In a bid to save money in Nakuru, most households buy milk from vendors as opposed to getting packeted milk from supermarkets.
The beauty of buying milk from vendors in Nakuru is that with as little as Sh20, you can still buy milk so as to make yourself a cup of tea or you may opt to drink it just before you leave for work in the morning.
However, the milk has to be boiled first just to ensure that all the germs all dead, just as our teachers taught us in school.
Most shops in Nakuru have now turned to this business owing to the fact that milk is one of those items on demand in Nakuru.
Due to this fact, some milk vendors who may be termed as greedy have now devised ways of ensuring they get more money from this business.
Some of these include:
1) Adding water
As it is commonly referred to in Nakuru, most shopkeepers who sell milk in Nakuru and milk vendors ‘baptize’ the milk so as to increase the quantity they have been supplied with. This will in turn mean more profit. However, some 'baptize' the milk too much and once you buy it for your tea, let’s just say the outcome will be what is referred to as ‘ chai mrefu’ whereby after presenting the tea before your family, some members may joke and say that ‘maziwa ilirushiwa Nairobi’. Woe unto you if you had bought for the baby. In this case, parents in Nakuru are advised to buy fresh packaged milk or milk directly from a dairy farmer.
2) Boiling milk after which the cream is removed
I honestly do not know why some milk vendors do this or what they intend to do with the cream. All I know is that after doing this, margarine is added to the milk so as to make it seem like the milk is good and has really thick cream. Other vendors after buying milk from dairy farmers go ahead and boil it after which they remove the cream and later 'baptize' it, after which margarine is added. This is something that one will discover after buying the milk and boiling it for making tea. One will witness a thick layer of fat and questions such as ‘hii maziwa ina mafuta aje?’ will lodge at the back of your mind.
3) Adding maize flour to boiled milk
This is normally done by some vendors after tampering with the milk that is already purchased. By tampering I mean the addition of milk and subtraction of cream after boiling it. This method is meant to deceive the customer that the milk is okay. Woe unto you when you buy the milk for your own use. Let’s just say you will not be pleased after boiling the milk to make tea. What is saddening is that some of the vendors who do that will feign innocence whenever they are confronted.
My advice to you is that if you live in Nakuru or plan to reside in this fastest growing town in Africa, do your research if at all you have to buy your milk from vendors in Nakuru because not all of them do this.
Alternatively, you can buy it from supermarkets in Nakuru which have milk ATMs.
If not, purchase your milk from a dairy farmer in case you know one.