Sheng Words for Food

Updated 2025-11-02, 6 min read

Nairobi eats on the street. The vocabulary follows: kiosks, portions, and the verbs that get you fed before the matatu leaves.

[[chakula]] is food in general, [[kula]] is to eat and [[kunywa]] is to drink. Beyond that, Sheng mostly keeps the Swahili names for dishes, because food is one area where nobody wants to be unclear.

• Chakula food
• Kula to eat
• Kunywa to drink
• Maji water
• Chai tea, milky spiced tea
• Kushiba to be full, to be satisfied after eating

The staples

[[ugali]] — dense maize meal — is the national staple, eaten with sukuma wiki, meat or fish. [[chapati]] is the layered flatbread that appears at every celebration. [[nyama-choma]] is meat roasted over coals, and it is a social event as much as a meal.

• Ugali ugali — stiff maize-meal porridge
• Chapati chapati — oily flatbread
• Nyama Choma grilled/roasted meat

Street food

The [[kibanda]] is the small roadside kiosk that feeds a whole street. From it you get [[chipsi]] — thick-cut fries — often as 'chipsi mayai', fries folded into an omelette. A [[smokie]] is the cheap sausage split and filled with chilli, eaten standing at a [[stage]].

• Kibanda food kiosk, small roadside stall
• Chipsi french fries, chips
• Smokie smoked sausage snack
• Stage matatu stop, boarding point

Talking about being full (or not)

• 'Nimeshiba' — I'm full.
• 'Sijala tangu asubuhi' — I haven't eaten since morning.
• 'Chakula hapa ni mbaya!' — The food here is insanely good.
• 'Bei ni nzuri, chakula kizuri' — Good price, good food.
• 'Tukale chapati na ndengu' — Let's eat chapati and lentils.