Together yet apart: Inside Kenya's urban loneliness pandemic

Many young people are choosing solitude, preferring to enjoy their own company without the encumbrances of a relationship. [Getty Images]

On a warm evening, Nairobi’s glass towers rise over vehicle-choked streets, while the city’s young professionals move with the same urgency as the traffic. Yet amid this urban rhythm, a quieter epidemic unfolds, loneliness clothed in the rituals of modern dating.

When Amani and David, two upcoming professionals, meet for coffee along Waiyaki Way this evening, they find themselves in such a predicament, but joke about and talk freely about what to anticipate from their weekend getaway to Naivasha, a respite from the hectic pace of city life.