In
a recent bout here at the KenyaImagine place, we debated whether or not class
boundaries in the old country had shut.
We also discussed whether the possibility of class mobility
was the experience of a large enough section of the Kenyan population, especially
as we lament the increasing gulf between the rich and the poor.
But
what exactly constitute class boundaries in Kenya or indeed
anywhere? What are the most important attributes describing say, a middle class
person? Is it their income, education, vocation, parents' income, outlook on
life, their possessions and the prospects of their progeny? Is there such a
thing as middle class values? The traditional definition that had people in
suits and ties and clean hands as middle class is clearly unsatisfactory,
especially as incomes and social outcomes have shifted away from these set
boundaries.
Now
the American, Pew Research Center has
published an intriguing report on the American middle class, America's Four Middle Classes . The report breaks
the American middle class down into four different groups, each different from
the others in its attitudes, outlook and financial circumstance.
One
middle class is a happy sated middle class comprised mostly of well-educated
males with a positive outlook on the future. Tagged Top of the Class, it is the
largest middle-class group, with 53% of respondents. A less sunny outlook is
the lot of the Struggling Middle, peopled mostly by minorities and women.
Comprising a sixth of all Americans, this group's self-identification as middle
class is puzzling; especially as its members median incomes are similar to
those of those of the lowest class.
Then
there is the Satisfied Middle, those who have everything but a large balance
in their bank accounts. Comprised mostly of retirees and the young, this makes
up 25% of the US middle
class. The finally group, here with the appellation Anxious Middle fits the
traditional middle class mould on yardsticks such as of income, education, age,
employment and family status. It is also the least happy with its lot, and
makes up for under a quarter of the US middle
class.
This
stratification is unlikely to map at all closely to Kenya's, although
some of the editors here believe even policemen and primary school teachers are
middle class. Are they? It is clear that the attraction of the middle class
label in the West is not what it would be in Kenya with many
likely eager to identify with the upper class. A more aspirational
identification is more likely in Kenya, with membership
of a higher social class seen as particularly attractive. The hysteresis in our
perceptions from colonial and post-independence structures is also interesting,
especially as the structural adjustment programmes and economic liberalisation
of the 1980s and 1990s shuffled the cards in such a fashion as to leave many
senior lecturers, or high school principals for example, earning far less than
skilled labourers in the Jua Kali sector and holding far less in the way of
prestige than before. It is also interesting how many public servants in Kenya
would qualify to be in the Upper Class, especially such people as MPs,
Permanent Secretaries or the Chief Executives of public corporations, positions
which in many other countries would be solidly middle class. Or is that where
they belong given how little they work, and how much they feed of the labours
of others?
Finally,
and in declaration of the Open Thread, are there really such things as middle
class values, and snobbery aside, what would those include?Is class mobility a Kenyan reality?
The middle class does not have values, I think, rather something like traits, where upon attaining this status you start acting in a certain way.
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We have a middle class written by Kim G , August 05, 2008
We do have a middle class in Kenya, but its income is relative to national income. That is to say, a middle class income in Kenya would be considered perhaps of a lesser class in the US or Europe. However, the values remain the same regardless of where you go. Most middle class families across the world value education, secularism and individualism. Ambition and accomplishments are nourished, as are gender equality. This is in contrast with the lower classes where there is a large degree of social oppression especially against the youth and women. Income alone doesn't make one middle class. Its true, there could be jua kali artisans earning more than university lecturers but their outlook remains largely working class. That explains why such people rarely move out of the low income neighbourhoods even after striking it rich. Even in developed countries, you get the occassional hustler becoming very rich, but that doesn't make them middle class does it?
In Kenya, the middle class consits of senior managers, the academic classes, teachers, civil servants and the clergy. The armed forces (including police) can also be included as a middle class by virtue of their indoctrination whilst training. Also, their incomes are good especially for those serving in rural areas.
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... written by Stephen Wanyama , August 05, 2008
Middle class in Kenya? Two homes, and other plots besides, no bus rides, no matatu, insist that all your children get into a school with a name (preferably but not necessarily private), force them into a tertiary education regardless of their wishes or qualification, obsess about credentials, save to buy a house, look forward to an NGO job or alternatively, start your own! While at it, be as pretentious as you can be (accent, clothing, everything foreign) and look down on the proles. I am likely describing the upper middle class, but everyone wants to be there right?
As for the question of who belongs, I suppose we could say that an average income in Kenya today is around Ksh 40,000 to Ksh 200,000 (just a rough guess don't kill me). I am just considering the fact that there was a proposal to pull the income tax threshold to Ksh. 30,000. Maybe someone else can continue on the tax route? What is the top rate? Where does it kick in?
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thought I would add written by Stephen Wanyama , August 05, 2008
No class boundaries are still very porous, while downward movement is not common for the upper class and the upper middle class, there are countless examples ( Kalonzo and Karua for example ) of people whose careers show that Kenya is working, to a degree. Several kids are graduating from Kenyan universities and into lives of plentuousness.
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classes have closed. written by Daniel.Waweru , August 05, 2008
No class boundaries are still very porous, while downward movement is not common for the upper class and the upper middle class, there are countless examples ( Kalonzo and Karua for example ) of people whose careers show that Kenya is working, to a degree. Several kids are graduating from Kenyan universities and into lives of plenteuousness.
Kenya is highly unequal; you'd think that means hard class barriers. That wages for most have been stagnant since the 1980s makes it likely that few Kenyans entered the middle or upper classes in the 80s or the 90s by savings from wages. The only mechanism you mention, a decent education, was out of reach for most of those who did not already have a decent income (until recently): school fees for national schools were simply beyond the budget of most Kenyans. The mechanism you don't mention - combining income from agriculture with waged employment to create a surplus - is not really operative: farmers were paid next to nothing until recently, and, as we saw, salaries have remained stagnant.
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for heaven's sake! written by Stephen Wanyama , August 05, 2008
The only mechanism you mention, a decent education, was out of reach for most of those who did not already have a decent income (until recently): school fees for national schools were simply beyond the budget of most Kenyans.
You really believe that entry into a national school is how the class boundaries are crossed? The Kenyan education system has been far from optimal (the claim it has been out of reach is just laughable), but I dare say there will be many even on this forum who have never had the slightest hope of entering a national school who have nonetheless become middle class purely from their education, this including countless studying abroad.
The mechanism you don't mention - combining income from agriculture with waged employment to create a surplus - is not really operative: farmers were paid next to nothing until recently, and, as we saw, salaries have remained stagnant.
You don't say? I think there are many families from Central Kenya, the Rift Valley and the Gusii districts who will contest that, kids who have been educated, even many sent abroad with the proceeds from exactly what you claim has not been possible till lately. I am with the anonymous writers on this, class boundaries have been and are being crossed since independence, perhaps not as much as should be the case but just looking at the number of Kenyans with cars, or with shares on the stock market, or who own homes should be an indication that something is at least working.
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May be higher tertairy education has never been too expensive written by pndiangui , August 06, 2008
I might support the notion that certain levels of tertiary education might have not been too expensive for those who met the entry criteria. I went to a public university and no one who had been admitted with us was ever sent home for school fees. We got loans which most of us have never completed paying and so I would find it diffcult to claim that this was not expensive. But yes many have graduated and pursued higher degrees as is the obsession with many Kenyans on using education credentials for social mobility. But I would back Waweru that little was achieved in making the education pursuers fulfill their dreams of upward social mobility between late 80's and early 2000. This informs my article sometime on 'The lost Generation' in Kenyaimagine pages. Many like placing heaps of blames for this lost generation to the World bank/IMF led SAP's but I tend to think that these were not the only root causes; Poor policies to guide wealth creation due to gross incompetence and really DEEP corruption drove away the need for any talent or competetion.
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Hmmm written by Stephen Wanyama , August 06, 2008
I also attended a National School and there were scholarships and bursaries all over the place. In fact the bulk of the kids there were from the lower classes, a good number had never before coming there seen a light bulb.
But moving on, have you seen the people who present the news on Kenyan Television? Their accents and dress? How many lawyers are coming out of the universities every year, how many doctors, how many nurses, how many of Kim G's policemen or soldiers? How many NGO staff? Are these the children of wealthy people? Consider the list of MPs in parliament, how many of them were even from middle class homes?
Mr Joram Kiarie, a business development manager at S&L—the mortgage subsidiary of KCB—said the current focus on middle-income housing emanates from the realisation that the population of the middle income has grown tremendously in the last five years while property construction has concentrated in high-income areas in the past.
“Increase in population of the middle class and the recent quick sale of houses in Nyayo Embakasi seem to have awoken investors,” said Mr Kiarie.
“Many are realising that though return on investments are low, the turnover rate is high as there is a market need for affordable houses.”
The shift means that the emerging middle class earning monthly salaries of between Sh40, 000 and Sh80, 000, will be in a position to own homes in the early years of their careers.
Prudence dictates that an individual should buy a house that is five times or less than one’s gross annual pay making property valued at between Sh2 million to Sh4.5 million within the reach of the middle class.
Currently, only those with monthly salaries of Sh110, 000 and above can access housing in prime areas around the city where they are priced at above Sh6.5 million.
I do not think you can make 'class progress', social advancement, move from 'obscure birth to distinction' by saving. You do so by investing, by owning, by having alternative sources of income, by gaining increasing mastery over your income. How much you decide to do that is really a matter of attitude not opportunity, then again this may just be my attitude.
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don't destroy the class system...Please! written by John Ongeri , August 08, 2008
I am not here to defend a system that locks people in their place forever. You have all clearly demonstrated that class boundaries are as porous as our border with Somalia.
The people who tell you that they will build a classless society,a society based simply on merit and equality alone are dreamers....In all our traditional societies we had structure and order which can be referred to as classes. There must be a hierarchy of some sort to bring order to life. The class system, fair or otherwise may be a reflection of this.
In our country there is one big dividing factor far greater than the owning of 2 homes, a few plots, riding in mats or having a son with a degree. It is far greater than sending kids on holidays abroad or having a cook, chef and maid to look after your 3 spoilt brats. It is far bigger than you wanting 2 servants, one to wash the car and the other to mow the lawn.
This big factor lurks behind every government appointment, every councilor's sacking and every political pronouncement made in Kenya. This avaricious monster has an appetite of unknown capacity and the more that we feed it the more that it demands.
You still think class is bad? Tribalism is the mother of all evil
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S. Wanyama: on ownership written by jaya wardene , August 08, 2008
Thank you Mr Wanyama for that comment on attitude. I would now like to ask you to cast your mind back to the last century and to an age known as the '80s when the Iron Lady tried to dismantle the old class-systems of the past. She introduced legislation that gave Council tenants the right to buy the council house that they were living in. The desire was see a larger proportion of the population being home owners. In another daring raid Mrs Thatcher arranged for the privatisation of major utilities starting with BT, the phone monopoly.
Following closely were privatisations in Gas, electricity and water companies. The customers of these utilities were guaranteed a minimum number of shares. These were all public utilities whose services most home-owners were using anyway. Thatcher's desire here was to create a 'share-owning democracy'
Many debate the merits of the two policies which changed the face of Britain forever and one of the discussions that one usually hears is how the sell-off of council houses in the '80s and '90s has contributed to the dire housing situation of recent years. Would you care to share your thoughts on this one?
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