Some police too eat my food, but don’t pay

Susan Nanjala, a 37-year-old mother of three stays in the slums bordering South C and Wilson Airport is a renown night food vendor.

On a daily basis ‘Suzzie’ — as she is widely known — prepares food which she delivers to various security officers who guard residential places as well as offices in South C and Nairobi West.

A married woman, Suzzie explains that she spends most of her time during the day doing odd jobs like washing clothes for young and unmarried men and women in South C.

Occasionally she is paid to do house chores by house helps who are too lazy to do their bosses’ laundry.

In broken Kiswahili, she explains that she at times tags along her younger brother who helps her in distributing the food. Susan specialises on making simple dishes like matumbo, ugali, sukuma wiki, mboga kienyeji, chapatti, mandazi and tea which she supplies at night.

“After the kids have gone to school, I join my fellow women to South C shopping centre where we sit and wait for work till afternoon when I embark on picking vegetables growing along the banks of Nairobi River. I use these to prepare the ever sumptuous evening meals,” she explains.

Susan says that of all cookings, vegetables flavoured with soup, tea and chapati have the highest demand. I serve almost all the watchmen on night duty. I also serve men who chew miraa in cars at night.

“But competition is fast growing with many stalls operating till late in the night,” she adds. Some of her biggest challenges range from insecurity threat posed by street boys and the ever changing faces of guards.

“These night guards do not stay long at a specific place and one has to be very careful because they like eating on credit. At times, the cops on night patrol too partake of my meals but hawapendi kulipa (they don’t pay). Some often scare me that I have no license to operate at night,” she concludes.

—John Lawrence