Subtle signs of middle-class living in Kenya

The middle class demography is complex in terms variables and indices of economic and social status.

It is a discussion I have had with several people and we never agreed on the size of the middle class in Kenya. The middle class is the demographic between the upper and lower classes. The imaginary “poverty line” is the Equator of economic status, dividing the upper North and lower South.

This implies that the middle class is either standing, hanging or sitting on it. If you are seated, then you are middle-middle class. Those who are standing are upper middle while those who are hanging on it are lower middle.

According to the Kenya Bureau of Statistics, the low class is made up of households earning no more than Sh23,000 per month. Any household with income between Sh23,000 and Sh120,000 is in the middle-class bracket. Incomes above that takes households to the upper class.

About 360,000 people in Kenya earn more than Sh120,000. Those numbers in comparison to our adult population greatly shrink the upper class while expanding the middle class into the upper margins of low class.

If I go into the economic indices used to measure middle class, we will not agree. Many people earning above Sh23,000 do not see themselves as middle class. That applies to many people earning above Sh120,000 viewing themselves as middle class and not upper class. Most of Kenyans fall in the class called one salary away from poverty.

However, if your house has a shoe rack, you are middle class. This means you can afford many pairs of shoes to fill the rack. That you have shoes for evening wear, gym, outdoors and office shoes says a lot about your income. This may not expressly apply to ladies, especially those who have a taste for things above their economic status. If a lady has several handbags with shoes to match each one of them, then she is middle class.

If you are a man and you can afford several pairs of shoes for yourself and your children, you are middle class. A man with shoes to match different shades of his belts is a middle-class man. Men in the lower ranks buy one pair of shoes and wear it until it is worn out.

If you still take your shoes for repair, forget even the lower middle class. The middle class dispose of their shoes because they are no longer trendy or do not fit, not because they are worn out.

If half the clothes you own are not second-hand, then count yourself privileged. If the core of your clothes are pre-owned, even if you bought them from uptown stalls, sorry. I know there are many men who have perfected the “luku” streak of Nairobi using first grade second hand clothes. Those ones still do not qualify as middle class. If what you call the cream of your clothes came from malls in Eastleigh, I am also sorry.

Now, if your house has snacks, you are middle class. This is where you enter the house and you can grab a glass of juice with a choice of bitings from three or more options. As in everyone in the house has their favourite snacks in stock. Low-class houses are “ingredient houses”. To eat something, you have to fix it.

Then we go to cheese. If cheese forms part of the ingredients used for cooking in your house, then you are way above the poverty line. Let me leave affording it, have you ever seen unpacked cheese, as in outside of a supermarket cold storage station?

Yes, cheese is a middle-class culinary accessory. You need about five litres of milk to make one kilogram of cheese. How many litres of milk do you consume per week? It will give you a good self-evaluation view of your social class.

Cooking gas, bread, margarine and chapatti lost their high-class streak two decades or so ago. This is proof that Kenya did not just debase its economy but pushed citizens over the poverty line.

However, if your house has butter, you are middle class. Tanzanians call living a good life – kukula bata. Butter is made from cream hence it is a top tier product.

Mayonnaise, or simply mayo. If mayonnaise forms part of your favourite taste enhancers, then you are middle class. This implies that buggers, hot dogs and such are part of your meals. If you enjoy smoocha, that combination of smokies and chapatti with ketchup, sorry.

Ketchup, sorry tomato-sauce used to be top class many years back. Most of us only saw it in backstreet chips joints. However, if you do not know the difference between ketchup and tomato sauce, then that imaginary line is still above your reach.

There are other fringe indicators. If you can enter one of these trendy cafes and comfortably order anything beyond a mug of “dawa” – then you are middle class.

Another marker is being able to afford post-pay mobile phone bundles for voice and data. Another indicator is anyone who has maintained a telephone for twenty years, and then you have had a stable social life throughout the duration. You are middle-class.