So here in Nairobi, we are on a daily 7pm to 5am curfew. In a society that is highly socially oriented, being under curfew is a hard thing. Because, in general, Africans love to visit each other, talk with neighbors, just hang out with friends after work, go to happy hours, clubs and bars, go shopping, go for evening walks and so on and so forth. So it’s been rough on folks.

But there is an upside

• Quiet. Generally Nairobi is a noisy city. There are parts of the city that never go to sleep. It’s like mini New York Cities all over the damn city! But now after 7 pm (okay, maybe not quite 7 coz there are those who still flaunt curfew or maybe just are unable to make it home by 7pm), there is quiet. I particularly love the morning quiet when I wake up before 5am and wow, there is actual silence, no cars on the road. And I sit quietly in my room and I am not subjected to the noise of early morning traffic. It’s pure bliss.
• Downtime. With nowhere to go after 7pm, more people are going home early, winding their days early and ffs going to bed early.
• More family time. Families have more time together.
• Less work hours. In our neighborhood, Donholm in the outskirts of the city, shops stay open 9pm, some later. Little pubs stay open till 1 am or later. Now everything has to be closed by 7pm. To allow workers to get home on time, Kamindi, the supermarket closest to us closes at 4:30pm.

I know there are downsides to curfew even more serious than merely losing socializing opportunities, but for this particular post, I just wanted to highlight some upsides. Perhaps I’ll go into the downsides on a future post