Take some time and think of the term “rural modernity”. Who lives there? What images and ideas does the term conjure? Is it the sprawling landscape of Mbeere land, or the pristine habitations of Kuresoi? Perhaps it’s the undulating plateau of Kitale or the semi-scorched arid life of Kitui? The soggy greenery of Tana River County or the rocky face of Pokot land? Perhaps the dense greenery of Nyandarua or the flat-bed landscape of rural Nyanza?
Rural means more than just the oft-quoted laid-back serenity, a retreat from the visible power of urbanity its sleek consumerism. Rather, rural modern currently exists as a crucible for new versions of what’s to be considered modern, with a distinct role and curation of Kenya’s national life.
The rise of rural modernity in Kenya – inspired by the mobile handset, devolution, the motorbike craze, and mobile money transfer services – has impacted different rural set-ups in unique ways as regards to economic stresses, the road network, digital growth, the rural electrification programme, shrinking land sizes, and the evolution of local identities.
Consequently, rural modernity has come to be associated with tight communal living and for many sociologists, this idea of close-knit kinship embodies the essence of what differentiates rural life from urban life. As French sociologist Alex De Tocqueville, who explored and observed the rural modernity of 19thcentury North America, remarked, ”Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations. There are not only commercial and industrial associations in which all take part but others of a thousand different types – religious, moral, serious, futile, very general and very limited, immensely large and very minute.”
The varied models of rural modernity reflect diversely in cultural events, slang, social norms, geographical accidents, and much more intuitively in culinary habits ranging from food buying, preparation, preservation, and consumption. For many of these rural enclaves, their food systems and culinary cultures are made up of complex, nuanced, and nutritionally diverse diets, rituals, signals of hierarchy and even care. Hence, such culinary cultures and food systems, when properly observed around the country, give critical insights into what is at stake agriculturally and socially, and in terms of economics and dietary attitudes.
A food system is a complex web of diverse interrelated ideas on how food production, processing, storage, purchase, and dietary choices intersect. This ranges from the economics of food production, culinary constraints, food safety concerns, sustainability issues, food wastage, and their social and ecological impact on persons and families in such far-flung places as Todonyang in Turkana county at the North-Eastern border between Kenya and Ethiopia.
Besides religion, farming remains one of the core and now receding emblems of Kenyan rural life, where it not only serves as the primary source of income but also as the driving force and pervasive influence in the rural economy and in social relations. Despite the changes brought about by rapid urbanisation, the legacy of this historical centrality of farming to rural modernity is still visible today in up-country villages and is evident in the travels into rural areas. The irony is that a major aspect of the change in rural areas since the advent of phones and motorbikes has been the evolution of agriculture, which has seen farming edged to the margins of everyday rural life as most residents divest.
Food security in the counties
In modern times, the agricultural evolution makes up only a part of the story of rural modernity, which is backed by other traditional rural economic pursuits, such as gambling, forestry, micro-firms, fishing, and quarrying. Within their demographics, rural enclaves are living organisms pegged on certain wealth inequalities, terrains, land economics, demographic pressures, informality, location, and rural anthropology honed over decades.
That’s why, even as austerity hits the country, different rural populations will adjust differently to the fiscal meltdown, especially given that it’s mostly public spending that drives growth and money circulation in these rural regions. The working projections based on the urban/rural ratio of counties, their food systems, location, public spending, demographics and per capita incomes shows that freezing public spending on projects is going to be felt immediately in cities.
Besides religion, farming remains one of the core and now receding emblems of Kenyan rural life, where it not only serves as the primary source of income but also as the driving force and pervasive influence in the rural economy and in social relations.
Nairobi, which is demographically a slum town, will gentrify, given that its food systems are dependent on external supply units– a fair share of which use pesticides with active ingredients. The fact that 2.5 million of the more than 4 million Nairobi residents live in over 280 slums means that Nairobians’ tenuous existence makes them the first causalities of a food crunch and relocation.
Mombasa has a huge pool of indigenous Mijikenda community members so there’s going to be little migration and the county also spent a huge amount on projects which might offset a bit of the economic heat. Mombasa and Eldoret towns (not the counties) might see greater food resource conflicts too, heightened tribalism, and clannism.
Kilifi too has spent quite a bit on projects, but it also has a majority of rural poor, which means that its social structure and the subsistence food systems won’t change a lot.
Kisumu is highly dependent on neighbouring counties and Uganda for food and sustenance. This city of over half a million people (the third-largest in the country) is also the fifth in revenue generation, which means most of its value lies in asset value as opposed to trading.
Therefore, the rising food prices will dent it economically – unless the city thinks of alternatives, and fast.
Nyeri and Meru still have large rural land-dependent and relatively stable internal food systems, for whatever they are worth. Curiously, Kiambu town is exhibiting the same symptoms that Trans-Nzoia had in the 1990s, with an explosion of small-scale traders comprising blue-collar workers from the small industries around the county.
Kisii, Murang’a, and Nyamira will see more social conflicts, thanks to the small land units squeezed by subdivision. Land and food resource stresses might lead to hostilities.
Migori, Kwale, Samburu, Uasin Gishu, as well as Narok, have a lot of peri-urban, well-off communities with relatively healthy cashflows, which might stave off some of the effects of the austerities and provide high dietary options.
The industrial collapse in the Mumias side of Kakamega will precipitate heightened food insecurity and food conflict, while the relative homogeneity of Kakamega town will experience rural-rural migration. The Likuyani/Turbo has food systems, though they will also be strained. Bungoma, which has a lot of rural poor (the second-highest in the country) will sink further, though its food systems, if properly managed, might mitigate some of that.
Counties with largely rural modernity like Siaya and Taita-Taveta, which also have low development spending, will struggle to sustain their social frameworks.
Nairobi, which is demographically a slum town, will gentrify, given that its food systems are dependent on external supply units…The fact that 2.5 million of the more than 4 million Nairobi residents live in over 280 slums means that Nairobians’ tenuous existence makes them the first causalities of a food crunch and relocation.
The demographic dividend in Tharaka-Nithi will have to boost its food supplies and export it to other counties to offset resource pressure.
Vihiga County is quite multi-ethnic with small-town life and food systems that risk being snuffed. Meanwhile, West Pokot, Elgeyo, Nandi, Isiolo, and Turkana have dicey food prospects.
Most of the towns in the lower eastern region will become sanctuaries for people seeking economic prospects as food systems in their respective hometowns dry up. If properly managed, Nakuru, Laikipia, Kapsabet, and Kericho will become the top four main food refuge centres in the country as austerities bite.
Trans-Nzoia will deteriorate further while border counties like Busia, Homa Bay, Taita-Taveta and Garissa might depopulate as more people seek food and sustenance across the border to offset shrinking prospects this side of the border.
Culinary options
Milk and its related products makeup the top foods consumed in both urban and rural Kenya, trailed by maize, wheat, and vegetables. The 2018 Food Balance Sheet (FBS) by the National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) put the milk products per capita usage at 93 kg in 2018, with maize and maize products (69kg) second, followed by wheat products (41kg) and vegetables (32kg). The biggest change in per capita demand registered was in bananas, at 27kg, which is an 82 percent jump from the previous year, followed by a 42% rise in tomatoes, with each Kenyan consuming 8.5kg in 2018.
The rise in milk consumption nationally coincided with an 18 per cent growth in milk production, from 535 million litres to 634million litres last year, with milk products, such as ghee, cream, cheese, and butter, also recording a rise.
Most of the towns in the lower eastern region will become sanctuaries for people seeking economic prospects as food systems in their respective hometowns dry up. If properly managed, Nakuru, Laikipia, Kapsabet, and Kericho will become the top four main food refuge centres in the country as austerities bite.
The current initiative of giving free milk to nursery school pupils in Nairobi, Mombasa, Murang’a, Embu, and Migori also spiked the demand. Keep in mind that it wasn’t the Portuguese introduction of maize to the Swahili in the 1500s, but its commercialisation by the British in the 1800s that made it a staple food, quickly replacing sorghum and millet. The current trends indicate a shift towards bananas while wheat and tomatoes remain the next most popularly consumed food commodities. Meanwhile, potatoes, rice, beans, cassava, and onions recorded massive drops.
Livestock keeping
Kenya’s total population estimate of 50 million will raise the demand for animal-source foods, with the cattle and chicken population ticking upwards significantly. The 100 million citizens by 2050 will need an extra 8 million tonnes of milk, beef and chicken to meet food demands.
The current animal census is 45 million poultry, 27 million goats, 19 million cattle (14 million beef cattle and 5 million cows), 19 million sheep, 3 million camels, 2 million donkeys, and 0.5 million pigs. Cattle, mostly from the arid and semi-arid areas (ASALs), and chicken make up about 70 percent to the total livestock production. The per capita livestock product needs for the average Kenyan is approximated at 121 litres of milk, 16 kg of meat, and 45 eggs per person per annum.
Land sizes in Kenya
A critical variable of our food system is land-ownership. The majority of land ownership in the country is smallholder ownership, which dominates the 4,500,000 title deeds issued since 2013, as well as the 5,600,000 issued between 1963 and 2012.
A Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) review of the millions of these title deeds issued between 2013 and 2017 revealed glaring gender disparities in the actual land sizes titled for men and women. The disaggregated and analysed data revealed that of the over 1 million titles issued over that period, women only got 103,043 titles or 10.3 percent, while men got 865,095 titles, accounting for 86.5 percent. The data collated from 47 county land registries shows that out of the 10.1 million hectares of land-titled, women got 163,253 hectares, which is a partly 1.62 percent, while men got 9.9 million hectares, or 97.7 percent.
Milk and its related products makeup the top foods consumed in both urban and rural Kenya, trailed by maize, wheat, and vegetables.
Meanwhile, large landholdings (an estimated 2.5 million acres, mostly patronised by elite white families) skew land sizes and ownership, especially in rural enclaves such as rural Nakuru, Isiolo, Lamu, as well as Laikipia County, which straddles the slopes of Mt Kenya and the Rift Valley escarpments.
The local Maa community in Laikipia, numbering about 40,000, are huddled onto small patches of land totalling 281, 000 acres. Meanwhile, the Euro-American community, and a few well-connected local barons numbering about 20, occupy 36 estates (75 percent of the land), each ranging from between 5,000 acres to over 100,000 acres, most of which are designated as wildlife sanctuaries.
Radical rural shifts
Population pressures, compounded by digital leaps, massive use of carcinogenic pesticides, rural electrification, the betting craze, app-based credit facilities, farming as tradition, real estate-ification of rural lands, and the intersection of tech and farming have reshaped the food systems both positively and negatively. The overall effects of these changes on Kenya’s food systems precipitate the marginalisation of the over 600,000 smallholder farmers, the cartelisation of the value-addition process, the weakening of local wholesale and retail chains, shifts in rural food industries, and a rise in the supply of processed foods. These rural food systems ought to be wrestled away from brokers and optimised to evenly distribute gains to rural economies.
It is not just the physical aspects of rural spaces that are rapidly evolving; oral histories, food systems, social relations, and economic life are also being transformed, leading to the silent loss of traditional culinary knowledge of the people who have lived in the rural milieu for the better part of their lives. If tapped into, rural food systems, as vibrant, sophisticated, and complex purveyors of sustenance and modernity, can infuse Kenya’s national life with a diverse variety of dishes that should be mainstreamed.
Therefore, urgency and care ought to be extended to the evolution of rural modernity in ways that check the power of large agrochemical brands in the food chain and the hegemony of manipulated big money agro-politics.
Written and published with the support of the Route to Food Initiative (RTFI) (www.routetofood.org). Views expressed in the article are not necessarily those of the RTFI.
