The Road To Obestity...

KFC is now in Kenya!!

A week ago a jubilant announcement was made on TV, KFC (Kentucky fried chicken) had come to Kenya-as if we were waiting for it.

Of course don’t get it that I don’t appreciate it, I do appreciate it, KFC is a reputable global firm that has set up in home base and that is a good thing, it will create jobs for many Kenyans, Create a market for Kenyan poultry farmers and cooking oil industries, Unfortunately they will bring in Frozen Chips from Egypt. Nevertheless I am a bit weary of it.

The arrival of KFC signals a culture shift here in Kenya, Back then restaurants that offered wide menus were the thing, today its all about fast-food cafes with narrow menus, It might not be so obvious but the variety we had in previous years is diminishing for most of us

Lets be a bit more critical here, The arrival of KFC signals a culture shift here in Kenya, Back then restaurants that offered wide menus were the thing, today its all about fast-food cafes with narrow menus, It might not be so obvious but the variety we had in previous years is diminishing for most of us. Back then we ate indigenous foods but today we eat more and more of western foods, our culinary heritage is diminishing and our waistlines are surging astronomically.

Fast-foods are a testimony of a thriving individuality in society, eating facing a wall and by yourself, serving yourself. Its sad to realize that eating is no longer as social as it used to be when you used to talk to a waiter and seating at a table facing your colleagues, that provided ample opportunity for social harmony, but today fast-foods impose on us an impersonal industrial type setting where food is wrapped in polythene, you pay before you eat and you all eat the same thing. Come to think of it and it’s a bit sad.

I don’t intend to sound all sullen and gloomy because fast-foods are a very efficient and economically sound business model, but the social cost a bit less appealing. The onset of massive fast-food chains have ushered an error of obesity and health problems in the west and unfortunately its coming here as well, that is the social cost.