Lifestyles of the fabulously wealthy to whom recession is an unknown concept

The development is being marketed as “Africa’s Premier Golf Estate”. The property, according to the advert, will consist of residential homes constructed around an 18-hole golf course on which a members’ clubhouse, planned to accommodate a fitness centre, shops and restaurants, will be constructed.

The estate, earmarked for completion next June, will also have tennis courts, a swimming pool, a wellness centre, conference facilities wired with IT infrastructure including video conferencing, an education facility that will accommodate learners from baby class level to high school, a shopping complex, and a five-star hotel.

The concept reads more like a story from a children’s wonderland, complete with playgrounds, horse riding facilities, and cycling pathways and is clearly aimed at big spenders who want to live large outside central Nairobi.

But there is also a dark side to this world of wealth.

It is not news that the gap between wealthy and average Kenyans is wide; more alarming is that the gap is growing wider and fast, according to Prof Winnie Mitula of the University of Nairobi.

She warns that if the equity issue in the country is not resolved quickly, tension could boil over and perhaps result in the kind of violence experienced after the last General Election.

“The problem is critical. Equity is a major thing and Vision 2030 should, indeed, be about equity. Employment must be generated to avert a crisis. The government will tell you about youth and women’s funds, but these are just a drop in the ocean,” she said.

Surge in prices

The recent sudden surge in fuel prices, galloping food prices, the expanding domestic expenditure on water as a result of scarcity, and the high electricity bills that Kenyans begrudgingly pay every month are now summed up in an AIG East Africa projected overall inflation rate of about 20 per cent.

While releasing the company’s third-quarter earnings last Wednesday, AIG’s senior investment manager Edward Gitahi warned that interest rates could be pushed higher as the government competes with the private sector to borrow money for financing its budget deficit of about Sh109 billion.

In May, according to the Central Bank’s Monthly Economic Review, overall 12-month inflation was showing a downward tendency, having declined from 26 per cent in April to about 19.5 per cent.

But, soon after, it appears the situation reversed, according to AIG findings and projections. The latest details paint a gloomy economic picture.

To the super rich – who make up less than five per cent of Kenya’s population – such news seems to go in one ear and out the other.

They maintain their lavish lifestyles, which makes Prof Mitula wonder: “Either they had accumulated so much over the years and they are now spending, or they know how to get resources.”

For more than six years, costly apartment blocks have been steadily sprouting in Nairobi’s suburbs like Kilimani, Kileleshwa and Westlands.