Women flock to ‘Mjengo’ as Covid-19 destabilises job market

Women in Kayole carry cement bags at a construction site on April 12, 2021. [David Gichuru, Standard]

Amidst the cacophony of cement mixers, saws, cracking stones and the splatter of plastered walls, 46-year-old Mary Muthoni walks on a tight ledge as she plasters away at the walls. She is standing nearly six metres above the ground on a wooden scaffolding plastering away at the outer walls of the second floor.

Muthoni, a mother of nine, is one of 28 women who have taken up this unlikely job that is mostly the preserve of men. They are sweating it out at the ongoing construction of classrooms at a school in Komarock ward, Embakasi Central, Nairobi.