Once vibrant businesses near campuses now ghost centres

A section Feroz Restaurant near of United States International University-Africa (USIU) in Nairobi on Thursday, July 16 2020.The business which relies mostly on the students in the school for survival has been hit hard forcing it to close down. [David Njaaga, Standard]

Agnes Kariko glances at her watch for the umpteenth time. It is half past one in the afternoon, and her eatery, located in the heart of the University of Nairobi’s Club 36 is still empty. In the kitchen behind, her assistant sits pensively, staring across the establishment that would, on a normal day, be buzzing with university students hunched over their food.

It has been four months of struggle since President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the closure of institutions of learning in a bid to contain the spread of Covid-19. Club 36, which acts as the university’s main campus students’ shopping park, is now lifeless, a pale shadow of its vibrant self.