No bed of roses: Flower workers now lose jobs as coronavirus hits exports

A worker from Maridadi flower farm in Naivasha collects ready roses for dumping in the compost yard due to lack of market. [Antony Gitonga/Standard]

Emma Wanjiru had been packing roses at the flower farm in Kenya’s Rift Valley town of Naivasha for six months when she was told not to come back two weeks ago.

The mother-of-two was devastated to lose the monthly wage of Sh7,200 ($72) in a nation where unemployment is high and her husband’s wage as a mason too meagre to support their family of four.