How many of you can accurately rehearse the Kenyan National Anthem in Shembeteng? Have you heard phrases such as wambatangu, lumbutuku, zombotote, kizumbutumbu, and the like at your workplace or home? Are your kids speaking in a new slang or coded language that even you, as a millennial parent, are finding it difficult to understand? Well, welcome to the land of shembeteng! A new slang dialect that will make you the laughing stock of your age mates has also led to an increase in foul-mouthing and the erosion of traditional moral fabrics.
One of the greatest influences of speech has been the development of diverse stylistic language practices. In the United States, American prose has been fundamental in the development of new political and social movements, dating back to the 18th century. Fast-forward to Kenya, the emergence of shembeteng has introduced a dialect that follows no grammar rules coupled with incomplete sentences. Surprisingly, it has a specific syllable flow, an indication of the remodeling of natural linguistic patterns in the Swahili language that has led to the emergence of social groups such as the common Mbogi, and Jeembeteshi (more on this later).
The Statista Research Department indicates that Swahili is the most spoken language in Kenyan homes at 27.1%, followed by Kikuyu and Luhya at 13.3% and 9.5% respectively. Interestingly, among the twelve most common languages in Kenya, English is the 10th least spoken language in Kenyan homes at 3.4%. Swahili has historically been the go-to language in Kenya and I remember it was the first language I learned. I know! You must be skeptical about this given the fact that my mother tongue is Kikuyu and therefore this should be my first language. Here’s why.
I was brought up in an urban area, Thika, Makongeni Phase V back in the early 1990s. At the time, till now (almost), my parents worked for various government ministries and had therefore adopted the Swahili language for workplace conversation. Historically, Swahili is a national language here in Kenya meaning government officers must communicate in this unified dialect. We also resided in a multilinguistic environment with a mix of people from other tribes meaning that it was important, as children and parents, to use a unifying language when communicating.
The Emergence of Shembeteng
However, we created our own coded language to ensure that our parents did not understand our skims or plans. This is normal in a society that wants to be generationally unique. Constructing a personal and social identity is common among young people, but this new dialect has even witnessed the middle class embrace it in their conversations.
Overhearing a 36-year-old man telling his wife “nakulombotove” sets one on the idea that we are in the age of lunacy! On the other end, a 30-year-old lady replies “wewe ni wambatangu” and this sets forth a conversation that many people, I included, cannot fathom. The KenyanMagazine has published some phrases and their meanings for those who want to immerse themselves in this new language.
For the majority of Kenyans born in the 1970s till the 90s, sheng was a common language that was freely spoken and easily understood. Terms and terminologies used were common to everyone. Fast-forward to 2023 Kenya, it is high time that we question the efficacy and feasibility of shembeteng. Plain, original Swahili words such as nakupenda have been mutilated and hybridized by a new generation that has ushered in words such as lombotove that will require you to Google it down or even find mbogis to elaborate. In my case, hailing from Kiambu, I’ll probably seek out mbogi ya mbukia to know the meaning of the new catchphrase mrombotoko! (It’s funny how the name Kiambu has also been altered to embrace this new culture). While some of you believe that this language is limited to the East part of Nairobi, or simply Eastlando, this language has found its way into platforms within and outside Nairobi.
Cultural Inadequacies
This evolution has created problems in society but has also reinforced the idea of cultural intelligence through language. Shembeteng has created “in-betweenness” by fostering the hybridization of language in a display of superior cultural intelligence. For the youth, learning different languages is based on code-switching as a feature of new conversation. In reference to this article, code-switching has enabled Kenyan youths to replace a few Swahili words with new words.
Shembeteng is therefore an additional of words that include Mbutu, Mboto, Mbiti, Mbete, Mbata that are not only unfamiliar, but literary in their existent. A variation of the evolution of Swahili, sheng and shembeteng is provided in the table below.
| Swahili (Original) | Sheng (1990s to Date) | Shembeteng (2022 to Date) |
| Nakupenda (I love you) | Nakulove (a mixture of Swahili and English) | Naku-lo-mboto-ve |
From the above example, shembeteng has brought forward the codification of certain messages that have a hidden meaning. For some Kenyans and Kenyan youths, this remains the hardest language to understand and decode. Is this therefore the reason why its usage has been centered in less-affluent, slum areas? Is there a connection between this language and abhorred behaviors?
A recent publication traces the emergence of shembeteng to less-affluent and slum areas of Eastlands, Nairobi. However, these new dialect has also been adopted by the middle class who are now distancing themselves from the older generation. Closed in-groups are profound to use this dialect creating a new subculture identified through the choice of clothes, music, hairstyles, and lifestyles.
Courtesy: Deezer
While the language is common among many Kenyans, rising income inequality and class differences have created disillusions among many Kenyan youths. The high cost of living means that a select few get a chance to join universities, let alone colleges. Accordingly, this creates close-knit groups of Morios – sheng for an ordinary person. Theoretically, youths are the agents and experiencers of social change. The social and economic disturbances apparent in a country pave the way for transformative social shifts in behavior and language.
Anthropology suggests that the inability of many youths to secure jobs leads to the creation of new social norms and alteration of social perspectives to alienate themselves from others and to a large extent, excessive consumption. Visit many keg joints in Nairobi and you are likely to find a closely-knit, surrogate, and illegitimate group of young men and women chatting vibrantly watching football or chewing khat. The soundtracks that are being played? Mbogi Genje, and other songs that promote the language. Unsurprisingly, there are thousands of TikTok videos showing Kenya’s challenging each other to sing these songs using hashtags such as #shembetengmasters and #shembeteng.
The songs and the language, on a positive note, shed light on the creative side of Kenyans, who have gone viral and received worldwide viewership for their often conscious attitude towards social and political matters. Nigerians and Tanzanians are witnesses to Kenyan’s tenacious and conscious attitude. However, with the government not charting ways to help many young people to navigate worlds, parents are left with no chance but to accept the new dialects and associated behaviors.
The rise of the mbogis and affiliated groups have been replicated across the board where a case in point, is the music often focuses on sex, alcohol and bhang consumption, body art, and new hairstyles that are borrowed – and reinvented to show membership to a particular group – from the classic reggae culture.
Language should be a source of identity but based on this article, Kenyan youths, from an urban context, lack an identifying language. For the majority of them, they are caught between multiple and shifting identities from a communal, regional, national, and global context. If society doesn’t help them find a language that identifies with their culture and self, the youth of the shembeteng era will sink into the borderlands and disillusions of their identity. They will continue to view the world in binaries, struggling to arrive at meaningful synthesis within the boundaries of existing cultural differences.
Liberated Mindset 