Meet Kenyan-Polish globetrotter who has visited all 195 countries

“I am like a stork. Every year I leave Poland in October and do not return until the end of March,” says Swalek Muturi as he ushers me to the boardroom of the Polish Trade Office, 5^th floor, Flamingo towers, Upperhill, Nairobi.

The view from here is magnificent and breathtaking. You can capture the widest Nairobi skyline! As I break into a sigh, Muturi interrupts my thoughts: “I have countless memories of such incredible backdrops.”

Slawek Muturi who was visiting Nairobi on his way to Cairo and Sydney by road, in his scheduled visit of all 195 countries by end of 2020, is probably the first man in the world to visit all the 195 countries twice, some of which he has visited more than 20 times.

Muturi has 35 passports in his collection, can speak 12 languages. For someone who has visited all the 193 member states of the UN, The Holy See and Palestine, one has to be creative, beyond geography lessons to understand the context of the "countless memories of such incredible backdrops” statement. 

I am here to learn and be inspired.

How it all began

Muturi believes he was born a free spirit.

“My late father, Muturi Mukiria, was Kenyan and my mother is Polish. “I have loved travelling since I was a child, even before I learned to read, I already knew the names of the countries,” he explains. 

He says he practically learned to read on the geographical atlas.

He was fortunate to travel a lot as a child. I mention that I come from Kajiando, and to my surprise, Muturi is quick to tell me he lived in Ngong, Upper Matasia before asserting that he knows the entire landscape “like the palm of his hands.” 

I wonder how much information he has about the countries of the world.

"I travelled a lot with my parents and before I was 18, I had already been to Tanzania, Egypt, and Germany," he says. 

Most of the Kenyan travels were when he was in school in Kenya. After high school, he went to University in Poland, an opportunity that opened all of Europe to his travelling passion.

He says that before he started his studies, he went to Sweden with his colleagues from Kenya to pick strawberries. He spent his earnings on the "inter-rail" ticket that enabled him to travel all over Europe for a month. At that, he says, he had a Kenyan passport, thanks to which he could enter most European countries without a visa. He did this every year, investing in travel money earned on seasonal work and was able to visit practically all countries of the Old Continent while he was a student.

Travelling to Western Europe was easier than travelling to Eastern Europe. In most of his travels to countries such as Czechoslovakia, there were complications and barriers everywhere, he notes.

His greatest breakthrough is a journey that he had his two friends make while still students. The planned trip was Kenya by flight, but in England, the duo abandoned the plane journey and opted for a road trip. 

They bought an old Land Rover and embarked on a trip that lasted ten months during which they covered Austria, Italy, and Sicily and by ship to Tunisia. 

From here, they turned to Algeria and travelled to Kenya through the Sahara. By the end of the 1989 trip, they had covered 21 countries. He says it was a long time before he got such a chance to go on a long journey again.

In adult life, Muturi focused all major life choices to travel and went ahead to study international trade and got a job in diplomacy. He finally got his way to work at the United Nations, which allowed him to travel a lot. 

“When I got married, I persuaded my wife to start working in an airline and thanks to that we had very cheap and often even free tickets. Together with their two children – a boy and a girl, the family travelled to countries like Brazil and Japan among others.

Travelling for a challenge and a goal

In 2000, the Muturi travel bug evolved into a passion for seeing the whole world. One day, he stumbled on a newspaper page detailing global weather information. The countries that he had not been to were less than a hundred. 

"I figured that since I already had been to more than a third without a plan, order, and composition, then maybe with a plan, I could be able to see them all," he reminisces.

He did not doubt that this was achievable. He set a long-term goal – thirteen years by which he should have accomplished his dream. Since then, he has never turned back. He knew he had to be financially free to be able to accomplish this dream. Earlier in 1998, he had figured out a way of early retirement and saved to invest in real estate – buying and renting apartments.

By 2000, the investment had paid off and Muturi had money to spare for his travels. At the time of his retirement in 2009, Muturi had established the biggest Real Estate, Mzuri Company (a business concept he got from his Kenyan uncle) apartment rental business in Poland and with a firm foundation; he now could retire and travel at 44 years old. 

Deal sealed, the next goal was to learn as many languages as he could. Today he speaks 12 languages fluently, including Kikuyu and Kiswahili. He too has published seven books touching on financial freedom and investing in real estate.

By 2002, Muturi had visited 26 new countries and each time he would set new goals which he pushes to exceed, which is why he has covered all 195 global countries, some of them more than 20 times. 

Does he have travel plans?

Interestingly, the globetrotter does overly plan travel for all his travels. 

“When I worked in consulting, we had a travel agency that handled our business trips, and I often ask for assistance in finding flights,” he explains, adding that most of the travel staff often thought he was crazy because he would be asking for flights for different parts of the world at the same time. 

"For example, I could ask for a ticket to Samoa Islands through Fiji, where I can fly through Los Angeles or Singapore, then to Argentina, Chile and maybe to Bolivia.

Before I embarked on my travels, storks fascinated me. The birds hate winter just as I do, and so every winter, they would leave Poland and only come back when the winter was over,” says Muturi.

He says what has fascinated him most was the preparation of the migratory birds before they embarked on their more than 6,000 km journey to Africa and other countries. They would spend time congregating in open fields. 

“I have often thought that these were planning meetings where they would choose their leaders – the strongest who would break air currents for the rest of the flock as they fly, most of the time gliding in a formation,” he explains, adding that this is why they are an inspiration.

He says, he never reserves anything prior, but always looks for accommodation after arrival, using the advice of residents. He does not read before travelling, as he believes this spoils his anticipation. 

"I am like a white card and I absolve what is happening," he says.

One of his memorable challenges, he says, is travelling to Iraq and Afghanistan, which he had to postpone due to war but finally, he was able to visit through connection.

"Even the Iraqis were surprised that I visited as a tourist and not a doctor coming for a military mission," he says grinning. 

Troublesome too, was Somalia. Other difficult cities have been Kabul, Erbil, and Mogadishu.

However, his biggest problem was with Equatorial Guinea. He tried getting a visa so many times even from England, Brussels, and Berlin unsuccessfully. Finally, he did manage, to the surprise of Guinea people who are not used to seeing tourists. 

"I was a big attraction," he confesses.

Parting shot

Muturi hopes to have visited each of the 195 countries at least twice by the end of 2021, during which he hopes to raise funds to provide accommodation for the adults leaving foster homes back in Poland. 

Each year, he says more than 17, 000 young adults leave foster homes in Poland with no fixed abode to stay as they struggle to be independent. 

If the project is successful, he will bring the idea to Kenya. At the same time, by the time he makes this global cycle, he hopes to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the first human being to visit all the 195 countries of the world – twice.