By KENFREY KIBERENGE in London

While most Kenyans must be envying Britain for hosting 2012 Olympics that got under way in London, UK, on Thursday, most Britons would rather the games had been held in another country.

Known for their fabled complaining tendency, what has come to be referred to as “whinging and whining”, Britons – particularly those in London – are anything but wowed by the games.

In a city where virtually everyone is on the fast lane, the general feeling is that the games are a disruption to their lives and can’t wait to see the last medal handed out.

Media reports indicate that a huge number of Londoners is going the opposite direction of the Olympics arena, if only to flee the “Olympics madness”.

Several lanes have been reserved for VIPs, who include athletes, officials, journalists, emergency services and games marketing partners, leaving the rest of the roads in gridlock.

Sh17,160 fine

A fine of Sh17,160 (£130) is slapped on any motorist caught using the lanes. And since Britain relies on traffic cameras to spot infractions, so many people will not know they have been ticketed until the mailman knocks on the door.

The lanes are only open to other drivers when Olympic traffic is light, with the information displayed on electronic signs.

This has however made things even more confusing for motorists. In one instance, a newspaper published pictures of an electronic sign telling motorists to use all the lanes, including the one marked ‘Olympic Lane’.

A motorist who ‘obeyed’ was later flagged down by a traffic policeman for flouting the rules.

Critics argue that the Olympic VIP road lanes are elitist and make life difficult for everyone else.

To avoid disappointments, most Londoners have resorted to taking the underground trains, commonly known as the tube.

But with 10 million visitors expected to descend on London, whose population was put at eight million by a census launched a fortnight ago, the trains are filling to capacity even on off-peak hours.

Being summer and since the trains are poorly ventilated, the smell of sweat has been a turn off for many.

So serious is the situation that UK ministers have been ordered to use public transport to the games. Prime Minister David Cameron has also promised to use the public means “like everyone else”.

Unimpressed 

Unimpressed, the ministers have, however, vowed to give the games a wide berth. “I would rather watch the games at home,” a minister told The Independent.

Most Londoners also feel that they have been taxed heavily over the years to foot the Sh1.1 trillion £8.8 billion Olympics bill, yet they will only watch the games from their homes due to overpriced tickets.

Depending on the sport and sitting area, Olympics tickets are fetching between Sh2,655 (£20.12) and Sh265,584 (£2,012).

Those who have managed to buy the tickets have another headache – queuing for hours on end to collect them. And that is not all, the seats are scattered which might separate parents from their children.

CoSport, a ticketing agency for the games, has apologised for the queues, but said it could do nothing to help some of those whose seats are scattered around stadiums. The whinging and whining habit of Britons, though, means that they complain yet savour the moment.

When it rains during summer, they grumble but put on gumboots and have fun with the mud.

On the lighter side, most companies aware of the probable transport mess have put in place measures offering some of their employees a chance to work from home.

Several of the tens of parks around London will be screening the games free of charge. Being a relaxed city, it means that people will buy cheap beers from the supermarket and enjoy with friends at the parks.

To put this into perspective, a pint that costs 660 (five pounds) in the clubs goes for Sh132 (one pound) at the supermarket. The sun too does not set until 9:20pm – and rises by 4:30am – meaning more hours for merriment.

But as the ordinary Britons grumble about the games making their lives harder, athletes are set for a time of their lives inside the Olympic village.

‘Bed hoping’

In what reads like a remake of the Sodom and Gomorrah, an anonymously authored book released a few weeks in London paints a picture of the village as a den of evils where sex and beer flow freely.

The book by a former UK Olympian talks of ‘bed hopping’ being the most popular sport in the village, referring to a habit of athletes changing partners.

Organisers are providing 150,000 condoms to be used by the expected 10,500 Olympians. During 2004 Athens Olympics, 130,000 condoms were provided for athletes. Women Olympians will also be provided with free emergency contraceptive pills.

Bidding to run a legal brothel at the games, Dennis Hof, who owns the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, a large-scale brothel in Nevada, US, told BBC he expects London to see “1,000 girls to be trafficked in by South East Asian, Albanian and African gangs, violent gangs involved in crime and drugs”.

There are also warnings that London will be flooded with prostitutes.

In January 2010, Tessa Jowell, then Minister for the Olympics in the previous government, told MPs: “Major sporting events can be a magnet for the global sex and trafficking industry; this is wholly unacceptable. I am determined that traffickers will not exploit London 2012.”

Already, the Metropolitan Police has raided several brothels around London.