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Cooking oil was solid white or yellow. There was Kimbo with its tagline Pika kwa Kimbo! and Cowboy, whose adverts ended with, Cowboy, kwa ladha spesheli. There was also Kapa sold in a jwala that made it easier to rarua, but Kimbo and Cowboy were sold in cans.
You had to kata the top, minus a tin cutter which was for ‘Babylonians’ and their Cerelac babies. For most families, the stainless steel kitchen knife was the handy tool used in opening the cooking oil tins.
But the problem was kujigonga vidole when the small home nyundo or mwiko missed the knife and landed on your index finger. ‘Tearing off’ the top of a Kimbo can was one tedious kibarua that also meant keeping the knife on the edge of the can so as not to kata kombo kombo.
Even after cutting it open, there was that small matter of lifting the top to access the cooking oil, an exercise that left many hands bleeding!
Today, cooking oil is packaged in easy to open plastic containers with the lid serving as a measuring tool. Others have a pout for easier pouring and with the last drop of oil, the container gets other uses like storing left overs. While the Kimbo can was used as a gorogoro for selling dry maize, makaa and warus by the roadside, they also rusted easily, making them agents of Tetanus!
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