Cuisine

Kenyans generally have three meals in a day—breakfast in the morning (kiamsha kinywa), lunch in the afternoon (chakula cha mchana) and supper in the evening (chakula cha jioni or known simply as “chajio”). In between, they have the 10 o’clock tea (chai ya saa nne) and 4 p.m. tea (chai ya saa kumi). Breakfast is usually tea or porridge with bread, chapati, mahamri, boiled sweet potatoes or yams. Githeri is a common lunch time dish in many households while Ugali with vegetables, sour milk (Mursik), meat, fish or any other stew is generally eaten by much of the population for lunch or supper. Regional variations and dishes also exist.

In western Kenya: among the Luo, fish is a common dish; among the Kalenjin who dominate much of the Rift Valley Region, mursik—sour milk—is a major drink.

In cities such as Nairobi, there are fast food restaurants, including Steers, KFC, and Subway. There are also many fish and chip shops.