5 Things That Surprised Me About Kenya

After spending several weeks travelling around Kenya, there were obviously things I expected: safaris, beautiful landscapes, Swahili culture on the coast…

But some of the things that surprised me the most had absolutely nothing to do with wildlife or beaches.

Here are 5 things that genuinely surprised me about Kenya.

1. Congolese music is EVERYWHERE

This was probably one of the most unexpected ones.

Kenyans LOVE Congolese music.

I heard it in restaurants, cars, bars and random places throughout my trip. Of course, I knew Congolese music had a huge influence across Francophone Africa, but I hadn’t realised just how popular it was in Kenya.

And we’re not talking about one or two famous songs.

Congolese rumba and other sounds from Central Africa seem to have a real place in Kenyan music culture. From beach resorts to taxi drivers and small bars on the corner, you will hear Congolese music.

It was a nice reminder that African cultural influences travel far beyond the linguistic and regional borders we tend to use when talking about the continent.

And maybe the connection isn’t as surprising as it first seems. Swahili is also widely spoken in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the east of the country. So despite one country often being labelled “Francophone Central Africa” and the other “Anglophone East Africa”, there are more cultural and linguistic connections between the two than I initially thought.

2. There’s a surprisingly visible Francophone diaspora

Another thing I really wasn’t expecting: so much French!

Kenya is an English- and Swahili-speaking country, so I wasn’t particularly expecting to encounter such a visible Francophone community.

But especially in Nairobi, I kept meeting or hearing about people from French-speaking African countries and, with no surprise considering my first point, a lot of Congolese!

As a French speaker myself, it was quite surprising to realise that there is a whole Francophone ecosystem within this very Anglophone East African city.

Nairobi is much more international than I had imagined before coming here, and the Francophone African presence was one of the things that made me notice it.

3. You can basically live cashless

I barely needed cash in Kenya.

I think I withdrew cash once during my entire trip. My sister also brought some cash with her, which we exchanged but the money basically went straight into M-PESA.

And I love that because I don’t like carrying cash.

Between credit cards and M-PESA, you can pay for almost everything electronically from restaurants and supermarkets to taxis, small businesses and everyday purchases.

But by the way, what does M-PESA actually mean?

The name combines “M” for mobile and “pesa,” the Swahili word for money essentially, mobile money.

Even very small transactions can be digital, which makes travelling around the country incredibly convenient.

I won’t lie, though: the concept itself wasn’t completely new to me. Living in Ghana, I’m already very used to mobile money through MTN MoMo.

Still, I was impressed by how easy it was to combine M-PESA and card payments in Kenya and basically forget about cash altogether.

For travellers, that’s such an underrated convenience.

4. Wait… there’s Carrefour?!

This one is probably particularly funny because I’m French.

I arrived in Kenya and suddenly…

Carrefour.

Not a tiny supermarket carrying a few imported Carrefour products. Actual Carrefour hypermarkets.

I don’t know why I was so surprised, but seeing such a familiar French brand thousands of kilometres away from France felt strangely comforting.

After weeks of travelling, there was something almost nostalgic about walking into a supermarket and immediately recognising the logo, the layout and some of the products.

But beyond the nostalgia, I was also surprised by the size of some supermarkets and shopping centres in Nairobi.

I definitely wasn’t expecting grocery shopping to feel quite this familiar.

Sometimes, when you’ve been travelling for weeks, seeing a supermarket you recognise feels almost like finding a tiny piece of home.

5. The amount of choice in supermarkets

And Carrefour leads directly to my final surprise:

THE CHOICE.

This one particularly stood out because I live in Accra, Ghana.

In Nairobi supermarkets, I genuinely found myself looking at the shelves thinking:

Why are there so many options?!

Different brands. Imported products. Kenyan products. Beauty products. Organic products. International foods. Different versions of basically everything.

Of course, you can find good supermarkets and imported products in Accra too. But from my experience living there, the variety available in Nairobi felt noticeably bigger.

And yes, supermarket shelves might sound like a ridiculous thing to notice when you’re travelling around Kenya.

But I actually think these small details tell you a lot about what everyday life in a city feels like.

When you’re visiting somewhere for a week, supermarket variety probably doesn’t matter.

When you’ve lived abroad for years and naturally start wondering, “Could I actually live here?”, suddenly it does.

And Nairobi definitely made me notice the difference.

The things that surprise you aren’t always the things in the guidebook

Before coming to Kenya, I could have guessed that I’d be impressed by the Maasai Mara.

I could have guessed that I’d enjoy the coast.

What I couldn’t have predicted was that I’d leave talking about Congolese music, the Francophone diaspora, M-PESA, Carrefour and supermarket shelves.

But that’s also what I love about travelling.

After a while, it’s not necessarily the famous attractions that teach you the most about a country.

Sometimes it’s paying for something without cash.

Sometimes it’s hearing a song you recognise.

And sometimes…

it’s standing in the middle of Carrefour wondering why Kenya has more grocery options than the city you actually live in. 😂

Those little everyday discoveries are part of travelling too.

If you’ve been to Kenya, what surprised you the most?

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