Mjengo

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Have you ever driven against a wave of manual labourers rushing to work? A horde of them, wearing shades of brown, jackets with tired linings, scruffy shoes and flailing hands, trudging like an army marching to a war they have already lost. Chaps with leathery faces dented by poverty, their failing spirits reinforced by hope; they put on determined looks as they swim against the tide, conversing in the tongues of their mothers, clutching dodgy paper bags and rushing into the road with nary a care. Have you seen them?

Then your side mirror snaps back sharply because you hit someone’s elbow, a dull thud of metal meeting flesh? Then you hear someone  angrily slap the ass of your car, a resounding thump, and your tail lights immediately burn red because you hit the breaks afraid that you might have run over someone. Suddenly an open palm is banging on your window and when you cautiously roll it down about a hundred faces with cold noses and frozen eyebrows are thrust into your car, demanding an explanation as to why you imagine you are so special that you can “run people over.” What happens next is a fine moment of group psychology, a brief but intense period of mental blitz where all at once you think of your laptop in the back seat, your phone in the front seat, your nuts in your hands and how much you have in your wallet to appease the anger now curled around your steering wheel like a serpent.

And you couldn’t have picked a worse crowd to agitate with your side mirror that morning.  

These are guys who are headed to sit in the scathing sun outside a factory or a construction site hoping that an Indian guy bearing a clipboard will open the gate and pick them for a 300-bob day’s worth of honest work. These are guys who slept with bread and strong tea in their stomachs and crying children in their ears. Then you hit him with your stupid side mirror because you have a car and you are wearing Givenchy cologne and listening to Capital-effin’-FM. You hit him because you have on a white starched shirt and you keep pictures of your smiley children in your wallet.  You hit him because you don’t know how it feels to walk five kilometers in the unrelenting rain because you are saving the 60 bob in your pocket for the kids’ dinner.

Because of that you remain besieged in your car, surrounded by angry frustrated chaps who want your head on a stake. You are everything they resent because you represent the gap between them and the haves. And that gap is so vast and desolate you can only cross it with a well-watered male camel and lots of luck.

That happened to me once, around Yaya. What saved me was that I picked up the ring leader’s accent (he’s always the guy with hair in his nose) and I switched to my mother tongue, and he softened. Of course I parted with 500 bob but mostly I was only happy to retain my dignity.

Mjengo guys can be rough on the road when they are a horde. And so when I found myself hanging out with them a few weeks back I was surprised at the departure of the image I had of them.

I went to Two Rivers Mall, sandwiched between the Northern Bypass and Limuru Road. It’s currently under construction. Huge-ass place. Cranes swung against the grey clouds. Men drilled and hammered. It had rained the previous night, so the ground was soggy. I arrived at 12.15pm and parked near this place the mjengo guys had gathered for their lunch. Women in lesos heaved bucketloads of food onto wooden tables:  githeri, beans, rice, beef, ndengu, porridge, bananas, meat, ugali. A lady cooked from a three-stone hearth nearby, blinking away smoke. Men in hard hats milled around. Men wearing yellow hats and red hats and white hats perched on their heads. They hung loose in small groups, holding mounds of food on plastic plates. They chattered. And chewed. They were electricians and painters and labourers and carpenters and they all had big hands. Even the small guys had big hands.

How it works is that the women make food and ferry them to the site. These women follow construction workers. The building you are sitting in right now? It was risen by men like them, men who were fuelled by the pots that those women stirred.  Two Rivers Mall broke ground two years ago and these women have gone there daily since then, feeding these men and making a living in the process. They tie money on the edge of their lesos. Or stuff them between their breasts. The money you have in your wallet? You won’t believe the number of breasts it might have gone through. And isn’t it amazing that money goes through so much and yet it never smells anything other than money?

The average these men spend on food is 50 bob. If you spend 100 bob you are either balling or you are a glutton. And there are no gluttons there. An average mjengo guy eats not less than four chapos. One man eats like six chapos with beans or ndengu. Lakini those chapos are so thin you could use them as mosquito nets. Few pay cash. It’s credit. End of the week they pay up. Sometimes when they are fired they don’t pay. So it’s a loss to the women, but what to do?

Fact: All the women I spoke to didn’t have husbands. I keep saying husbands are going out of fashion but nobody listens to me. Every woman whose man I asked about just giggled and said, “Si hayuko,” as if he had been taken by aliens in the dead of the night.  

“Alienda wapi?”

“Aii, si unajua tu nyinyi wanaume?”

“Mimi sijui wanaume, niambie…”

“Alienda…”

And they all have kids whom they school and feed and clothe single-handedly. The landscape of the mjengo is a vast gritty land marked by absentee fathers. And they aren’t even bitter. They don’t have time to go ranting on FB. Or copy paste quotes on social media. You leave they move on. It’s cold out there. They were in fact surprised by my curiosity at the men taking off. There was a lady called Grace who was selling jackets. Tough looking lady – I think you have to be tough to sell there. She was also a single mother. She had two children, aged five and fifteen. I asked her what happened to baba watoto and she said, “Hata sina shughuli.” Ngai. See? We are slowly going out of fashion. That wave will one day get to Kile and then this “bae this” “bae that” fad will end.

Have you ever been in traffic along Waiyaki Way and seen a bus with all these chairs, side boards, sewing machines and sufurias on its roof? Of course the those belong to Luhyas. I mean everybody knows that, let’s not even pretend. But have you ever wondered why they carry all those things back to shags and then bring them back? Is it to show off to the villagers? Is it because their Nairobi houses don’t have doors? Is it because buses don’t have excess baggage charge? Can someone take a wild guess why Lunjes carry their sofas home?

Anyone?

I found out why when I interviewed this chap called Timothy, a labourer from Vihiga. He was thin but hard as nails, you could tell from how his arm muscles layered on top of each other like the bark of an ancient exotic tree. He was eating boiled maize, and every time he chewed a vein the size of a fiber optic cable zigged and zagged down his neck. He said, and listen to this, that when his job ends at the site, he has two options. One, get another job immediately. Or two, in case there is no job, take his ass back to shags and wait until someone calls him and says, “Omwami, kuna kazi nimesikieko hapo Upper Hill, unaweza kucha Nairopi kesho?”

But because it doesn’t make sense to pay rent in Nairobi while he’s in shags tending to his shamba businesses as he waits for a call, what does he do? He packs his belongings and goes shags. With his sofas. And when the call comes he packs his wooden coffee table and things and heads back to Nai.

There was also Fred, a painter. His job is to paint all of the 700 doors that will be in Two Rivers Mall. 700 doors! Of course he has a small team. They paint about 15 doors a day. He’s been painting for 12 years. I asked him if he is happy with the way his doors are painted at home and he said he isn’t, but he doesn’t care because it’s not his house. His house in shags well painted though. Fred knows more colours than anyone here. Or even Peter Marangi.

There was a chap from Meru, a 22 year old guy called Mureithi who moonlights as a rapper when he’s done hauling cement. I asked him if he is any good at rapping and he did a freestyle. He sucked. No, really, he did. I’d love to say that he was good and that one day someone will discover him in one of those clubs in Kayole where he plays at night because we all root for the underdog, but he sucked. But he’s 22, at 22 you can take your life anywhere. Actually, you can take your life anywhere at any age. If you want to. Only if you want to. If you don’t you can moan in a corner.

I met this jango guy, called Ouma. His mates called him Ous. Funny-ass guy. He’s a labourer. He told me has has eight kids. He’s 23. Eight kids! He said it didn’t work out with his first woman so he got a second one. The first one has five kids, the second has three. He announced this nonchalantly. He lives in D. (Uhm, that’s Dandora, ye, folk of Peponi Road.) I was intrigued by the number of kids that have come out of him. Eight kids, at 23! How does he even have the energy to make kids after working so hard at the construction site? How many kids will he have at 30?

Tell you what, I went there thinking that these mjengo guys are unhappy or discontent, that they long for another life. Turns out they don’t. I asked all of them if there was one thing they wished for that would make their lives complete and they all said they were happy with their lives. I mean all of them. You see them walking in troops along Langata Road, headed to Industrial Area and you think, “Oh poor souls,” but imagine they are cool? In fact it might be that you are unhappier than them because you want to keep up with the Joneses. You have to keep appearances on Instagram. You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from. Life to them is about today and now. And they are content because their lives are about having a meal and having healthy kids and waking up to a job the next day.

And when it’s not working out, as it sometimes doesn’t, or when Two Rivers Mall is complete, like it will be in a few months time, they will have no qualms packing up their wooden coffee tables and sewing machines and hauling them up onto a bus and heading back to shags. Going to shags for them is not a downgrade, it’s going back home to their people.

 

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266 Comments
    1. Lol. I hate that I have to comment again here but si you fill us in on your triumph! I’m curious. Ama its because you were first to comment? Well in that case nvm.

    1. ukweli…..at lunch time i go to where this mamas are selling to this mjengo guys and get my share…. my colleagues always ask me if am not afraid of having a running stomach…my answer is that am human

      1
  1. hahaha
    “And isn’t it amazing that money goes through so much and yet it never
    smells anything other than money?” Because it’s money www.shesatomboy.com

    1. Rael – try wearing underwear for 2 weeks without washing and let us know if it will still smell like underwear ‘because it’s underwear’. It will smell like shit. So I’m also always intrigued how even the oldest, most crumpled 50 bob note never loses that smell of money.

    2. Wait until you receive money from a miraa seller who has traveled from maua to Nairobi with notes tucked in his shoes.

  2. Gosh, you guys who want to be the first to comment, need something deeper than a hug, I think you need to experience-EMBRACE. Stuff you go through, MEEN!!, I am unable.

    Biko, Dope!!

    1. Lol. The first and the last time i talked ishh about people who post ‘ First to comment’ i was rebuked like the devil hehe . Am still on chill pills. Someone said that it is an achievement worth celebrating hehe. Let them be.

  3. This is more of an inspirational piece than just another creative art. There are very many broken souls hidden behind plastic smiles.

    1. Biko said their souls are not broken, they could be more alive than yours…that tie on your neck could be choking you to death while his torn shoe airs his life from down under… literally…

    2. I think Stephen actually means that WE are the broken souls in plastic smiles….we who run the rat race to keep up with the joneses,we who post pictures of our pretty kids and our baes …and selfies with big fat smiles.We are the broken ones.Great piece Biko!

  4. The chapos were so thin they could pass for mosquito nets… hahaha

    For once, our comrades, Merus, have been acknowledged lol.

    Me deciding to not be a ghost reader

  5. I work a lot with these guys and you are spot on. their simple values and genuine joy is always refreshing.

    1. Their mchongoanos are the best ever free comedy you will get,I once spent time with them and i had visible six pack just from laughing.

  6. ” What
    happens next is a fine moment of group psychology, a
    brief but intense period of mental blitz where all at once
    you think of your laptop in the back seat, your phone in
    the front seat, your nuts in your hands and how much
    you have in your wallet to appease the anger now curled
    around your steering wheel like a serpent.”

    Brilliant turn of phrase Biko

  7. This is so true. Life to them is about today and now. And they are content because their lives are about having a meal and having healthy kids and waking up to a job the next day.

  8. I’ve employed a few at my site. Tell you what, these fellows are interesting, the story of their lives is amaizing not to mension funny, I mean they’ll make you laugh with their stories.

  9. I have mad respect for these guys. Especially the likes of Ous, baby making machos who go the extra mile to provide for their offspring. And the Timothys who have to hurl mattresses, and Tvs, and sofas atop buses bound for shagz, with the hope that something will turn up soon, despite all. And the Mureithis who do anything to make ends meet, even though they suck. Haha! These guys are role models. Antidotes to the many idlers and deadbeats who taint our society. I bet that’s why they are content, because they are as satisfied with the effort it takes to wake up everyday, walk to work, eat Githeri and chapos for lunch, yet, do a great job. Big up mjengo guys!

    1. The guys who take their mattresses and their parrafin stoves and coffee table on the night bus are likely to have names like Frallystone or Dickens or Caltex, not Timothy. Just a real life observation.

  10. wow when someone speaks about mjengo I listen. am in love with houses under construction. I wear a white helmet Biko. whites are for professionals, yellow for plant operators, green for health stuff and red for fundis. You should have listened to their stories as they work. funniest stories you’ll ever hear. about their wives, clandes, the muhindi, and watoto wa project (children born as a result of construction workers and neighborhood girls meeting on payday) Nice piece. yours truly is happy now

      1. Usicatch. They are, but in a construction site professionals are people who are in the design team. Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Engineers etc.

  11. Ous doesn’t even care about Instagram. His only concern is where his next baby is coming from. Hhmm….

  12. I bump into this men every morning going to work(Two Rivers) as I wait for a mat,nasty when they say hi and you don’t respond or when your looking too sexy for they’re liking you will be in trouble!!big trouble..Biko you forgot to mention the sweaty smell as they walk past you or did you??
    This guys should be an inspiration to many

  13. “You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from..” Aaaah Biko! Thanks for cracking me up, as always. What did we do to deserve a Thursday treat??? 🙂

  14. Biko let me tell you those mjengo guys are content because they have known life in all its faces. They really live the moment because they have to. I mean when you’re climbing your ass on those hell-high pillars and hanging on ‘maybe-this-is-your-last-step’ poles across walls you’re bound to brush shoulder with death and thereafter little else scares you – not even Instagram going down. You prolly need to get one of them to blog about living the moment because whereas the rest of us are busy worrying about sijui twitter wars with South Africa and Pizza sizes they are there savoring life and having eight babies at 23! And damn that guy is really committed to filling the earth.PS. Amazing read.

  15. love it,i usuaally feel for these mjengo people but they are okey afterall they earn something at the end of the day.please biko u did not inquire how much they earn per day.

  16. I love this piece well put. I normally have tea in mabati cups and that broadway block bread and for sure these chaps are way more happier than the rest of us who try keeping up. The stories they share oh my to die for. They have hearty genuine laughs and will have each others back incase of a msiba. PS: their kids are in school as well you forgot to mention that Biko (some people might think all they do is eat and make babies). Unfortunately most of us are so caught up in this rush where all we want is to fit in and have the latest gadgets, outfits, cars etc. Well all that is vanity. Its the little things that matter.

    1. I agree. And it is not gadgets or outfits or cars that make us get lost, rather it is ‘forgetting to enjoy the music before the song is over’.

  17. And pls note your unilevers, Nestle, rush to where Ous, Omwami lives in D or Kibich to sell their sachet packs…… Kadogo market thrives more …… this guys actually play a very. significant role in. the economy….

  18. “He was eating boiled maize, and every time he chewed a vein the size of a fiber optic cable zigged and zagged down his neck.” lol.

  19. “You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from.” Hahaha. This one killed me. This piece is truly inspirational. Thank you for giving us another dose to wind up the week.

  20. Because they are so much happier. The loyal ones take half of the amount they make home to their dear wives because the kids have school fees to be paid for. Even though they drink the other half and buy big sports shoes for their kids, it’s an even trade don’t you think?

    Ps. Biko kindly respond to my email…

  21. Mad respect for them.
    I worked at Wilson Airport and lived in South B. I remember seeing that mass of humanity snake it’s way from Kibera and end up in Industrial area..on foot..so determined that not even rain or cold could stop their move.
    That nyoyo, githeri and huge mandazis that those mamas hawk around at construction sites..I’ve tried, and it’s not bad at all..a good way to stretch the pennies we sometimes throw away eating chicken strips on salad at Java..:-)

      1. hahaha..nyoyo..maize and beans..it’s different from githeri..githeri has maize, beans, carrots, pease, potatoes, meat, dhania and cabbage.

  22. I like this. Applys to guys living in slums, to them it’s just home. They will happily wait for an odd job here and a handout there. -And education is now ‘free’. Life.

  23. My friends talk about a lady who dates a mjengo guy..
    So when she texts him, he takes time to reply.
    He has to wipe the cement from his face so he can clearly see the text.

  24. True that they are happy. But I want to believe they wouldn’t mind a better life.
    I love the fact that when these guys pack their things and exit Nairobi, it’s not as if they have been sacked or sent away by their landlord or something. It’s just that work is over for now and they are going home. And that I think is the most important – Home.
    Thank you for this.

  25. Contentment is the key and secret to this life : I worked as one before I joined college back in the day. Today I have several in my site.

  26. Now, for you (Biko in this case) to have such a deep view of the smaller things that many of us take for granted, you must have a permanent residence in cloud 9!

  27. This is what Chimamanda was talking about when she authored ” Americanah” or Binyavanga’s how write about Africa” only that they ware talking about white people. How white people romanticize poverty as a good thing;almost godsend, how the poor are ,virtuous, blameless, happiest of souls, how the real people, the real humans, are the ones in the jungle competing with animals for food; the real Africa. Biko , would swap places with these contented mjengo guys, who don’t care shit about Instagram ? Honestly, have you met any mjengo guy who wouldnt want a better job?

      1. Wambugu being content with the little you have is not wrong either after all there’s always tommorow no?

    1. Contentment is having peace of mind in your current state of being. It does not necessarily mean that given a better opportunity you would not go for it. There’s a difference between contentment and complacency. Contentment simply means that you do not spend every waking minute of your life struggling, yearning for and stressing about the next big thing, all the while forgetting to live in the moment. It means enjoying what you have in hand whilst working for better.

  28. husbands are going out of fashion, :-D, how does he have 8 kids at 23?? pass by 2 rivers on my way home daily, one can tell it will be a sight to behold, I wish all of us will embrace this culture of being happy with what we have, nice read as always,

  29. hata sijui nianze wapi kucomment.kila paragraph inamwambia mwenzake songeya mimim mzuri zaidi,which is true for all.spot on the herd mentality!

  30. I have interacted with mjengo guys and I agree they are very interesting people to be around. They fully embody this live,love,laugh mantra

  31. This is intresting and so real…nice work its time to go for the best blog in eastern and central africa biko

  32. Biko umewahi salimiwa na mtu kwa mkono inakaa Sand Paper?..I did Mjengo work for an year after completing high school in 2005 and I was damn thin but could lift loads heavier than me for 250 bob a day back then. One time I dug a column pit 8 feet deep and 3 by 3 ft wide. Today when I look back I appreciate the far that God has brought me, makes me humble…just 4 of those thin mjengo guys can carry your car and run away with it!

  33. Funny-ass guy. He’s a laborer. He told me has has eight kids. He’s 23. Eight kids! Bet you were challenged at 38 you only have two JB?

  34. Chocolate man ever heard of an old Luo saying “Piny Thago Jo Ma Riek” yes it is true to those words. It is those of us that have to sit patiently every week for your next post that are bothered by so many things like WhatsApp, Instagram e.t.c. To them they live one day at a time. They leave God to take care of the rest. And God surely does take care of the rest. Today I hope the guy who once accused you of writing about middle class people only is happy if at all he or she still reads your blog. Anyway thanks for writing about this.

  35. ‘ you can take your life anywhere at any age. If you want to. Only if you want to. If you don’t you can moan in a corner.’need i say more?

  36. Husbands are indeed going out of fashion! “Si unajua Tu wanaume!” Loved the simplicity of that. They have no time to rant. As they say(don’t ask me who! Sijui)”It is what it is.”

  37. He said, and listen
    to this, that when his job ends at
    the site, he has two options. One,
    get another job immediately. Or
    two, in case there is no job, take
    his ass back to shags and wait until
    someone calls him and says,
    “Omwami, kuna kazi nimesikieko
    hapo Upper Hill, unaweza kucha
    Nairopi kesho?”…interesting

  38. “you wont believe the number of breasts it might have gone through”. Biko you killed it here. Sad truth.

  39. Awesone read, and much respect to the mjengo guys. They way more dignified than all the able bodied beggars on the streets of Nairobi.

  40. Those guys are the true definition of resilience in the face of adversity, yet deep down they are genuinely contented and happy because they know what living a day at a time truly is.

  41. Thanks, Biko. Someday you might want to ask the mjengo guy how many of his colleagues he has lost in a construction accident because the contractor and the authorities do not care about safety in one of the most dangerous occupations.

    I was just thinking that scores of people have died in construction accidents and collapsing buildings and we shall never know their names. But a big shot businessman is given acres and acres of newspaper space and airtime.

    And I think that the reason is we don’t give a hoot about people from Huruma, Kibra, Dandora and the like because we consider them to have been brought to this world to build our houses and clean them after…

  42. I must say this made me laugh and I nodded my head a lot through it, because of how true it is! A while back, I contracted some mjengo guys to do some work for me over a few days, I talked to them daily and I was really thrown back with their view of life. They were happy with being mjengo guys, and some spoke about it so proudly it caught me so off-guard! Happiness is really what you make for yourself.

  43. Going to shags for them is not a downgrade, it’s going back home to their people.
    I love how the story took a beautiful turn….happiness is within reach.

  44. There was a time i was hanging out at Sarit and the guy looked at some labourers hanging adverts posters and went like,’poor guys, how do they feel doing all that work and getting so little. We will probably use more here than they will get paid.”, told him those guys sleep better than the rich because they don’t have many worries as the rich who are constantly worrying of sealing more deals and making more money. This article stamps that.Money isn’t everything.

  45. Totally enjoyed this one.
    You think Ous even cares whInstagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from.LOL

  46. I wish I could turn into money

    “You won’t believe the number of breasts it might have gone through.”

    This is self actualization
    “You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from”

  47. I work in the mjengo industry and guys are content with their hustle…sometimes I wonder why am soo worried about tomorrow…

  48. What hits me most is at 22 you can take your life anywhere, if i want. And if i don’t i’ll moan in my corner. Heck i will. And here i was seeking answers to all the questions that loom in the realms of the mind when someone’s biggest problem is making his next baby? It definitely can not be that easy now?

  49. “…you can take your life anywhere at any age. If you want to. Only if you want to. If you don’t you can moan in a corner.”

  50. JBZ, where do you find all this time? two posts in a span of two days yet you found time to respond to over 500 comments yesterday? Do you live in venus where one day is equivalent to 116 earth days?

  51. Heheheheheheee….Biko. My girlfriend sent me this article via email immediately she saw it. Mind you I work in a mjengo and everything you say it’s true except the fact that not all are happy. Some of us got degrees up to masters level. I got a nurse workmate and two lawyers. Some of us work to save hoping that our savings will multiply miraculously so that we can invest. Sometimes we don’t entertain our girlfriends and ladies like it should be ….but we gain lots of knowledge and sometimes it’s fun. Occasionally we fight amongst ourselves but it’s never permanent… it’s a good thing you write about us

    1. Wow did not expect this. Lawyers, Nurse, Masters Degree?
      Biko we need to hear from the point of view of one of this guys!

  52. Breaking from being a phantom reader….Hehe

    True biko, men are going out of fashion. How many single mothers are out there? We all tend to “angelise” and pity them. “How dare those dead beat dads! Leaving their baby mommas to struggle with raising their kid/s all alone. I have been raised by a single mom. I love her to death. Am 23 (ous, i salute you) and i am looking forward to raising my kids with my future wife. I have felt how it is to live without a father and having to look for a father figure from wierd people in wierdplaces. Things happened to me because of that (Not good things). So what I’d like to ask all women and man is to give consideration to your kids future. If you’re a single mother find a father figure, if you’re a single father find someone with a mother’s touch. From my experience i have learnt that if they aren’t present as children we will replace them with whoever we will see fit. And children are not that good of decision makers that’s why the need BOTH their parents. I always feel awkward when i visit a friend who has both parents (a father). Used to living with my mom and aunties. To Ous and all the mjengo guys who work tirelessly to raise their children and be there for them, we celebrate you. And we also celebrate those single moms who have to raise MEN, Single dads who have to raise LADIES by themselves. Cheers

    1. Don’t mind my punctuation… Working on it. Thanks Bikozulu for your posts. Never missed even one ever since i was introduced to them by my girlfriend. The excitement we have when that email comes in is unreal. God bless you.

    2. Till I read this I thought that I was the only single mum child who looked for a father everywhere.. I share your sentiments on this. Ous is a MAN worthy of the term. 8 at 23 and takes care of them…and acknowledges them too, that can’t be said of many PRADO driving, Rolex flashing, in their thirties and forties ‘men’ in our society today.

    3. Francis I here what you say and I hold the same sentiment towards deadbeat dads. I was also raised by a single mum and it’s heart breaking what they have to do to raise the kids alone. Especially the boys. It’s tough. I know boys tend to seek for a father figure more than girls but all I can pray is that you find peace with it sooner rather than later. I used to feel the same weird feeling being in a house where my friend had both parents. Made me feel like a failure but I later made piece with that. Today the proudest word that comes out of my mouth is that I was raised by a single mum. This is because she did a good job. You survived it and you are now grown don’t let it eat you up. It ain’t your fault.

    4. Yes! Favour Francis…please go to the ‘a word from a single mom’ article (I think it was called) by Julie posted here months back and post this reply again. Educate somebody

  53. And do you know who is more likely to die of hbp/cholesterol complications? yep….ye folks of Peponi Road! Life is very volatile….and money is not everything….happiness is relative Thanks Biko…!

  54. It’s only mjengo guys who will tell you that githeri goes well with ugali. And they are happy.
    Good read, Biko.

  55. Good look on life.. toil but be content with what you have.
    Biko, this one was a surprise on Wednesday. Fab read.

  56. walk five kilometers in the unrelenting rain because you are saving the 60 bob in your pocket for the kids’ dinner.

    These are the most honourable of our lot. They live a honest life daily to fend for their families. They no nothing about Anglo Leasing, Kitchengate, Eurobond……God bless the it works

    RMuhavi

  57. Have counted as friends many people who have worked in such “mjengos” be it at an actual construction site, the port or a grubby little garage on a street called Wajir in Mombasa. These guys have remained the people I can count on at a pinch even if I have not talked to or seen some of them for 10 years or longer. When something happens to one of them, its amazing how the tom tom thrums and the help comes in fast. They message will be like “yule kijana unamkumbuka? Alikuwa kwa gereji ya Johny Mchaga, mwembamba hivi ame..(insert the problem here). No questions asked, the fare kept aside will be given out. They don’t do BS unless when raking it off the cow pen at home. They shoot straight when it comes to the work to be done. Their prized possessions; their family.

  58. You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from.
    Best piece ever…shida za kujiwekelea ziishe

  59. “I keep saying husbands are going out of fashion but nobody listens to me.” This line jusy cracked me up. Great piece as always. I bet if you spent more time with those guys you will learn far more interesting things about them; like I did.

  60. I once told baba watoto, now an ex how I admire those mjengo guys who’ll work so hard to put food on the table, the newspaper guy who wakes up at 4 to sell newspapers (this man supplies my office with newspapers and I pay him every month so I know how it goes), the makangas on the road who shout and at the end of the day carry milk and bread home plus kasukuma wiki and kanyama home to mama watoto (I have a makanga friend who ships for me food stuff from shags in most of their vehicles, quite a proud guy. While he was content with mama watoto driving out in the dead of the night to provide for 3 babies? Embarrassed of getting outside alone when the entire neighbourhood has gone to toil? NEVER! Was his response…. so you want me to do that? And I said No… dear I just want you to try like those men dear. I would fund whatever hustle you choose dear. I’ll think about it was the response for 7 years. He was content sitting down on the couch watching the premier leagues on cable TV, and rushing for admission in some of the most expensive hospitals because he was depressed whenever things got hot from the kids. And I pleaded, get help dear if you are depressed, I’ll be there… ‘I’m not sick, but I’ll go.’ And of course, you should have met him carrying the latest gadgets on his hand, playing games! Got tired and moved on… Big up to the mjengo team I salute you. What that man used to do at home to keep up with the middle class hype… only God knows…

  61. Real nice piece,Biko did you check out mjengo hands? these chaps have no fingerprints especially the masons and KYMs, thats from first hand experience. Most of all i love their know how in building matters and they got the funniest stories ever because while at the site, age and gender doesnt matter.

  62. ‘watu wa nyama choma hapo Ruai’, you stop worrying about the color whether blue or white and learn how to call out customers, while thinking of how you will make appearance to Ringera (helb).It does something to you and with time no story sound really big or pathetic or urgent and in the process you became an expert on the next land that is being grabbed at very cheap rates, its just crazy.

  63. This is spot on.Last year i worked with an NGO in ukambani and i thought i would meet people downtroden by life. I thought lacking water should be one of the most depressing scarcities a human can have. Just to meet people who actually have peace in their lives. No electricity meaning no televisions. Interacting with them made me come to the same conclusion as you..that it is we who have who are discontent with life. Those we think as unsatisfied only would wish for a better improvement of their otherwise happy lives

  64. One thing is for sure.. Merus can’t rap. Nor sing. The ones that can are a crossbreed, or chosen few.

    Inspiration piece Biko.

  65. The underbelly of the society, as someone close to me once described the thousands of purposely, brisk Nairobians, who see yet don’t really ‘see’ daily. This would have been a middle class feel-good piece…but it’s not. Certainly thought provoking! Thank you.

  66. My mum brought us up selling chapo and uji to mjengo guys. I spent 2 years helping her out. And they are happy people, mjengo guys. They appreciate life on a daily basis.

  67. Going to shags for them is not a downgrade, it’s going back home to their people.
    I love this…
    keep writing Biko, keep writing.

  68. Mjengo is the place i made my first real earned money after high school, infact mjei saw me through colle. You start working at a site when you are an innocent and leave as a geezer in terms of valgur talks, dating …… Uji njele na githeri au chapo…

  69. Spot On! To be Content doesn’t mean you don’t desire more, it means you’re thankful for what you have and patient for what’s to come.

  70. “Si unajua tu…” and fibre optic veins did it for me.
    And then I thought of the car wash guys who have happily washed my car every weekend for the last 6 years. At the end of the day, they don their home clothes and “bling” and bounce off, faithfully reporting on duty the next day. And should they spot your car in the traffic they wave like long lost friends

  71. And I like that the mjengo guys do not spend 50% of their time spewing ethnic hate on social media! Listening to them discuss politics would put some of us to shame. To them it is allegiance or none, and they still get sleep at night.

  72. Oh hail Biko of Peponi road!Finally hit the Lunjes,though next time punch harder…’vein like fibre optic cable’ nerdy me noticed that
    .Someone had to.

  73. Oh hail Biko of Peponi road!Finally hit the Lunjes,though next time punch harder…’vein like fibre optic cable’ nerdy me noticed that
    .Someone had to.
    thatkawaidagirl.wordpress.com

  74. All the women I spoke to didn’t have husbands. I keep saying husbands are going out of fashion but nobody listens to me. Every woman whose man I asked about just giggled and said, “Si hayuko,” as if he had been taken by aliens in the dead of the night……..that is my best highlight in this article………call it the extinction of husband role

  75. Fantastic read Biko……Life to them is about today and now. And they are content because their lives are about having a meal and having healthy kids and waking up to a job the next day.

  76. Biko always tell my friends that those mjengo guys look happier-it’s the simple things in life that count-Good Read -But Ous kwodo wiwa yawa!!!

  77. ‘You think Ous even cares what Instagram is? His only concern is where his next baby is coming from.’ Biko, kindly look for Ous when Two Rivers is done and asked him, ‘how many are they now?’

  78. Nothin is permanent. Those guys should be encouraged to work hard and pull themselves out, give space 4 more people to be toughened. That guy with 8 kids…Hope he provides for their needs. Otherwise he’s an unfair/selfish man.

  79. Excellent read as always. Reminds me of when I worked as a packer at Eveready Batteries on a 10hour daily shift, 6 days a week. My God that was back breaking work! butthe 3k a week..(a fortune back then) made it worthwhile. We were known as the Eveready boys back in Taidys Nax : D

  80. I happened to work at some manual labour job last year… You know, change of scenery, and I have to say, the people I met there really challenged me and the way I approach life. These are people with problems that you would not fathom, but they are hundreds of times happier than most of us who fret over stupid things. Ati sijui handbags don’t match shoes and the like…
    I realized that I have been living wrong. I might be more informed than them, but they are living more than I am.

  81. I am equally flabbergasted by the 8 kids at 23, wait, maybe they came in sets of twins and triplets…
    PS: his only concern is where his baby will come from, REALLY BIKO. Maybe he might be careful this time round and sire two more, only two..

  82. I work in the construction inustry… and I remember how I woul feel soory for the old guys who looked like they were about to fall due o the weight of the cement on their backs…. Till you hear how them joke and constantly talk of sex, sportpesa and drinking. And it feels like your ears are going to bleed. then you just issue instructions and sit at a corner somewhere and read… and read, coz you suddenly realize, you really can’t allow your ears to listen to all that.

  83. I took time to appreciate the blessings in my life. I once worked as an electrician kwa mjengo but i always wanted out.

  84. Yes… those flat chapos with no salt or sugar. Those big hard hands callous and rough. Those sweaty breasts, that money that smells like breasts and God Forbid! ass!!. That dad that was crashed to smithereens when coming drunk or blind from waragi/Methanol/Ethanol mix. The other dad who died of Cholera and other who just ran to shags, last words… fuck it. Those shoes … soleless and sometime gapping…. and those dusty faces exposed to the unforgiving brunt of the African sun .. those parched lips… holding those gaps of missing teeth…. are happy with their lives? Really?

    As you caress the Maasai-bead covered steering of your old school look limited edition Mercedes and massage your nuts in your Gucci underpants… picking out the bits of nyama choma from Kenyatta market with wooden tooth picks. And as the remaining strands of your balding head dance to the beat of your A/C in that jam. With Nancy with the big breasts sitting where Lucy with the big ass sat yesterday… on the beige Nappa leather of your front passenger seat… probably laughing at your joke and holding your knee coz you are just too funny… I mean… as you touch the cold gold pendant of your necklace and look at the swarm of workers flooding your road…. you’d imagine there can be a comparison of happiness.

    Well… to put it simply. If any of those God forsaken day labourers was asked to give one of their hands to be you… they stick out the hand closest to the blade without a moment’s hesitation.

    This is a feel good story for us by one of us about them. And why not? life sucks… why not spice it up with some anecdotes. But that’s just what it is … a nice good old fashioned one dimensional story told from a bird eyes view… a bird flying a little too high.

  85. Biko,ask the mjengo guys wht happens 2 an indian boss or a foreman who fails 2 pay them on sato n comes 2 work on monday with stories tht are nt edible

  86. I used to work in mjengo some time back…..my inspiration was that am being paid to keep fit….Mwas is ur reading this,,rem kimnesium???

  87. I work in industrial area.I was skeptical at first but this has been my best experience evr.This guys are real,funny and with very kind hearts.The Ous with many kids are very common and their tales can be best selling novels.I look forward to Mondays cause i miss the laughter on weekends!

  88. Hehe those mjengo guys are always baying for blood, at highrise they almost overturned a vehicle just because the owner dared to hoot at one of them to move from the road. Wolf pack mentality I tell you! Great read. Real to the last drop.

  89. Interesting read. I have done work at several sites so I can relate with mjengo men. You got one point quite clearly they are happy folks. Not that they are unambitious, but it is not like they’re looking for you to feel woiye on them. At some point I remember picking up the wheelbarrow and attempting to push around a few stones… not that easy but it teaches you that we really are the same. No need to push anyone harder than you would wish to be pushed yourself.

  90. Hehe, money still smells money! Dead! And btw Biko I want to steal (or should I say borrow) some of your readers here. Haha
    https://georgeach.wordpress.com/2016/04/28/she-just-smiled/

  91. Right now im about to head out for some meeting and have to meet crazy deadlines and this piece has really made me reflect on simplicity and taking each step as it comes.Nice read Biko

  92. Beautiful piece,simple and touches up to the bone marrow.Continue with the good work of teaching and reminding us of the most important things in lifee

  93. I see them (hordes of Mjengo guys and other potential casual laborers) on Mombasa Road, the junction at Imara Daima as fate would have it, most of the time. I call them ‘Kings in waiting’… I mean, for well-built men with bold healthy physiques going by the names of Ous, Musa et al, very proud of their jobs and loving it very much, their voices echoing amidst the construction sites, belting out ‘Les Wanyika’ oldies… that can only server as a source of inspiration to many a “privileged” folk whom at times tend to think life has dealt them the wrong set of cards when the lights go off whilst they were airing those Mexican telenovelas and they take to their respective social media platforms to highlight how Ben Chumo gave them a raw deal. PS: Amazing imagery, truly amazing.

  94. salud. good read as always. I always wonder how to make kids in my English class write something close to this…it might be time I joined the masterclass… pray tell what or how your teacher did it so I can pass it on

  95. Great piece Biko.Been reading your posts for a while,decided today is the day ill’d leave a comment.As a mjengo guy,I challenge you to go undercover and spend a day doing what we do,its hard,my friend.We should read Mjengo part 2 this piece didn’t cover the best parts,methinks.There is never a dull day in a construction site and once your body is conditioned to the work,all goes well.Most of the people I have met while doing this job are just as learned as I.After graduating from uni,I spent a whole year hunting for a job to no avail and in frustration put my papers away and intiated plan B.I don’t exactly know how I found myself in my first construction site but am content and happy I ended up here.I dont think ill ever sit behind a chair and pound on a Keyboard for anyone,never!The allure of working outdoors got to me a long time ago.I know one day ill move on and do greater things for myself but in the meantime I have never been more happier in my adult life.From earning 500-700 a day as a KYM and after learning a few skills now earning 1,000-1,500 a day,from my own sweat,honest money!It may look like peanuts to some but I can put something in my stomach,clothes on ma back and a roof over my head and do the same for others who look up to me.To those able bodied young guys like me who are being supported by others and idling in the name of searching for white colour jobs,man up quit being sissies and use your sweat to support yourselves!Enough said!