Feature: Chinese-built road transforming lives of mothers in rural central Kenya

NAIROBI, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Mercy Nyaguthii's story mirrors that of many former housewives, who stayed home, waiting for their husbands to provide.

A native of a serene village in the central Kenyan county of Nyeri, Nyaguthii, a mother of three, would be doing menial jobs for peanuts at best or spend most of the day idle at worst, for lack of a job.

But three years ago, she joined a growing number of women who started small businesses along the Kenol-Sagana-Marua road after the project of upgrading the road into an eight-lane dual carriageway, undertaken by China's Jiangxi Transportation Engineering Group Ltd. in October 2020.

Nyaguthii can take anywhere between 500 Kenyan shillings (about 3.8 U.S. dollars) to 7.7 U.S. dollars per day from the venture. "This is much better compared to the 2.3 dollars I took home from the backbreaking and undependable menial jobs in people's farms," Nyaguthii told Xinhua in a recent interview.

She is among more than 300 women who found solace in the Rukandu area, one of the many temporary markets that have mushroomed along the 84-kilometer stretch of the dual carriageway under construction near Marua junction, and thousands of others are also making livelihoods in the same way along the busy road.

They sell farm produce like arrowroots, cassava, sweet potatoes, and fruits, a business that takes many low-income earners just a small capital to start.

The project is supervised by the Kenya National Highways Authority, and co-financed by the African Development Bank (AfDB) at 69 percent, Africa Growing Together at 12 percent, and the Kenyan government at 19 percent, and will cost a total of 273.3 million dollars.

According to the AfDB group website, the overall implementation period of the project is five years from 2020 to 2025.

Mary Mukami, another trader, from Nyeri County in central Kenya, said she has pitched camp along the highway for the last three years to sell arrowroots grown at her farm.

"We can provide necessities for our families like food, school fees, and house rent through the proceeds we get here," said Mukami, a mother of three. She was among the first people to start trading at the site.

Only about 20 small traders were based at Rukandu before the number steadily grew to over 300. About 95 percent of the traders are women, most initially considered at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.

A sizable number of them were previously housewives or single mothers who were the sole breadwinners of their families. "Many here are single mothers, but they are now able to provide for their children and educate them. Others live in rental houses and can now effortlessly and promptly pay their rent," Mukami said.

Selling next to Mukami is Emily Wangari who also depended on unreliable menial jobs previously for income while trading along the road has proved lucrative.

Many buyers making stopovers along the road have their eyes mostly set on traditional foods like arrowroots, cassava, sweet potatoes, and bananas. But the traders' venture is not without challenges as they go through difficulties in the course of their work, selling under harsh elements including scorching sun and rain.

Senior government officials and local leaders have started providing the traders at the open-air market with umbrellas to shield them from punishing heat.

The Chinese-built road is part of the Great North Road that runs from the coastal city of Mombasa through Nairobi and is expected to reach Moyale town which borders Ethiopia. It will form a stretch of 800 kilometers from Nairobi to Moyale.

The Kenol-Sagana-Marua section traverses three agricultural counties of Murang'a, Kirinyaga, and Nyeri in central Kenya. The positive impacts of the road have been felt in the upper eastern parts of Kenya where it has stimulated commerce through seamless movement of goods and services.

As for Justus Wanjiku, traveling 12 kilometers daily from home to the market where he sells fruits has been rewarding financially amid the high traffic of customers, including truck drivers and construction workers.

"On my first day, I recorded impressive sales which gave me the motivation to start operating from here. From then, I have been selling a variety of fruits like oranges and bananas," Wanjiku said.