It took me 10 years to buy a mkokoteni for Sh1,500

 Warutere Wachira pulling his mkoko along Luthuli area. Photo: Pkemoi Ngenoh

Warutere Wachira has been doing the same job for more than 40 years. He is a mkokoteni (handcart) guy along Luthuli Avenue.

The father of four has seen the reign of four presidents and says, “Life has not been that easy. I left the village around 1975 after dropping out in class seven.”

Speaking to The Nairobian, The 65-year-old said, “My father gave me Sh1 which I used to travel to Nairobi using an OTC bus, having heard that the city had more job opportunities.” He adds that, “With no relative in the city, I joined casual labourers at Kamukunji where luggages from various parts of the country were kept. That’s where I spent my nights with a few colleagues who arrived before me.”

With few connections and his little savings, Warutere hired wooden cart for 50 cents and started hunting for customers who were willing to pay him to cart their luggage at Machakos Country Bus, City Market and Wakulima Market and other areas in the city.

“We used wooden carts from 1975  to 1997 and when tyre-wheeled carts were introduced, we resisted the new invention, fearing the speed at which these carts could be pushed and the possibility that a mistimed break could lead to death,” recalls the man who made Sh2 on good day and would spend Sh1 on half a loaf of bread and coffee, and save the rest because after all, “I slept out in the open like my colleagues.”

The new carts with tyres were going for Sh500. Many cart pushers resisted these new carts and quit the trade. But Warutere stayed on. He also saved until he acquired his own for Sh1,500 in early 2000s, twenty something plus years after his marriage in 1980.

“It took me 10 years to save Sh1,500 to purchase the new-look carts. In the early 1970s and 1980s, it was crime to be found with large sums of money, unless you were a police officer or chief,” explains Warutere who can’t forget the August 1982 abortive coup.

“That day, I was moving some luggage for a customer to Machakos Country Bus, when he got shot and died. I pulled his body and used it to shield myself for hours before fleeing the city centre,” he narrates.

Times have changed. Kenya today has over two million cars according to the National Transport and Safety Authority but “sometimes in the 1980s, two hours could pass before you see a vehicle in the city centre,” recalls Warutere who is happy because  “nowadays things have changed an it’s easy to get Sh50 in less than an hour. In the early years, it could take up to six hours to earn an equivalent amount. The problem however is that inflation has eroded the value of money and increased the cost of living.”

Warutere has outlived some of his colleagues who turned to crime and at times stole from customers.

Since buying his first mkokoteni after a decade, Warutere has increased his ‘fleet’ to four carts, in addition to 20 trolleys which he leases out daily. “Each trolley goes for Sh50 a day and a cart costs Sh70 per day, though some trolleys were stolen recently,” says the man who earns over 1,200 a day or slightly over Sh30, 000 a month.

Warutere can now afford to work for two weeks and take a two-week ‘leave’ to his rural home in Nyeri as his son takes care of business.