Why keep a fridge in your living room?

By Ted Malanda

Nearly all urban homes in Kenya boast of a fridge these days, but often times, the gadget is more of a status symbol than a necessity. That is why fridges are tucked in a corner of the living room, and not the kitchen.

Granted, landlords construct houses that are so tiny that one has to exit the kitchen to get enough elbowroom to blow their nose. But it is still funny when the woman of the house has to keep striding into the living room to retrieve a tomato from the fridge.

It is complicated because Nairobi living rooms are small, so she has to navigate her way past her husband’s stretched feet, which is not very romantic when the two have been sleeping back-to-back for the past three weeks because he was caught answering a phone call in the toilet.

buzz

Annoyingly, after having used half of the tomato, she has to negotiate her way past his scaly legs to deposit the remaining bit in the fridge.

But even when the fridge is rightfully in the kitchen, it is never used for storage. How would it, when all it has is a bottle of water and a packet of milk? It is true; most of those elephant-sized fridges that buzz on and on are so empty you get tempted to store your shoes in them.

When you think about it, fridges should not be a Kenyan thing. They are useful for white people who shop in bulk. But with our kadogo economy, we buy one onion, two tomatoes, a quarter kilo of meat, a sachet of sukuma wiki and a few grams of posho for one meal. We live one day at a time. So why do we pretend that we will have enough food to store in a fridge for one month?

Onions

In any case, I think we are the only country in the word where tomatoes and onions are sold on the streets of the capital city. The day’s dinner comes stuffed in a woman’s voluminous handbag and when she alights at the bus stop in the estate, she even gets veggies that have been chopped. Why, then, would she need a fridge?

Besides, shopping in bulk is not strategic because it encourages waste and theft.  Studies have shown that when the house girl notices a bale of chapati flour in the store, she ensures that a packet or two grows legs.

In the circumstances, one would be crazy to stuff a whole goat carcass in that gigantic fridge stuck next to the TV set. That hunky watchman will have a meat bash at your expense!