Blind Man Roams the Globe: Nairobi

When Peter White jets, sails or walks into a new city, it is the sounds, not the sights, which assail him. In this programme he explores Nairobi through the sounds of this African city.

Peter’s job as a broadcaster has taken him all over the world. At first he thought that he was missing out on not being able to see the standard tourist monuments, but when he travels now he has an arsenal of strategies to get to know a place. He listens to local radio, he takes in the sounds of restaurants, travel systems and the voices of the locals.

In Nairobi he finds a city struggling to reconcile expansion and commercialisation with the hit and miss access to disabled facilities and the worries about safety around the city. He is forced to navigate a strange environment without being able to see his way around: “Having been born blind, I’ve always travelled blind – and for me, sightseeing is more a case of ‘sound-hearing.”

(Photo: Decorated minisbuses, locally known as Matatu, are seen in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, 2015. Credit: Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images)