Kenyan Cuisine

Kenyan cuisine has no single dish that represents the whole of the country, instead reflecting Kenya's ethnic diversity through regional traditions shaped by Bantu and Nilotic migration, Swahili coastal trade and post colonial change. Food availability follows geography, with coastal areas favoring seafood in a coastal cuisine that is distinctive and highly regarded nationally, while inland regions center on grains such as maize, millet and sorghum. Ugali, a stiff cornmeal porridge, sukuma wiki, a leafy green vegetable dish, and nyama choma, grilled meat, are staples eaten across much of the country, while regional groups keep their own specialties: Luo communities favor fish, Kikuyu communities various tubers, and Kalenjin communities mursik, a fermented milk drink. Urban and working families increasingly eat rice, stew, chapati, a flatbread of Indian origin, and chicken, a shift reflecting modernization and cultural blending as much as any single ethnic tradition.