Skitty interviewed by Toby Brockelbank
Nexus are stoked to share our interview on the Kenyan skate scene and some of the crew’s recent mish skating across Kenya, from Nairobi to Lodwar – that’s over 700 km on a fucking skateboard! We reached out to the Skateboarding Society of Kenya (SSK) who lined us up with Skitty, @moonsoon_skater, who just finished the cross-country skating. Thanks heaps to SSK for sorting the interview and Skitty for chatting with us. Read the interview and support the homies!
1. Who are you and how did you start skating?
Hello, I’m Skitty, a skateboarder based in Nairobi, Kenya. I first got introduced to skateboarding around 2013 when there was a skatepark that was built in Shangilia. I used to go to school there by that time. On the opening day of the skate park, I couldn’t skate because I was on suspension haha. So I went away for three weeks. Then when I came back, everybody was skating. So that was really scaring. Every part of me was really scared.
How I ended up skating is I kept showing up every day, just watching. And yeah, mostly watching and then sometimes just get on the board for a couple of minutes, then I would be done for a day. Like just being on a skateboard for two minutes – that time was a good feeling.
2. What do you love about skateboarding?
I do love the freedom in skateboarding because you can literally take a piece of wood with four wheels and turn a place to a playground, like an empty space to a playground. So it’s the freedom and the creativity, and there’s also travelling, just moving. All these things can literally force you to conquer your own fears. So yeah, that’s what I love about skateboarding.
3. What’s the skate scene like in Kenya?
The scene in Kenya is growing a lot. Nairobi has a strong scene, but there are skaters all over the country. There’s a lot of talent currently and people creating their own spaces and communities. We still have challenges with facilities and support from the government, but the scene keeps moving.
4. What do the public think of skaters?
It depends on where you are. Some people think we’re just causing trouble or playing around, while others, they pay attention and they want to know what is this? They’re trying to find out who are these guys or what are they doing? So yeah, it depends on the environment or the location you are.
5. Do you guys get kicked out of spots much?
Definitely. That’s like a curse to all skateboarders in the world because you can go to a place, you find a nice spot, staircase, and the floor is suitable for skateboarding. You can’t even ruin it, it’s terrazzo. It’s smooth, but the [security] guard there comes and just kicks you out and be like, ‘aye you’re going to destroy the floor’. Like some people are just afraid of thinking – that’s how we view it.
But at the end of the day, you can go away and then come back another day and hit the spot you know. Skaters are skaters. Being kicked out of spots, especially us, that we only have one skatepark, so most of the time we are on the streets, so yeah, we get kicked out of the streets A LOT.
6. Is it easy to skate over there?
Again, I’m about to say it depends. Not always, like there are not enough skateparks so we have to be on the streets. For the streets you have to wait to skate on a Sunday. That’s when the shops are closed and at least you can hit most spots on the streets. Then again, remember the guards there, they don’t like us. They feel like we are trying to just bring trouble to their workspaces. So you see, it’s not that easy, but like we can’t complain. We just have to use what we have.
7. Tell us about the skating across Kenya?
So here I have two perspectives cause I really did skate across Kenya the other day. So let me start with that, skating across Kenya was awesome. You know, bonding with friends. Like somebody you’ve never existed with in one space for over 48 hours, now you have to spend like 15 days with this guy. You need to be like a patient person, understanding person. It was really tough at the beginning, understanding each other. Like, you know, getting to the pace, but when we did tap into the space of, now we accept it’s just us and we have to exist as a family. That was the moment we conquered everything and the journey got even way interesting. Instead of getting way harder, the journey got way interesting and sharing love to somebody you don’t know exists.
People showed us love along the way. And some others were just watching what is this thing? It is their first time seeing a skateboard or they’ve never seen it physically. So yeah, that was fun and inspiring.
Now skateboarding across Kenya – in terms of all over Kenya, how is the growth? So Nairobi basically is like the capital of skateboarding cause most skaters are around Nairobi or close to Nairobi, but when you go deep into some other counties within the country, you find there’s a scene there, people who skate there, but most of the time we only meet when they come to Nairobi for events, you know, cause most events are actually in Nairobi.
The people I was skating with across Kenya were five skateboarders and two people who are cyclists, but like only one was a cyclist, because the other one was cycling but he was a skateboarder. So we were a total of six skateboarders heading to a legendary mission that we didn’t even know was legendary. We were just trying to give the kids in Turkana a space to have fun the same way people in Nairobi are having fun so they can also have fun there without coming to Nairobi.
8. Best Kenyan food we should try?
Best Kenyan food you should try when you visit Nairobi, Nyama Choma and Ugali. BUT there’s something they call Mukimo. For me, I’ll tell you try Mukimo and chapati. When you get to Nairobi, try Mokimo and chapati.
9. What makes Kenyan skateboarding unique?
So the creativity and the community is special. We don’t have like perfect facilities or equipment, so we learn to make the things work like out of something that is the only thing we have. We all know that skateboarding, it’s not just about tricks. You can connect with people, you know, skateboarding is all about connection, and we have that in our skating scene.
10. We’re also interviewing Gose again so I have to ask, could you beat Uganda in a game of S.K.A.T.E.?
Uganda has some really good skaters so it wouldn’t be easy. You know it’s really hard, but put us on the same flat ground, call a game of skate and let the boards decide hahaha.
11. Any final words for readers in New Zealand?
My final words for riders in New Zealand, yo guys, come on, come skate with us, bring your boards, bring your good energy and, you know, don’t be afraid to explore outside Nairobi too. We’d love to connect, skate together, and show you that Kenya skateboarding scene is also in existence. And hear me out guys, hear me out, Skateboarding will always provide.
Big love to my fellow skaters all over the world.
