The new allure of the fast-growing countryside

If the British settlers who had made Kenya their home for 68 years were to return today, they would find a vastly different country.

Beyond the noisy politics, they will find much smaller pieces of land, their former plantations subdivided into small plots. A few of their workers, from cooks to farmhands, are still alive.

It has remained contentious - whether subdividing land was the right thing to do. Should we not have kept the big farms and run them as cooperatives, an experiment being tested in South Africa?

Where did the tradition of subdividing among siblings come from? When shall we stop subdividing land into uneconomic pieces?

 Will Gen Z and their appetite for alternative investment and status symbols put an end to that?

They would find that only a few citizens are as affluent as they were. Subsistence farming took over commercial farming. There is less mechanisation and no economies of scale. They will find bodaboda, not planes that they flew in the white highlands.

One bright spot: their palatial houses have finally got competitors. New palatial houses now dot the countryside. We now have mini-Karens, Muthaigas and Rundas in the countryside.

Why this new allure of the countryside? 

With small pieces of land, why not compensate with big houses? Don’t we build skyscrapers on small plots in Nairobi?

The price of land in major urban centres has made it economically sensible to build in the countryside where amenities like roads and power are now available, a legacy of Kibakinomics. Rural areas are also attractive to retirees seeking serenity and peace, offering a path to ageing gracefully.

Devolution has sent resources to the rural areas. Mimicking Nairobi with her lifestyle, including housing, is the new game in town. Add hotels too. But Nairobi’s industrialisation, multiculturalism and vibe have not been devolved. 

 Some argue that the hard economic times are sending those who can’t compete in the city to the countryside, where the cost of living is lower. 

The big house also indicates the emergence of socioeconomic classes and the flowering of capitalism. Houses are not dwellings anymore; they are status symbols. 

Drive across the countryside and admire the big houses that now make mzungu homes look pale.

We should preserve such historic houses to let the next generation know where we came from.

Have you built such a house?  Why did you build it? Talk to us.