A Complete Taxonomy of Expats in Kenya

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Abstract: It’s said there are three types of expats in Nairobi (1): Missionaries, Mercenaries, and Misfits. This widely used framework, however, is incomplete. In this post I propose a rigorous and complete taxonomy (2). Every under-35-year-old expat that you will meet in Nairobi can be easily sorted into one of 24 buckets based on four dimensions. There are no edge cases.

Methods: The Taxonomy was created using extremely rigorous methods based on anecdotal data of my  friends in Kenya. Who are of course, totally and completely representative of all under-35 foreigners living in Kenya.

Overview: Each expat can be assigned an letter from each of four categories:

  • Purpose for being in Kenya: Impact (I) / market (M) / good time (G)

  • B-school-adjacence: In-program (P) / no plans (N)

  • Degree of entrapment in expat bubble: Practically local (L) / stuck (S)

  • Weekend behavior: City (C) / travel (T)

For example, an impact-driven person on internship from business school who is not trapped in the expat bubble and generally stays in Nairobi would be an IPLC.

Detail on the Four Categories

Purpose for being in Kenya:

  • I: Impact-driven (~”missionaries”)

  • M: Interested in the market or political environment (~”mercenaries”)

  • G: Just here for a good time man (~”misfits”)

  • Discussion: The most obvious of the 4 dimensions, purpose, is captured in the pop wisdom “missionary/mercenary/misfit” trichotomy. This trichotomy is obviously stylized for humorous effect - not all M’s are motivated solely by money, and many G’s aren’t misfits at all in their home countries. But it captures a general truth about expats that is more precisely articulated in the I/M/G dimension.

B-school-adjacence (3): 

  • P: In a master’s program or planning to apply next cycle (often business school)

  • N: No plans for grad school (includes those who are post-grad school)

  • Discussion: For the most part, someone’s adjacency to graduate school determines whether they plan to stay in Kenya longer than 6 months. No master’s plans = no concrete plans to leave Kenya.

Degree of entrapment in the expat bubble:

  • L: Basically local

  • S: Stuck in the bubble

  • Discussion: L’s tend to go to Kenyan clubs, listen to afrobeats, and not exclusively hang out with fellow expats. S’s tend to plan trips to the coast with each other and avoid taking matatus at all costs. If a S is the clubbing type, Alchemist is their favorite club. As a show of dominance over S’s, L’s will often slip the odd Swahili word into conversation. 

Weekend behavior:

  • C: Prioritize city life in Nairobi 

  • T: View traveling as the primary purpose of weekends

  • Discussion: Typical interests of T’s are kite surfing, climbing, gathering “content” for “the gram”, hiking, applying sunscreen, and safaris. T’s tend to be “doers”, as in “We did Mt. Kenya last weekend”, “I’ve done Lamu 3 or 4 times”, and “Ah, I’ve been meaning to do Samburu again”. C’s, either out of fear of the outdoors, desire to build up a community in Nairobi, or revulsion to planning tend to enjoy taking advantage of all the restaurants, markets, and house parties that Nairobi city life has to offer.

Further work: None required. This topic is now closed (4).

Acknowledgements: Thanks to K and J1 for comments on this manuscript, and to A and J2 for fruitful discussions. Expats par excellence all.


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  1. As we all know, if you move from a poorer to a richer country, you’re an immigrant and if you move from a richer to a poorer country you’re an expat. This is right and just and no further interrogation of this fact is needed

  2. Hence “The Taxonomy”

  3. For brevity I have titled this dimension “B-school-adjacence”, although “Grad-school-adjacence” would be technically more accurate as there are P’s (particularly those from Europe) who are planning to go to grad school that is not business school

  4. Tag urself. I’m an INSC