For the Kikuyus in Central province, food used to be mainly boiled and mashed. This is the home of githeri, a mixture of maize (corn) and beans boiled together and eaten as a complete meal. At times the mixture would be mashed with potatoes.  Today the githeri is sometimes

fried with onions, and tomatoes and eaten with vegetables as shown in the picture. The Kikuyus other staple food is “irio” which is cooked peas mashed with potatoes. There were other food products like yams, cassava and arrow roots which were also eaten after boiling. As you can tell the Kikuyus diet was very blunt and consequently obesity was unheard of.

In the Western side of Kenya we have the Luos and the Baluyas. Maize was the main staple food which was grounded to make flour for “ugali”. Ugali is a paste like gruel made form maize flour in boiling water. It is normally eaten with green leafy vegetables, cabbages or fish as a meal. Since the Luos live near Lake Victoria, Fish was and is a common food element. They also eat a lot of green leafy vegetables like collard greens. Apart from Maize, the Luos also use millet flour. Green cooked Bananas was staple to all tribes but in particular tribes in Western Kenya. Some roasted the bananas while others boiled and mashed them. In the Coastal province, because of the influence of Arabs, there is a lot of use of spices. Cooking with coconut is also very popular. The main dishes are fish, plantains, and rice. Rice is cooked using coconut milk and other spices to make a dish  called “pilau”.

 Ugail, the white dough with cabbages mixed with carrots

Today however we cannot limit one tribe to eating a particular kind of food because of the mixing of people in the cities. No longer can you say certain foods are the domain of a particular tribe. There is also the influence of Indian cuisine due to Indians who settled in Kenya since the 19th century which has become Kenyanised and is now assumed Kenyan cuisine. The cooking methods have also changed in different communities. Githeri is not just a central dish and neither is ugali a Western dish. All tribes experiment with different spices and herbs which are readily available in the markets. It is rare to have a meal without a kind of vegetable to accompany the main meal in any Kenyan meal.

Onions, garlic and tomatoes are a must in frying food.  Collard greens, known as sukuma wiki is eaten daily in most homes because it is easily available and affordable.  Sukuma wiki literally means, stretching the week. Sukuma wiki is sometimes mixed with spinach making it even more nutritional. The other common leafy vegetable is the cabbage. This is often mixed with carrots. Maize (corn) Rice and Potatoes are the main starchy food. Rice is made in different ways from boiled rice to Pilau rice. Kenyans also eat chapatis, which is a kind of bread made from wheat flour. This is one of dishes borrowed from Indian cuisine.

chapatis are the tortila like bread

Kenyans are also great meat eaters and the most common is goat meat and beef. Mutton and fish are other alternatives. Chicken is more expensive than beef but is also a common meat dish. During celebrations goat meat and chicken are the main meat dishes. Places for roasting meat while people drink beer have become popular in the cities. Roast meat is always accompanied by “kachumbari”, a kind of salsa, and salad accompanied by Ugali or Irio.  The meat is fresh and can be bought directly from the slaughter house after inspection.  Goat ribs, spinach , kachumbari and ugali.

Kenyans drink more tea than any other beverage.   Hot tea with milk is the main breakfast drink. Kenya as a country grows both tea and coffee as an export crop, but coffee is not consumed as much as tea. Porridge, a breakfast meal similar to oatmeal, is another breakfast item. The porridge can be fermented or made fresh from maize flour or millet flour. If made fresh one can add milk and sugar or sprinkle lemon or lime juice and add sugar. Kenyans treasure their mandazis which are similar to doughnuts

without the sugary staff. They are precious with a cup of hot tea. Samosa’s, another borrowed item from the Indian cuisine, is also a very popular snack in Kenya. This wheat dough stuffed with ground beef or chicken or vegetables spiced with cinnamon and chili powder.

samosas