Kenya's Middle Class

One of the first things that I remember Benjo saying to me when I got to Mwamba was that Kenya has a very strong and growing middle class; in other words, Kenya (mostly) is not the Africa seen on infomercials portraying starving children with bloated bellies. Especially in the Watamu area, with all the money coming in from tourism, you can see nice houses and shops, people are generally dressed very nicely, and there appears to be plenty of food to go around. It’s really good that there is a strong middle class in Kenya, because it means more people have disposable income, and more kids are getting to go all the way through high school. With more educated people, there are more opportunities for sustainable development in the country, and individuals have options for what to do with their life beyond simply surviving.

Brand new apartment buildings going up in
Malindi, the apartments themselves were
very nice.

Malindi, with new buildings going up all over.

One interesting thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of places use recycled materials in their buildings, such as recycled tin roofs (often rusty), or throw together materials to make walls, or use mud and poles in the traditional manner. Kenyans are very concerned with their personal appearance, but there is not too much interest in other aesthetics; I think it is simply not high on the priority list (unless tourists are involved). With a growing middle class, there will probably be a growing demand for increased “beauty”, which will mean new building materials instead of re-used ones. If this trend is similar in Africa in general, I wonder what sort of strain may be put on world resources for extracting new building materials, or for growing non-native species in-country for building purposes. I hope that Africans can learn about sustainable and responsible development and put it into practice, and learn from “first world” mistakes and problems. I understand that people's well-being and improved standard of living are of utmost importance, but I believe that there is enough knowledge and wealth in the world to have a high standard of living and environmental conservation.

A typical local restaurant in Kenya, not much for decor.

There is one thing I hope will change with a growing middle class and the desire for greater beauty in the world. Everywhere you look, pretty well no matter where you are, you can find trash blowing around, mostly plastic bags. I have even seen people drop trash on the ground. There is no garbage collection in Kenya, although there are some small companies starting up that are collecting recycling. With little interest in keeping a place pretty, who will pay to have their trash collected like we do in the US? And so far there is no government agency that provides trash collection. I think when people need to get rid of their trash that has built up they probably burn it, which can be dangerous depending on what is in the pile. If I had the money I would start a non-profit trash collection group, because trash really is ugly, but Kenya is really beautiful.