Kenya has come a long way from the 1970s when finding a human tooth, cockroach or a rat’s tail in the porridge served for boarding school students was commonplace. While such extremes often led to violent student strikes, poorly cooked food – lumpy ugali and porridge, tasteless tea, overcooked cabbage, weevil infested beans and the occasional stone in nyoyo/githeri were considered fair game.
This is because what bothered students of that generation, who are today’s parents and grandparents, was not the quality of the food (once their tongues got accustomed to the swill), but the quantity.