Letter to the Pizza generation: We were all healthy and strong githeri men

 Githeri Man

The government should debunk the myth that ugali is the only staple food This generation should be taught to value natural traditional foods that are boiled Believe me, if the Githeri Man’s picture was taken in our days, it would not even have turned a head Githeri was everything. We used to eat githeri for breakfast and also as a snack

The best thing that happened to us after elections was the coming out of the Githeri Man. Following the tension from competing sides of the political divide, someone took a picture of a man lining up to vote with a packet of githeri.

From the pictures, one could tell the man is a regular hustler who decided to take his breakfast as he lined up.

The picture went viral and the rest is history. As usual, many wanted to associate with him and just like that, he was offered a lot of give-aways and as they say, the day God decides is your day, and no one can stop it.

I don’t know if we have a department in government that deals with nutrition, as this is the best opportunity to sensitise, Kenyans especially the Y-generation about diet.

Believe me, if this picture was taken in our days, it would not even have turned a head. Though I don’t take githeri because of my soft tummy, back in the day, it was one of my favourite meals.

We used also to refer to it as nyoyo, and rarely used the luhya name, amenyere. Eating common food didn’t evoke tribalism.

We used to eat githeri for breakfast and also as a snack. Githeri was rarely fried, and often, was just boiled. A variation of it had boiled groundnuts. In secondary school, this meal was the usual food fare.

 Most boarding schools served githeri plain to the point that students enjoyed it when it had weevils which tasted like ‘meat.”

 Look at how strong we turned out. I usually tell guys that when rugby was introduced in western Kenya, all the posh Nairobi schools have never won the tournament. I think the secret is in the diet.

 Those days, most of the Western food like pizza were a rumour. The delicacy that most of us craved then was chips and sausage. As indicated before, I was lucky my first primary school was Khalsa near bus station, so I was able to have a taste of chips.

I was envy of many neighbours who went to city council schools. Those days, Munyiris was one of the first chips shops before the Ken Chic around bus station, followed by Café De Paris, which was the first restaurant to introduce tomato sauce on chips.

 By the way, chips cost just about Sh2, if my memory serves me correctly. That was before I was transferred to Buruburu Phase One Primary School and all the body fat disappeared as we had to run home for lunch.

The home-made food that we used to hate when young is the reason why most of ‘Bamba Forties’ look younger than their age.

During elections, being faithful to the community that I grew up in, I would vote at Bidii Primary School and most of my agemates are still looking young, apart from receding hairlines. It’s all got to do with diet.

I wish the government debunk the myth that ugali is the only staple food. Using the Githeri Man as an illustration, this generation should be taught to value natural traditional foods that are boiled.

This notion that one has to eat meat, pizza etc. to show that they are successful in life should stop. Take the example of our neighbours in the east African region.

They take natural food and appreciate it. Let’s go the West African way where one can eat different dishes for months without repeating a meal.

 This way, we shall grow a healthy future generation.

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@AineaOjiambo