How Morning Traffic Distinguishes Kenya’s Wealthy, Rich and Poor

Vehicles on Thika Road. It is possible to measure the net worth of a person by the time their car is seen on the road.

At the crack of dawn, cars race against time to beat the morning traffic, tires screech and engines accelerate but a keen eye in the wee hours of the morning will not be looking at the vehicles but rather how the morning traffic flow differentiates different members of the society by their net worth.

Make a point of waking up early in the morning and you will draw one very interesting observation. Between 4am and 5am or the hours before that, the cars on Kenyan roads are high-end cars, the Range Rovers, the V8’s, the Jaguars, select models of Mercedes Benz as well as other plush automobiles.

An hour later between 5am and 6am, come in the middle-class cars. Your Mercedes Compressors, Toyota Corollas, middle-class SUVs Pajeros and other saloon cars as the moderate-income earners make way to their offices simultaneously.

Look at your watch one hour later then raise your head and pan across the landscape then you will draw another interesting observation; that 6am to 7am is the African timers happy hour, when the headlights of the vitz come alive.

Interesting huh?

Enweath CEO Simon Wafubwa describes this as a manifestation of plans going through the minds of the different members of society.

“Wealthy people are programmed to want more so they just do enough sleep but in their slumber, their plans to strike more deals and make more money are usually at the back of their minds such that when the alarm rings they don’t snooze and know its action time,” said Wafubwa.

According to the chief executive of the financial services firm, there are five factors that distinguish wealthy individuals from members of other social classes.

Wealthy People Are Grateful For the Little They are Given

According to Wafubwa if you send Ksh1,000 to a wealthy person and a person with a poor wealth creation strategy via M-Pesa, the wealthy person is likely to be grateful for the money and will immediately start planning how to grow it while their counterpart is likely to ask haujatuma na ya kutoa (You didn’t factor in withdrawal charges when you are sending the money).

Wealthy People Know How to Choose Their Social Capital

Birds of a feather flock together.

Well, the saying also suffices in business. The CEO who manages a Ksh65 billion portfolio says that the people you surround yourself with can be used to estimate your net worth.

His assessment is spot on, as manifested by the emergence of the late Bob Collymore’s “Boys Club” which featured fairly loaded people including KCB Group CEO Joshua Oigara, Scan Group CEO Bharat Thakar, former Kenya Re chief executive and Nairobi County gubernatorial aspirant Peter Kenneth and Citizen TV news, anchor Jeff Koinange.

Radio Africa CEO Patrick Quarcoo and disgraced stockbroker Aly Khan Satchu were also mainstays of the club.

Morning Traffic Flow

As explained earlier, morning traffic flow can also be used as a net worth meter.

Saving Comes Naturally For The Wealthy

While guys without the burning desire to acquire more wealth have itchy spending fingers that make them splash the cash on material wealth, the wealthy guys save their hard-earned money for a rainy day and invest some of it in viable channels.

“People should stop spending all of their disposable income. News will still be watchable in a 42-inch screen but the norm for young people is to buy a bigger and flashier tv set as soon as they feel that they need to upgrade. They should save,” added Wafubwa.

You Never Attract Wealth

Wealth is not a magnet, wealth is earned. Wealth is acquired through the right strategies, hard work and development of the right partnerships.

“Wealth has a language. You can never it if you hate the rich and you can never attract it, you must work your socks off and be clever in your dealings,” added the CEO.

See Also: Kenyans Who Swim in Money Even in Tough Economic Times

  • Lies..the wealthy do business in the night with less traffic. Massive deals are closed in under 10 minutes.

  • That’s true, but it requires Grace from the Lord for one to have wealth and maintain it .its not easy because if it’s only hardwork about half of the world population would be wealthy but it remains to be a few who are wealthy.. That’s Favour from God, if am blessed to be wealthy I don’t get to proud and forget that’s God. it’s a matter of time. Time is an insult to everything but in another way it’s a nourisher to everything for its growth and development….. Time Creates life and death to every aspect. you got time since you were born to create wealth and to use it then leave it to others ,”this is sad”” but it’s really sweet to have wealth rather than dieing without it. Though we should learn to let it go for us to enjoy it . when we hold to anything too much tight we kill it before it’s time.

  • That’s partially true. Have you seen wazungus visiting Nairobi town. Most of these wealthy guys do their deals in the evening and at night when everyone is a sleep.Above all making wealth is all about the mind set. I once read about the writer’s breakthrough. It was not about getting up early. He didn’t have connections but he had determination. I disagree with the classification. We have many wealthy people who don’t even go to offices. Their monies works for them. Those who get up very early are employees of the wealthy people.

  • Some truth. But for me if someone is in legitimate stuff they it can inspire.

    As we are making wealth ,the source is critical.

  • This is not true. I beg to disagree. The fact that you are pegging a person by the type of car one is driving then you are very wrong in your observation. For one the guys you see with big cars on Thika Road are the employed,running to beat companies time and some are renting close by. The guys you see,later and that’s me are the ones coming from Thika,Juja Ruitu etc. With their vitz,wingroad,wish,are their own boss heading to their business.They don’t have time to beat and are the employers and are very rich.

  • A good observation now I know exact time to wake up though jobless😭😭.I eat alot and sleep light adog not knowing what tomorrow has in store.

  • I fairly disagree, take a look at cleaners and security guards they arrive as early as at 5:30am some in Nairobi cbd at mostly 4am. Say this, these Mkubwa reach in the office just like the subordinates but the mid-class are the ones that normally arrive at 8am. Speaking from experience and observations.

  • Just a thought. The wealthy people work from home, and have someone or another working for them. One fo the middle class jamaz.
    Although I haven’t been out at 4am recently so I could also be very wrong.
    Just a thought.

    Have a lovely day

  • Good observation but you are somehow a lazy writer. You failed to include a very important group where a large% of Kenyans fall; the Public Transport Users. Mind you, some people work in offices but use public transport. You should have factored in that, why are you treating them as children of a lesser god, I bet you also fall in that category. Oops I’m out!

  • I love the whole challenge. God is not injust, He will reward you when you toil hard.
    Everyday is a bank account and time is our currency. No one is rich no one is poor. We’ve got 24 hours each.

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