There are tens of thousands of Kenyans who felt cut off from communication with the rest of the world, particularly Europe and the United States, during the total blackout of Whatsapp and Facebook, including the Messenger audio and chat service.
In this particular period where the pandemic has already limited travel and direct relationships that many Kenyans have with Europeans and vice versa, not being able to communicate even for half a day with their contacts, has created anxiety and problems of all kinds.
Also at an internal level, between residents and categories of workers, Kenyan citizens and tourists, the temporary disconnection of groups, in every field, has brought millions of people back to single communication, to rely directly on sites for information of all kinds, something that for many people is not at all familiar. A good part of the users of websites are in fact used to access them only through facebook, or receive links in group chats on whatsapp.
In tourism, a field in which we have received several reports and messages, as well as emails, for many business owners and even homeowners, having to communicate through the traditional phone line, without being able to exchange video calls or images, has even created panic.
At this point it was legitimate for many to think that without these services (and not without the internet anyway) we would go back at least twenty years, when direct phone calls, with relative costs, were the only direct and "live" means to communicate.
And where, perhaps, we were only in touch for really important things.
Africa was such a distant and unimaginable place that the desire to discover it by going there on vacation grew more spontaneously and perhaps more attractively.
Today, on a daily basis (and we are the first to amplify our news, reports and the stories we publish), social networks photograph every possible and imaginable corner of Kenya minute by minute. Thousands of our compatriots from Italy are "connected" with Kenya 24 hours a day, each with their own reasons and priorities.
Since the advent of Facebook in particular, and then of chats like whatsapp and messenger, the long-distance relationship has evolved into an almost maniacal system of instant transmission of all kinds of information and "remote control" of many activities and situations.
Let's think, for example, of those who in this period manage and administer hospitality or catering activities remotely and thanks to these services can have the situation always under control in real time, or those who have the habit of talking for hours every day with employees, collaborators, partners or associates.
The global blackout of facebook, instagram and whatsapp has therefore opened for a moment a glimpse of reality that makes us understand how certain relationships and certain dynamics today are linked more to the means than to the real predisposition to meet, to know, to trust.
It only takes a few hours of "non-connection" and the fragile paper castle of the virtual world can take us back to what we are: travelers, adventurers, entrepreneurs, partners, friends, even lovers...but from a keyboard. Reality is something else and there will never be a blackout when you share something "in presence".