On the floor of the Great Rift Valley, Lake Nakuru National Park sits calmly with the abundance of wildlife. This alone attracted a Canadian family that chose to stay in Kenya.
For the better part of 2021, Patrick Bell, his wife and two children have been in the country.
They call Kenya their second home.
Bell told Daring abroad by Alex Chamwanda in his April series that he fell in love with Kenya in December 2007 when he first visited the park.
However, the deadly 2007-2008 post-election violence cut short his trip after two weeks and he returned to his home country, Canada.
“I came here in December 2007 with my family about two weeks before the post-election violence,” Bell the CEO of Lionheart Acceleration Systems recalled.
Eight years later, he returned to the same park with his wife to mark their 25th anniversary.
He describes Lake Nakuru as one of his favourite places in the world.
When returned with his family sometime in 2020, they made a firm decision to stay in Kenya due to several reasons.
Bell explains that Kenya, even with the pandemic, has not restriction like Canada and is pretty much safe.
“Just a lot more freedom here than in Canada I think a lot less fear here in Kenya so we’re really grateful to be here…once you’re here, it’s great.”
He said that in Canada, “they are preaching a lot of fear and I don’t like that.”
Bell says Kenya has handled the pandemic excellently.
“It looks excellent. I like it that before I go into a store, I check my temperature of course I have my mask on, I sanitize and I am free to walk around it’s just fine,” he opined.
