Strolling in the streets in Nairobi, Emabakasi East constituency, I came across three young men selling chapati behind the road. With my curiosity, I sought to know their story, how they came to start the business, where they come from and how they are fairing. Few minutes into the conversation, I learnt that they are five in number doing the same business. Their story paints a picture of how jobless youths eke a living in Nairobi in the midst high unemployment.
Vincent Isendi, 21, Samuel Amuhanda, 18, Antony Mugama, 21, Maxwell Omega, 26 and Arnold Amwanda, 19 are all roadside chapati seller in Nairobi. They told me that their living conditions were devastating before they decided to bake and sell chapati on the street. Starvation was a reality that faced them for weeks. They had to frequent their friends homes with hopes of getting meals.
“There is a time we had no food for close to one week but we didn’t think of robbery or any criminal act. The landlord at the time was chasing us up and down since we had no paid rent. We used to go to our friends so that they can give us food,” Arnold began.
Their story began in Kakamega county where they come from. They grew together and when they were old enough to fend for themselves, they came to Nairobi. However, the journey to the city didn’t happened once, one of them came to Nairobi who later invited the rest to the city.
At the city, they got casual work which sustained them for sometime until they suddenly lost the jobs. This meant they couldn’t fend for themselves. Hunger hit them, which prompted them to find a way to salvage their worsening situation after their job hunting mission hit a brick wall.
With little money that they could contribute and borrow some from friends, they raised a capital of Ksh15,000 which they used to buy the first stock and other necessities. That’s how Best Five chapati business was birthed.
“We were doing nothing in the street, just idle. We sat down and look for an idea of how to make money because we had nothing to survive on. One of our friends knew how to bake chapati and through him we learnt it. We opened this business together and stayed with him about a month,” Vincent Isendi said.
Being five men clinging onto one chapati business on roadside, soon situation proved unsustainable. They had to quickly think of another way to make money. Eventually they opened two other roadside chapati businesses making it to three locations.
“We are not doing bad since we can get food and pay rent. Before, we would get a profit of up to Ksh2,500 but due to the rising cost of living, the profit have dropped to about Ksh1,500 per day. However, we keep the business going by helping each other,”Arnold said.
Empowering other youths
David Shirungu who was a robber joined Best Five and had since reformed thank to Best Five team which encouraged him to stop him unlawful acts and welcomed him to the business.
“Since I joined Best Five it has really helped me. Personally, I have been a robber, I used to rob people their phones and other items. So these guys (Best Five group), because they know me encouraged me to stop crime and join them. They told me robbery is dangerous and that I could be killed,” Shirungu shared.
“They welcome me to work with them and so far I have reformed and now I can get some money to buy food. Without them, I don’t know where my life would have been. Since I joined them, I have change my mind and that I will never think of robbing people again. For now I am thinking of how we can build this business together,” Shirungu added.
Setbacks and high cost of living
Arnold says the rising cost of living has affected their business greatly. He says that they had opted to close the business but it became apparent that their move was in futility, therefore they resumed their business. He adds that operating in an open air is so challenging as well.
“We have been affected by the high cost of living. There is a time we had to stop this business for a while because we had no money to keep it running. However, we had to return to this business because without it, we have no other source of income. The cost of running it is so high and at times we can’t make any profit. Also being an open air food vendor, it’s not easy because some customers despise us and at the same time you can build a roadside food kiosk because the government will demolish it,” he says.
Word to fellow youth
David says that youth like himself should avoid drugs and crime by all means since it is not worth it adding that small businesses can elevate and at the worst case it can help to sustain themselves.
“What I can tell my fellow youth is that theft or robbery and drugs will not take you anywhere. What we have to do is find anything to even a small business provided you can make so money to sustain yourself,” he advises.
Best Five group says they have a plan of opening a hotel and a bakery so that they can employ more youth. However, they don’t have enough capital at the moment. Vincent pleads with the government to help them access capital to expand the business in order to create more jobs.
“Our plea to the government is to enable youth to get capital to start businesses so that we can give jobs to our fellows. For now we have seven youth working with us in this chapati business and it has really helped us. If the government can enable us to get capital, it will really boost us,” Vincent concludes.
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