Strange double life in a city hostel

Without hostels, college life would be unthinkable in Kenya. Yet, students who rent rooms in estates and slums surrounding campuses have heart-rending tales of having to put up with horrid living conditions that pose numerous challenges to their lives.

When many parents pay accommodations fees, they falsely think that their children have a nice home away from home for the duration of their study. But the other side of the coin ushers in the shocking truth that hostels are no longer the quiet restrictive havens their planners intended.

Apart from accommodating students, hostels provide fertile grounds for all sorts of activities, both legal and illegal.

Some years back, an engineering student at the University of Nairobi was arraigned in court for being in possession of a cache of weapons in his hostel room. He reportedly had worked with gangsters giving them and their weapons refuge. After all, who could ever have suspected that a hostel could harbour criminal elements?

Jobless graduate

The student was later sentenced to five years in prison, and his case was only the tip of the iceberg in what goes on behind the closed doors of hostel rooms.

For a jobless graduate, a hostel provides the most convenient and affordable place to live. Having made a network of ‘comrades’ with similar interests while in campus, such a person hits the tarmac in search of a job from the safety of a hostel. One is assured of constant power and water supply, access to periodicals and Internet and cheap photocopying and printing services. For example, to typeset a page in campus costs Sh10 while it costs Sh30 elsewhere and even more in remote areas. Where such a person has entrepreneurship skills he/she even starts some business.

Stephen Odhiambo, a 25-year-old jobless graduate of Moi University, cohabits with his girlfriend at a hostel in a Nairobi college. When he came to the city, he initially put up with a relative at Mukuru Kayaba slum but life became unbearable. He had to dig deep into his pockets for every meal. Then there was bus fare and at the end of the month the landlord would be expecting rent.

Best services

Odhiambo, who was always broke, made up his mind to join his girlfriend at a hostel. He says he couldn’t bear being a burden to his relatives while he had the opportunity to live in the city centre with the best services possible.

"Life is a lot easier here than at Mukuru," he says of his new digs. "I use my computer to type, print and write CDs at a fee. I now have enough money to cater for my girlfriend and I can afford to appease her roommate who has to bear with our arrangement."

Odhiambo gives a disclaimer though: "You have to do this with caution lest the janitor or security officers catch you."

Asked whether many people are ‘pirating’, as living in hostels on the sly is referred to, he offers: "Yes, quite a number. Even the employed and the visiting rural kin join the bandwagon."

For the village kin and friends visiting the city for the first time and for a few days, the hostel is their first choice.

The only requirement is for one to be young enough to fit into the culture of ‘campuserians’ and be careful to dress like ‘comrades’. Then, they can effortlessly pass through the gates of almost any college and comfortably live in the hostels till they complete their businesses.

As expected, such a life of hustling has profound repercussions that cause a headache to the student accommodating a visitor. Customarily, a hostel accommodates between two to four students depending on their year of study, connections with hostel officers and of course their financial power. In cases where hostel rooms are crowded, the sight of visitors is rarely welcome. The rare times when students cope well with a third party is if he has lots of money to entertain them or has fruitful connections that will lead to job prospects. Such a relationship thrives when the newcomer is thrifty and willing to be a cash cow.

Unfortunately, this does not always happen and sometimes translates to enmity between the erstwhile friendly roommates.

Not socialised

The story is told of two students at Moi University who were sharing a room. When a third person came, their friendship hit the rocks. One student complained that the intruder was not socialised into the way of urban life let alone that of campus. He pointed out that his roommate’s visitor was dirty, careless and lacked demeanour in entertaining female visitors.

The two roommates finally had a fierce fight before they separated.

Perhaps the saddest role the hostel has taken upon is that of a brothel. Parents must take caution that entrusting their daughters to the care of hostel housekeepers might be misguided faith.

They must be willing to send their daughters enough money for their expenses or they will be enticed into prostitution.

It is common for people looking for casual sex and who have a friend in campus to sneak into hostels for a fling. Some people, especially graduates, prefer the hostel sex since it is cheaper and well concealed.

A source tells us that the price of sex here ranges from Sh100 to Sh500 with a free room thrown in. Hostels are relatively cheap, with little danger of a police swoop if one is careful to approach only particular girls.

"I prefer campus girls," a source confesses. "They are much more enlightened and professional than the twilight girls of Koinange Street."

A college girl adds the twist that some of her colleagues play both sides of the street, so to speak. "Yes it is true that we do visit K Street, but once exams begin, we entertain our clients at the hostels."

She finds it convenient when a regular client pays her a 30 minutes visit at her hostel room and leaves her Sh200. "The money sustains me and the fling provides the much needed break from my studies," she says.

Dark and gloomy

Closely related to the hostel prostitution is the production of pornographic movies. A hostel room is better equipped, cleaner and cheaper than a hotel room. Here, you do your thing without anyone meddling in your affairs. This is no fairy tale; VCDs abound featuring university students.

On a positive note, the unofficial activities of students residing in hostels are not just dark and gloomy. They contribute considerably to the country’s economic development.

With Nairobi city now a 24-hour economy, residents have to be very creative to survive the hard economic times. At a certain city hostel, roommates take turns with working youths for the occupancy of the room.

The working youths, who are on the night shift at their places of work, use the hostel between 8am till 5pm. They sleep, wash and bathe during the day and have to leave the room by latest 5pm. This suites them fine since they report to work in the Industrial Area at 6pm and work till 7.30am the following morning. Through a prior arrangement, albeit illegal, the real owners of the room- students- leave at 8am and keep off the room till 5pm. The working youths love this arrangement, which they find cheaper than renting their own rooms.

What enables such arrangements to work? "We have coped perfectly well because of our mutual trust and respect for each others’ property," says a student who requests anonymity.

At a campus hostel in Mombasa, one student is making good money thanks to his business acumen and enterprising spirit. After emerging successful in his computer services work, Kennedy Mwai invited his jobless brother to the city late last year. They carry out their business in his tiny room, which also doubles as a kitchen, a bedroom and a study room. The younger brother does typing, printing and related computer work. The business has thriving and they even sell eggs, tomatoes and airtime.

Thanks to their efforts, they have now saved enough for the younger brother to enrol in a college later in the year.

The good thing about this strange hostel life is that students have adapted and it has not affected their studies.