Hard economic times continue to gripple Kenyans and not sparing anyone including university students. However, Sandra Jelagat from Multimedia University decided to find a way around the economic strife that has forced many students to miss meals in order to save money for other school necessities such as printing.
Comrades depend on their parents or have to start a side hustle like selling mitumba clothes while juggling school work in order to survive.
The journalism student became Tiktok famous after posting videos of cooking meals but not in the normal conventional ways people are used to.
Her videos have raked up over 1 million views and counting as she continues to shock her following by cooking food such as pizza and meat pie only using her two handy appliances - a toaster and kettle.
“It all started when I tried experimenting with cooking eggs in the toaster. I did not expect it to work but was very surprised that it turned out great and well-cooked.
It was way before I started recording videos for Tiktok. I also used to buy food and warm it in the toaster if it gets cold,” she said.
Sandra resides in the hostel located on the school grounds where they pay Sh6000 per semester, inclusive of water and electricity. A student is then allocated to a room to be shared with another student which is the most affordable accommodation option in most universities.
The only downside is that they are prohibited from using cooking appliances such as electric or gas cookers in their rooms to avoid fires.
This forces most students to rely on the common mess hall in the school or food vendors around the school to buy their meals. She cites that part of the reason she started her insane cooking techniques was to save some money.
“Food prices have really gone up. If you cook for yourself, you will spend less and have even leftovers. For instance, a plate of ugali, greens and omena bought from the school mess hall would cost Sh80 which is enough to buy vegetables that can feed you for more than two days.
We used to buy a plate of ugali and beef meat at Sh50 which has now gone up to sh80. That is almost double the price,” she lamented.
The Tiktok algorithm worked in her favour when she posted her first video which got one thousand likes in a few hours. Sandra’s first viral video went up on April 13 and starts as she first goes to Kware market near her school to pick up fresh onions, tomatoes, and coriander.
Then she breaks and beats her two eggs and mixes them with the cut-up vegetables. She turns on her toaster and throws in some Bluband margarine then lays out her mixture then closes it.
Her choice of background music, ‘Our Lord Jesus is the Ladder’ by Agnes Iro which is now a popular Tiktok sound, makes it more comical to her viewers who applauded her creativity to beat the economic tough times.
“I only take breakfast and dinner and skip lunch which is usually the norm for most university students. Some only eat dinner,” she adds. In November last year, the phrase, ‘kuinama’ came up from university students referring to how they skip meals due to financial constraints.
Despite these issues, Sandra enjoys feeding her culinary curiosity by testing the limit and surprisingly making tasty food as she claims such as a meat pie that is usually cooked in an oven.
In the video which has 1.1 million views, she is seen boiling meat and potatoes in her kettle which she later puts on top of her dough placed on the toaster. Some of her followers, however, worry for her health as they are not sure if the food is well-cooked and fit for consumption.
Using appliances for other uses that it was not intended for is also dangerous but Sandra laughs and says that you have to take some risks in order to be successful. Lucky for her, it did work as she now has over 24 thousand followers on Tiktok, launching her to influencer status. Unfortunately, she is yet to monetize it though.
“People are very encouraging. I have received comments from people hoping that brands for electronic devices can start working with me or even give me a job,” she said.
Sandra says that apart from financial struggles, the students worry that they might not be able to find jobs in the future but instead, create them for themselves which is why most young people are venturing into content creation.
