Spare wives the annual pilgrimage to the village every Christmas season

This Christmas season has a weird bit - a bit of the usual joie de vivre has been missing. Some Kenyans say the rains have been to blame; others have blamed the early release of exam results. However, may feel the state of the economy is to blame with the common words this season being “hakuna pesa” (there is no money). The downside has been that many of us have had to scale back - opting for Uhuru Park excursions instead of heading to the Coast or Dubai. Even trips to the village have reduced significantly because going shags costs money.

There are many young city wives not complaining about not having to go shags. For them going shags during the Christmas season is usually a torturous affair, which they endure silently because it comes with the marriage package. For the sake of clarity, shags is any destination more than four hours from the city - visiting relatives in peri-urban areas does not inflict the same amount of misery.