FEATURE
THE CARS
Moving away from the commodity
that fills our growing middle class
stomachs, we now turn our attention to the means of reaching the
actual eating house: the car.
No self-respecting affluent Kenyan
family would be seen with less than
two vehicles in their compound and
at least one of these must be European. Indeed, the tribal name for
the middle class in Kenya used to be
wabenzi (those who drive Mercedes
Benz).
In Dar es Salaam, the car is not a luxury. With poor public transport and
a city composed of separate villages
connected by interminable dusty
highways, being stuck without a decent motor limits you to the three
unfashionable bars in your neighbourhood. In the Dar heat, anything
with tinted windows and Arctic air
con rules.
Moving inland, those lucky Ugandans who have earned enough from
boda boda driving must now treat
their babes to a new toy in the form
of a bulky Prado, aka the ‘handbag’
of the Kampalan housewife. We may
speculate that its size reflects the
catchphrase of the new Ugandan
rich: “big is big”. The average size of
their babes’ buttocks certainly gives
weight to that saying!
18 - CHIEF EXECUTIVE
On the other hand, the ideal Rwandan body size is generally slimmer
and so the majority of car owners
have been happy to tackle the steep
inclines of the capital in the more
modest Rav4.
Additionally, there may be psychological reasons for this preference:
generally, Rwandans avoid displays
of conspicuous consumption and,
more telling, the Rav4’s small size
belies its ability to surmount huge
obstacles, rather like the country as
a whole.
THE GADGETS
In terms of new technical gadgetry,
again the Kenyans seem to lead the
field. However, they are also victims
of novelty. They consume tech and
apps hard and fast, then forget all
about them, rather like their errant
children consuming drugs and alcohol in nightclubs.
Rwandans, on the other hand, have
their capacity to consume electronics limited by heavy import taxes.
This not only makes them more
careful consumers, but is also offset
by wise leadership which has invested in the IT sector. In the middle
class tech race then, the Kenyan hare
may find itself beaten by the Rwandan tortoise.