Goodbye ‘ugali’, Kenyans are starting to prefer other flours and grains, and spaghetti is also popping up on the country's tables.
There are many reasons that can lead to a change in a country's food production and consequently in its eating habits.
They range from the well-known problems of climate and harvests, to the widening range of social inequalities, to new cultivation techniques that allow even small farmers to save money and get more satisfaction from products they had not previously considered.
And here, for example, is how in Kenya maize flour is no longer the population's staple livelihood, but is steadily declining, leading to the slow disappearance of ugali, one of the national dishes, from the Kenyans' table. Alongside the traditional maize flour porridge, other types of cereals are gradually being added, which are not only competitive in terms of their price on the market, but can also be grown by those who have a classic vegetable garden (‘shamba’ in Kenyan, i.e. field) with less expense and more quantity.
The change in culinary habits is also visible in many small local shops, where, for example, people are starting to sell (and buy, even for the less affluent) pasta. Spaghetti produced by local companies replacing polenta or rice as an accompaniment to the main (and often only) dish of the day.
In local markets, one can see large pots with timbales of pasta (often cooked with tomato and eggs) being sold in slices.
As has always been the case in many West African nations, often not blessed by Kenya's own fertility, cassava flour is a staple food and even in East Africa cassava is increasingly present and cultivated. In addition to making flour and polenta, cassava is eaten boiled or fried like a potato and its price is low and constant.
Another product that is increasingly in the homes and huts of Kenyans is the sweet potato. Its ease of cultivation, with three harvests a year, little need for water and resistance to insects and other soil threats, make it an essential food of the present and the future. Thus, maize porridge is replaced by mashed or sweet potato-based preparations.
The demise of the ugali is also being monitored by the international economy. According to an American research by the data company ‘Knoema’, wheat production in Kenya in 2020 was 300 thousand tonnes. This represents a reduction of more than 20 per cent compared to the previous year. New eating habits, often also dictated by climate change, have affected imports in no small measure, allowing the new government to make do with domestic maize (and sugar) and no longer have to depend on the Soviet bloc and the United States, at least in this respect.
Kenyan Vice-President Kithure Kindiki recently said that thanks to the government's interventions, the country now produces enough maize and sugar for domestic consumption. ‘Today, for the first time in 16 years, Kenya will not import a single bag of maize. When we came into office in 2022, we had to grant permits for the importation of 10 million bags of maize. The second year the amount of imports dropped to about seven million and this year we are not importing any sacks of maize. We subsidised fertilisers and other interventions to strengthen that value chain and we are doing the same for others,' Kindiki said.
According to Kenyan experts, the consumption of wheat and cereal-based food products has now surpassed that of maize meal across the country.
Besides the import problem, there is also the domestic one. In addition to prices, one of the main problems encountered by farmers with maize is the losses that occur after harvesting, especially due to wet conditions. The ‘cartel’ of large distribution companies that continually raise and lower prices is certainly another determining factor. So there are several factors that lead to producing less, relying on alternative crops (such as cassava, a very productive and nutritious plant that is hardy but also very ‘exclusive’, i.e. where it grows, nothing else can be grown).