the UK in December 1963. This transition period following the end of such a rule has always fascinated me. One day there is one set of rules, with a few people setting them and holding all the power, and the next day these people go with their rules, leaving rule and power voids. In this sense, I guess the end of colonialism is kind of like the end of communism in Soviet block countries. In many cases in African countries, the void was filled, sooner or later, by civil unrest; 20 out of 42 sub saharan countries experienced civil war between 1960 and 2000 (my master thesis touched on this).  Often a charismatic and power hungry dicta.... I mean leader took the reins; such as Idi Amin in Uganda or Joseph Mobutu in Zaire (Congo). While Kenya has its own dark post colonial history (read this excellent blog if you'd like to know a bit more: http://kumekucha.blogspot.be/2009/12/dark-secrets-of-presidency-part-1.html), it was ultimately a peaceful country led for 15 years by a charasmatic and firm, but not dictatorial leader, Jomo Kenyatta.

Nonetheless, even though Kenya was a relatively peaceful and stable place, it seems that the end of colonialism still left a void. When the "colonial masters" (as they are referred to in most African countries) left, it seems that they took with them most of their knowledge and systems. Kenyans had to find ways of filling these voids, and it did take some time to do this.

And this all relates to the house how?

Well, the original 1946 bungalow was commissioned by a gentleman called Alistair Scott. I think it is fair to conclude that Alistair was a "colonial master". Even if his name didn't give him away, the number of black Kenyans living in houses with stone at that time was low to none; from my knowledge of my father's upbringing, the walls of the house he grew up in were certainly not made of stone. Alistair did a pretty good job with the bungalow, he put proper foundations with blinding and clearly used colonial architects and engineers (and no doubt strictly supervised black Kenyan labour) when building it.

From the ground up:
problems with the foundations
show themselves higher up

In contrast, the 1976 extension, built some 13 years after independence was clearly a product of the aforementioned void. A boom time during which the first set of educated Kenyan engineers and architects were still emerging and building regulations were lax, if existent at all.

37 years later, the next generation (me) is able to report that "Houston, we have a problem"!

Works in the house started on Monday, and everything was going swimmingly. Then came Tuesday. And with it came the engineer, along with his big suitcase of piddle-on-you-parade, enthusiasm-dampening news.

In short, we discovered that the 1976 extension was a result a bit of its time. The extension has limited foundations without blinding (read: not very good foundations), leading to sinkage. Which manifests itself visibly thorough... cracks. Lots of cracks.

And  no sooner did the engineer leave than the damp proofing contractor came (yes I've had to add another contractor). Who reported that the subterranean part of the 1976 extension might not have been the best design ever. With serious water coming in, it would be necessary to damp proof it all, and as far as possible, dig the walls out of the earth.

For some reason, the old colonial house was painted white
and the extension left a muggy grey colour!

But it wasn't finished there. She casually added that we might want to call some termite exterminators relatively soon, given the way the trails are going (upwards).  The termite guys (or lady rather) will be coming tomorrow to given another quote. This will be contractor number 9 for the project. I think. I'm losing count nowadays!

So it would appear that there we're taking three steps back before we can go forwards. But then again, going back to the issue of post colonialism, maybe some of the African countries had to do similar to get to where they are today...

P.S. There are now building regulations including planning permission requirements in Kenya, and a wealth of highly qualified, skilled architects and engineers. We also have colour TV in case you wondered!