5 REASONS Why I rarely buy in supermarkets, shopping malls and city stalls.

I still remember this very well; I was still a bachelor and I had gotten a low paying job immediately after completing college. During this particular time my salary was miserably late and I was staring at starvation with wide eyes. There was only Kshs 200 between me and poverty. Worse where I used to work I had to commute daily and pay Kshs 30 or 50 to work, same on my way home in the evening. With Kshs 200, it surely meant I could not survive the harsh life of urban area for more than a day.

In my neighborhood there was a shop owned by a Meru guy, we used to call him “murume”. So in the evening of my last Kshs 200 I approached Murume. After explaining to him my predicament he sorted me with 4 KG unga wa mahindi, some cooking oil, and some other food stuffs and gave me Kshs 1,000. Since we had established a good relationship with Murume, he knew I cannot miss to pay him when I finally get paid. With that, I was sorted out for another week or 2.

Come to think of it, even if am a loyal customer of Nakumatt, can I just walk in, pick good on their shelves with credit and walk out? Not at all! Even if I am to have a credit card, can you have that credit or debit card without the initial deposit? huh!

And there goes my reasons why I rarely buy in supermarkets, shopping malls and city stalls, but I choose to often buy from the little kiosks and vibanda’s in my neighborhood.

ONE: I love uplifting people from poverty

Kenyans wana tambia mbaya sana, they will bargain with some low life people as Mama ntilie, mama mboga, mama kibanda, they will take good or services on debt from people as fundi wa viatu, fundi wa nguo, fundi wa choo etc. These low class people may be relying on such little amount for the day to feed their family and here are Kenyans earning over Kshs 50,000 per month taking goods and services on such for credit? at times even never paying them! Surely! Yet when buying from rich men stalls, super markets, shopping malls they know they cannot bargain but will part with as much as Kshs 6,000 for a pair of shoes! With such stupid habits the poor get poorer and rich becomes richer daily and here you are complaining that the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer? Can’t you see you are also to blame!

Personally I resolved I will never buy vegetables from super markets, shopping malls and the likes; I will live buying from my neighboring Mama mboga. I will never buy food from super market, I would rather get into a mama ntilie kibanda and eat to my fill, forget the fact that the places are never super clean as 5 star hotels, but those mama kibanda’s honestly cook so tasty meals too!

TWO: I love establishing friendship and actual human connections

Deputy President Ruto eating in a Kibanda. 

You see, when I got buying from my murume neighbor for a long time, we became real friends, we even exchanged contacts. If am stuck financially just a simple call and murume bails me out. Same with a mama ntilie I used to buy from, one day I was so broke I went and pleaded with her, hakunikopesha! she gave me free feed for 2 consecutive days! A friend is for adversity, yah? Try to think of it, will you ever get to know personally the owner of the super market you so pride of when buying your goods enough to have a close relationship with him such that he can bail you out when you are in trouble? Never. Most of the rich in fact avoid the poor worse than how people avoid the dogs roaming in Dandora dumpsite!

THREE: I love uplifting lives of other people

The rich men own city stalls, shopping malls, chain stores, super markets, and let us be honest, among the most selfish people in existence are the rich, they can leave a dying human being or a woman facing starvation with her children, but go gambling betting with Kshs 100,000 at a go! Worse, gamble and loose, and won’t feel the loss! But consider this, when you promote that mama ntilie, mama mboga, mama wa kibanda, fundi wa viatu, kinyozi, you are uplifting someone’s life for real. Consider this, most of these low class people with those vibandas heavily rely on those little incomes from their small daily sales to earn a living, some will literally sleep hungry if no one buys their wares for that day! That rich owner of chain stores and super markets can afford to eat for a whole year even if his business empire collapses.

When I promote those low class business owners I know am uplifting a life for that day, and perhaps for the near future!

FOUR: I really wish to end the cyclic cycle of poverty

Come to think like this, when a rich man owning a chain of super markets sells a million items in a month and each item makes just a profit of Kshs 1, that is a cool Kshs 1 million profit. That owner of Kibanda cha mboga only sells a few items daily and no miracle will make that kibanda make a million Kshs in a month! Forget the cops being vetted though the current police vetting process pretending their vibandas are making them millionaires, we all know that is a lie! Consider if many people bought from the low class business operators and jua kali people, that will enable them to expand their business and in return uplift their lives. That will lift millions of people from poverty.

But instead you will find a whole man driving a big car refusing to pay his debt from fundi wa nguo, a whole big mama with fat buttocks since she is so rich refusing to pay her debt from Mama wa soko, after all these low business operators cannot hire lawyers to come after you if you refuse to pay, but you know the rich men can even hire a gang to send you off to hell if you refuse to pay them their Kshs 10,000 debt!

So whenever I buy from the little operators, I feel am doing a lot to try and end the cycle of poverty.

FIVE: I love dealing with humans

When you buy from Mama mboga, mama ntilie, or incur services from fundi wa viatu, you are mostly  dealing with the owner one on one! You establish real human connections, make lasting friendships, etc. Most rich men have shielded themselves with machines and automated programs, you can never petition your case should anything go wrong with their product or services. Think of this, if you buy an egg from mama kibanda and it is bad, you can return it and get another, but we loose 100’s to Safaricom on daily basis and when you try to petition through the provided channels you are taken round and round by machines till you give up and decide “What is 100 compared to the time am wasting?”

Unless whatever product or service I want I cannot get it from the likes of Mama mboga, mama ntilie, mama pima, local fundi, etc. I never go to super markets, chain stores, shopping malls etc. Moreover, I never bargain from them, yet you will find some people shamelessly bargaining for even a cup of tea from Mama kibanda! Moreover, you will find people taking goods and services on credit from such, and worse, never paying! Are you really doing any justice to your fellow Kenyan? With your stupidity do you expect poverty to end? People want free or cheap goodies from the poor, exploit the poor, steal from the poor; thus making them even poorer but they buy expensive goods from the rich, pay for services from the rich a lot of cash, pay cash instantly to the rich and do not even take goods or services on credit from the rich, after all the rich people offer no or few channels for you to take goods or services from them on credit and if you do, the terms & conditions imposed might cost you your life’s fortune of not your life!

Imagine this, if senator Sonko’s daughter or President Uhuru’s son was to open a simple shoes stall, most people will go there and buy even at a very high price since they associate the stall with the class of the owner, and so the goods, besides they are famous and their fame is enough to attract customers to their stalls! but if Anthony Kiarie was to open a very similar shoe stall and even stock similar shoes or even better, trust me, I will have people coming there bargaining like their lives depends on it, or even wanting to take them on credit or even free pretending, “I am your friend!”, huh! Sick society, the poor will get poorer and the rich will get richer thanks to our poor habits as Kenyans.

Let us do justice to the poor; let us promote them with the little they are able to offer to us.

Anthony Kiarie is an IT administrator at North Coast Medical Training College.

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