Why Rudeness in Kenya Customer Service Has Become Normal

Let’s be honest rudeness in Kenya customer service has become so common that getting good service feels like winning a lottery. You walk into a shop and the attendant looks like you interrupted their entire life. You ask a question and suddenly you’re the problem. Your food delays and when you follow up, the waiter treats you like you’re being dramatic. We’ve all lived this so much that we now expect bad service before it even happens.

But how did rudeness in Kenya customer service become so normal?. Customer service workers are exhausted. Long hours, low pay, and pressure from managers wear them down. Imagine standing the whole day dealing with impatient customers and impossible targets. By the tenth time someone asks, “Hii item iko?” their patience is gone. Their emotional tank is empty, but instead of fixing the system, we normalize the attitude.

Then there’s our habit of acting “tough.” Politeness is seen as weakness. People say, “Usijifanye soft,” as if kindness is embarrassing. So workers harden themselves, thinking they’re protecting their dignity, when in reality, they’re harming customer relationships.

Social media makes it worse. Clips of rude cashiers or waiters go viral for laughs instead of sparking real conversations. We treat the problem as entertainment, so when we meet bad service in real life, we shrug it off with “Si ni kawaida.”

Businesses also fail to take customer experience seriously. Staff are trained on procedures — how to scan, how to operate M-Pesa — but not how to be human. And when customers complain, nothing happens. No accountability. No follow-up. So low expectations become the national standard.

But normalizing rudeness hurts everyone. It kills loyalty, frustrates customers, and creates a cold, disconnected society. And honestly, it’s unnecessary. A smile costs nothing. A polite tone isn’t a weakness. A simple “let me check for you” can change someone’s whole day.

We need to demand better from businesses, from workers, and from ourselves. Customer service is not servitude. It’s mutual respect. It’s remembering that both sides of the counter are human.

If we softened up just a little, we’d finally understand something simple:

Good service isn’t a luxury — it’s a choice.