The time to head off in the direction of Kenya is approaching for hundreds of Italians who have chosen the African country and its wonders as their summer vacation destination.
In addition to dreams, desires and expectations (especially for those who have never been there) and nostalgia, physical need and certainties (for those who are frequent visitors) for tourists there is always some small patches, some stakes and some "breakups."

Actually, these are absolutely surmountable situations, with a little application and patience but, you know, patience nowadays is no longer considered a virtue.
Let's see, based on the indications that come to us from our readers and frequenters of our social spaces that gather a total of more than 40 thousand "followers", what are the main problems that arise during the organization of the trip and before departure.

ONLINE VISA
By now, those who are accustomed to traveling, after the famous September 11, with the advent of technologies and finally after the coup de grace of the pandemic, know well that in order to leave your country and especially in our case from the European Union, you need to have telematic documents, often downloadable online.
While to travel to Kenya finally, since last May, it is no longer mandatory to present proof of successful Covid-19 vaccinations, it remains compulsory to fill out a tourist visa online (with successful payment and receipt of the visa) from the evisa.go.ke website. This is the only site authorized to issue it, and it does so only the English language, asking a lot of things. People ask us "but why do they want a photograph uploaded, when it's already there on the passport?" or they don't understand why an "invitation letter" should be submitted by the facility or the people they will be staying with.
These are all indications that are part of the global method (which begins with our cell phone and multinational corporations' tracking methods through every channel on the internet) of monitoring the person.
Italians, it is known, are not very familiar with English, so they often rely on travel agencies or sites themselves that fill out the visa for them, clearly charging fees that start at 20 euros but go up to 100. Then many complain that "to come to Kenya I have to spend 150 euros just for the visa."
In any case, some problems arise even for those who are able to fill out the visa online, because of the less than perfect management of the site by the Kenyan institutional telematics system. In most cases, the payment receipt arrives but not the visa (in which case it is better to leave anyway, the authorities know about this drawback) or the whole process takes more than 72 hours and the legitimate fear rises that the visa may not arrive before departure.
In 99% of cases, it is useful for you to know, comes the happy ending. We wanted the global bicycle, now we have to allow even the babies (from the tech age and developing countries) to take off the training wheels and learn to pedal, since for some things (languages, for sure) they are better suited than us.

VACCINES
It is essential to know that no vaccines are currently required to come to Kenya. As mentioned above, neither that for Covid-19, nor for years any other kind of preventive sting, such as yellow fever, which is instead required in "neighboring" countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania.
Malaria chapter: there are those who go anxious because they would like to defend themselves against the Anopheles mosquito, but fortunately word is beginning to circulate that prophylaxis is decidedly antiquated, harmful and quite ineffective practice (things that we, thanks in part to our luminary friend Dr. Mauro Saio, among the proponents of the new preventive treatments against malaria, have been saying for years). Unfortunately, however, in the great confusion under the internet sky, there is also a rumor that there is a vaccine for malaria. False! Said vaccine is still experimental, and has only been tested on children, including in the Lake Victoria region of Kenya. But it will affect those living in areas of real danger, not travelers. For them, especially the fearful or very wary, there is a medicine to take home when they return from vacation. It is based on Artemisinin, just ask the pharmacist in Kenya and he knows. It costs about 20 euros and obviously you can't find it in Italy. Otherwise then no one buys malarone and the other useless prophylaxis drugs anymore.

SUITCASE
"Can I bring this? Can I bring that?"
The Italian tourist, even for just a ten-day vacation, seems unable to give up some basic things that belong to his daily routine. In addition to legitimate questions about medicines (for quantities exceeding the period of stay, always better to bring a prescription, as well as for psychotropic drugs and surroundings, otherwise no problem) the requests that come to us mainly concern foodstuffs and utensils. We have already discussed this several times on our website, and on the malindikenya.net Youtube channel you can find several tutorials, including just "what (not) to pack."
Example: two-week vacation in a bed-and-breakfast? Two packs of lavazza coffee, not ten. Two packs of pasta, not fifteen. "Can I bring the mocha, too?" Yes, as long as it is not new and still boxed, and this also applies to other items for which importation might be triggered, hence the request for a receipt and payment of the relevant taxes. But, take it from me, couldn't a vacation in Kenya also be an opportunity to detox (detox, as is fashionable to say nowadays) a bit from habits? Especially since between fish, vegetables, meat, fruit, basmati and pishori rice, legumes, cornmeal porridge, chapati, tropical fruit juices and the legendary Tusker beer, for a dozen days or more, there is no shortage of anything, and there is even (Kenyan) coffee for the mocha.

All that remains is to leave or, for the latest tips, write to us at info@malindikenya.net or ask questions in the Facebook group "Italians in Kenya" or on the malindikenya.net Youtube channel
KARIBU KENYA!