Rat race that is life of a Kenyan middle class

Sometime last year, I wrote about the middle class. The death of an engineer in Kisumu, believed to be by suicide, shocked many people. The fact that photos of his body on the floor next to a high-end car that he drove to the building where he threw himself surprised many people.

He had the trappings of a good life; why should he plunge to his death?  

This is a country where a 2023 Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) report puts the number of Kenyans earning over one hundred thousand shillings per month at approximately 358,833. This is the Kenyan middle class, who make up about zero point one per cent of our adult population.

The market economy that we have thrives with a larger middle class. These are the drivers of the market economy. In a layman's description, the middle class is someone who is neither poor nor wealthy and can afford their basic needs and some luxuries and save for a rainy day.

They don’t live paycheck to paycheck. Ironically, most Kenyans who earn above one hundred thousand still live paycheck to paycheck. 

This ability to pay for some luxuries means that the middle class also pays more taxes. When they choose to go into business, they won’t enjoy the low tax regime that is available to the higher class. The taxman will always remind you that taxation as a profession could be older than the oldest profession.

Someone once told me that there is no middle class in Kenya. We are all one major disaster from poverty. This includes loss of a job and staying two months without a paycheck.

The middle class, thus, can get many definitions depending on which economist you ask. This is because social stratification occurs naturally; hence, the middle class will mean different things to different people.

One thing I have come to note about the middle class is that it is a stage of anxiety. The middle class is forever anxious because it just takes a small mishap for everything to tumble down. This anxiety comes from the periodic bills, some monthly like rent and every quarter like school fees. This is exactly why some people call it the rat race.

This anxiety comes from the innate fight-or-flight stress response. The middle class is ever in a fight mode to acquire more and go a rung up within the class. The flight mode is the fear of rolling back into poverty. Anxiety comes with a racing heart, tension in muscles, poor digestion, poor concentration, and irritability.

This leads to poor sleep, high fatigue, and a lack of resting opportunities. The middle class feel guilty when they sit doing nothing. Every space must be filled, which limits time spent with family. When the family gets some time, it is the dregs of the rat race.

Middle class is also a place for plastic friendships. The friendships that count at this level are those made before one steps into the rat race. In the middle class, friendships are more about strategic alliances than friendships for the sake. Everyone is busy paddling, so it is about what you bring to the boat.

Among the middle class, two things define you. Where you live and where your children go to school. These are the indicators your acquaintances will use to judge your level in the middle class. Then they will cap it up with what you do, which is all about what you bring to the table. This is the reason why many people in this cluster flaunt their status and wealth. To raise their value in the middle-class circles.

Most of the people who make up Kenya’s middle class are first-generation middle-class. This brings the burden of black tax and building a foundation for one’s family. I will add that, for the developing world, you are only middle class if you are a second-generation middle class. I believe, as a child of a middle-class parent, the anxieties are there, but the saving grace is the surface you fall to. The former will drop back into the pits of poverty, while the latter have some cushions.

The irony is middle class comes with a higher life expectancy. The insurance cover provided by employers comes with prompt and better health services. The lower-income earners lack this; hence, they may die from preventable and treatable diseases. However, the catch comes with quality of life.

The middle class has a lower quality of life compared to the lower class. The lower class may worry about their inability to afford some things, but they resign themselves to fate easily.

They have also, in a way, accepted their lot and fate; contentment is the bedrock of a healthy life. There is no way you can be content in the middle class; that is self-sabotage.

Even if you do not die by suicide as a middle class, mental health issues will hover around you. The middle class is the place of segregation and individualism. This is where people come with personal space. It goes without saying that it pushes away genuine social support, which is in plenty in the lower levels of the economic rung. Marginal social support means an increase in income for therapists.

Longer lifespans also mean that lifestyle diseases are inevitable in old age. The ironies of life!