Where the rich build cheap houses and the poor expensive ones

Wealthy residents of formerly Central Province seem to prefer modest houses even though their homes are equipped with critical assets that befit the status of the rich.

However, their counterparts in Nairobi, the Coast and Rift Valley have no qualms owning big houses but with little amenities such as Internet, cars, refrigerators and computers, according to recent data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS).

A detailed analysis by The Standard of the recently released census data has not only given us a sneak peek of where the country’s ultra-rich live, but it also offered some invaluable clues on what makes their lives enviable.

At least six Central Kenya constituencies are ranked in the top-20 sub-counties with such household assets as computer, cars, internet and refrigerators. However, they perform poorly when it comes to materials used for walls, roofs and floors of their houses.

For example, only Thika West features in the top-20 of constituencies with the highest percentage of households built using stones. But it ranked at position 19 when you look at valuable materials used in the construction of the house.

In the ranking of other household assets, Kiambu, Kikuyu, Ruiru, Kabete, Juja, Kiambaa and Nyeri, all in Central, featured strongly including Thika West.

Households in these counties were also on the tail-end of the ranking in the use of expensive flooring materials such as parquet and other polished wood, with only Kiambu, Limuru, Ruiru and Kikuyu featuring in a favourable position.

Kiambu, Ruiru, Thika West, Kikuyu and Juja are among the constituencies that fared well in the use of shingles and tiles in their homes.

However, constituencies in Mombasa, including Nyali, Changamwe, Jomvu and Kisauni, which do not feature among the places with the highest share of assets such as internet, car, desktop/laptop computer and refrigerators, are ranked top when it comes to use of concrete blocks to build their homes.

Two constituencies from Uasin Gishu County - Ainabkoi and Kapseret - which also do not feature in the top of household assets, emerge in the list of top-20 constituencies with a big share of houses built using concrete blocks.

Households in Central instead seem to prefer building their homes using wood and iron sheets to reveal modesty.

XN Iraki, a University of Nairobi professor, attributes this paradox to availability of building materials.

“Stones or blocks are expensive in Central Kenya, and there are alternatives like timber. The Coast region might have no alternatives but stones. Where are the forests there?” he says.

On assets, the don says the reason Central Kenya is ahead in terms of household assets is due to early exposure to westernisation, noting that conspicuous consumption is likely in the region.

“Coast culture is humble and conservative and not so prone to unbridled capitalism and its materialism.”

The KNBS revealing data narrows to about 20 constituencies from some five counties that have favourable socio-economic indicators, including the residents owning their own houses, which they built or bought.

Because most of these households are in towns such as Eldoret, Nairobi, Kiambu, Kisumu and Athi River, the owners must have spent some good money to own a home in these areas.

A good number of these houses have been built using expensive flooring materials, such as parquet and polished wood, which design experts say require heavy investment for maintenance.

Roofing of these houses has been done using costly imported materials such as porcelain tiles and shingles.

Besides owning the most number of cars, households in these constituencies also have desktops/laptops of their own; their houses are connected to the Internet and nearly all of them have refrigerators.

Langata is leading in Internet connection, with six out of 10 households in the area able to go online in the comfort of their home and without worrying about running out of bundles.

The constituency is also ahead of the pack in ownership of cars, with every two households out of five having a car.

Nairobi’s Westlands, home to estates like Kitisuru and Parklands, is arguably the second in the race for homes of the rich. Westlands leads in the number of houses whose flooring has been done using pricey materials like parquet or polished wood.

Households in Westlands are second in almost all household assets except for drinking bottled water, where it is third behind Mvita and Langata.