Why Kenya’s forgotten indigenous vegetables are proving a culinary hit

Once they are rejected as wild weeds and “poor man food”, the original lush vegetables in Kenya have become more common – grown on farms, sold on the market and running restaurant lists.

At Gachie’s Skinners Restaurant slightly outside the capital, one of the employees says that the demand for “kienyeji” – as it is known to all types of local vegetables – is higher than other vegetables.

“Many people are asking Kenigi when they come here,” says Kimani Ngangan, although the restaurant receives additional fees for them because he says it is difficult to obtain.

Vegetables such as cabbage, spinach, turnip, and green spring, which were provided by the colonial authorities before the 1960s, are easily available and cheaper. Spring vegetables are known as “sukumawiki”, which means “extending the week” in Swahili, which reflects how they became a daily basic element.

But Diners in Gashi is part of the growing wave of Kenyans who see the benefits of eating local types rich in materials rich in vegetables.

“It removes toxins from the body and is good in weight loss,” says James Waghero, who ordered Mando – or African Neumushid.

Another person told me: “It is all about his taste, and it is better.”

According to gardening professor Marie Abokota-Monango, this trend is reflected in government data and some health benefits supported by research.

Over the past ten years, the production of local vegetables has doubled – as it has produced 300,000 tons of local farmers last year, she says.

It is a noticeable change in situations, given people who are used to looking at traditional crops as lower – they do not realize that they were often more resistant to diseases and pests, which means that they can be implanted organically.

In the eighties of the last century, when Professor Abokota-Moniango began her studies, she says she was confused to find her as “herbs”.

“We never knew about the original African vegetables. They were called the Amirane” PigWeed ” [and] The British Broadcasting Corporation told: “

Her research on postgraduate studies on traditional plants was also difficult as there was no literature on them, but it is constant and is now working with the government to promote it for food security.

She says Mando and other local vegetables such as “Jute Mallow) and” TERERE “(Amaranth) have more basic minerals than Sukumawiki, as well as” higher levels of vitamin A and C [and] Antioxidants “that enhance immunity and reduce the risk of disease.

Some varieties also contain protein, which makes it an excellent choice for vegetarians. It indicates, for example, that 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of Mrenda – known as its distinctive slim texture when cooking – contains more nutrients of a similar part of the common cabbage.

The progress made by Professor Abokota Monango was to enhance the diversity and knowledge of the original vegetables It was recognized by UNESCO in 2021, When the United Nations Cultural Agency praised the Eastern nation from East Africa to “protect the intangible cultural heritage” that was threatened through “historical factors and the pressure of modern lifestyles.”

She noted that Kenya had started a project in 2007 to participate in scientists and local societies to record a stock of traditional foods, which now includes 850 factories of indigenous population and their local names.

Some of these vegetables are eaten at the country level, while others are specific to certain areas or societies.

But Sukumawiki, which was first offered to Kenya from the Mediterranean as animal fodder, is still preferred by many farmers – with more than 700,000 tons produced in 2023 – more than twice the size of all the original lush vegetables combined.

Francis Najiri, who used to the farm in Kyriniga in central Kenya where cabbage is a basic crop, explains that this is that, especially during the seventies of the last century, these imported lush vegetables used fertilizers and pesticides that have damaged the local biological diversity.

Today, the BBC tells, only the items that are thrived because the soil has become very acidic to support many local species.

He was determined to do something so that they are not lost forever.

On a four -acre farm (1.6 hectares) at Elementaita, it started with 14 original species in 2016. Today it grew to 124, which many of them got by exchanging seeds with his farmers. His farm now attracts visitors from all over Kenya and neighboring countries.

They came to find out how to cooperate with 800 other regional farms, who also plant organic food for local markets, to preserve and renew “forgotten plants”, ensuring the protection of their genetic diversity for future generations.

However, by switching seeds, Mr. Najri and his colleagues are breaking the law in reality because the government only allows the cultivation of the approved seeds.

This controversial law was submitted in 2012 with the intention of protecting farmers from buying poor quality seeds.

Such policies do not support efforts to save the original crop varieties, because their seeds are not available in farm stores, says Wambui Wakahiu, who train farmers to maintain seeds.

It works in the Seed Sapers, a non -governmental organization that includes 400,000 members, which helps to create seed banks for farmers to store their local seeds safely.

Its team found that more than 35 types of traditional plant varieties were “completely lost” in one province alone due to the law.

“if [the farmers] Focus more on the strange [foreign] The seeds, then the traditional seeds continue to move away. We saw that most of them were extinct, ”as I told BBC.

Mr. Najri and others who were exchanging seeds were not followed by the authorities, but he says that the law prevents them from marketing them: “If I cannot sell the seeds, I do not own them.”

Getting certificates is a strict and expensive process, as the seeds must be tested in a laboratory for their purity and things like how much the quality of their prophecy.

Dr. Peterson and Wambogo, chief research scientist at the National Bank of the Agricultural Research and Tampering Organization in Kenya, admit that under the current law, the exchange and sale of uncomplicated seeds – including those that farmers saved.

However, it indicates that this contradicts the international treaty on the genetic genetic resources of food and agriculture, which is considered to be located Kenya, as it places the rights of farmers to provide, use and exchange their seeds.

The National Genetic Bank works with other groups to formulate regulations through the Ministry of Agriculture to align Kenyan law with the treaty.

The British Broadcasting Corporation said: “The proposals that it passes by Parliament will allow farmers to exchange their seeds” without fear that what they are doing is my criminal, “as BBC told.

However, the sale of such seeds will remain prohibited – something that Dr. Wambogo knows means that the journey to the full acceptance of the original crops is continuing.

For Priscilla Njeri, a vegetarian seller in the loud Wangige market in Kiabu Province outside Nairobi, there is no return back, as it can see directly that the indigenous vegetables are now the most popular for its customers – something that it puts in the media campaigns that enhance them.

“The most preferred are Managu, Terere and Kanzira [African kale] – It is common for those who have a sensitive stomach because there is no gas, “as I told BBC.

“But all Kienyeji vegetables are good because they have a better taste.”