When Uganda’s politics and economics got whacky in the early 1970s, the commonest immediate goal of Makerere University students was to graduate, sneak into Kenya, and get a job in the education and health sectors. Work permits were then not required within East Africa. This continued for over a decade.
Many Ugandans who got posted in Kenya’s then mushrooming (community supported) “Harambee” schools and hospital Nyayo wards had this habit of travelling to Nairobi once a month after getting their salary, which was many times bigger than what they could earn in Uganda. Theirs were not shopping trips but exploratory; to explore the famed Nairobi city using the Kenya Bus Services (KBS) buses.
