Town bears burden of terror strikes

A young man at Kwamahugu Quarry at Chaka Market in Nyeri. A number of young men who work at the quarries later head out to other areas such as Mandera in search of better wages. PHOTO:KIBATA KIHU

Chaka town, a dusty roadside centre along the Nairobi-Nanyuki highway in Nyeri County has more than once been left mourning whenever there are terror attacks in Mandera.

The town has had a large number of people killed in the Al Shabaab attacks.

Chaka, which was initially headquarters of Kieni East Sub-county until early this year when the offices were moved to Narumoru, is home to hundreds of quarry workers, most of whom ply their trade in Mandera, where they claim they earn better wages than in local quarries.

Generally, Chaka is a major supplier of building stones mined in quarries that surround the town.

But the quarry workers accuse mine owners of paying them peanuts, while local stones are harder than those in Mandera.

High risk

“So many quarry workers have left the area for Mandera and despite the high risk in their safety, they still keep going back,” says Francisca Kirigo, who operates a family quarry in Chaka. Kirigo says many workers are still in various quarries in Mandera.

Since 2014, more than 40 quarry workers from Chaka have been killed in terrorist attacks in Mandera.

In the latest incident, seven of the 12 people killed when terrorists attacked Mandera town on Tuesday were from around Chaka.

Joseph Muriuki and another one identified only as Mbogo were from Gatei and Maragima villages, five kilometres from Chaka town, while Amos Gachango and his nephew Simon Mwangi came from a village seven kilometres from the town.

In July last year, 11 people from Chaka were killed in an Al Shabaab attack in Mandera.

Those killed included Zachariah Ndung’u, Charles Macharia, Samuel Kinyua, Charles Mathenge, Joseph Wahome and Peter Rurumo, all from Gathathi village.

Some 14 people were killed and 10 others injured when the terrorists attacked Soko Mbuzi village near Mandera town.

In another attack in December 2014, 36 miners were shot dead and Chaka carried the heaviest burden.

Chaka residents Richard Waithaka and Phil Kihara accused Nyeri County Assembly of not passing legislation to improve the welfare of quarry workers as a way of discouraging them from going to Mandera.

“The county government also promised to help the workers with equipment so that they can remain in local quarries, but this is yet to be implemented, forcing local workers to continue trooping to Mandera,” said Kihara.

For those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks, Mandera brought a mixture of good fortune and tragedy. But with more people being killed, residents such as Muthoni Kinyua are reconsidering the decision to allow her sons to travel to Mandera.

Muthoni, 40, a quarry worker in Kiganjo near Chaka, has two of her seven children working in Mandera quarries.

Her children, 24-year-old Wislon Kinyua and his younger brother Danson Wanjau, left Chaka in January after they were convinced that good fortune awaited them in the frontier county.

Unlike in most quarries in Chaka where they earned an average Sh7 per foot of building stones excavated, Mandera promised between Sh23 and Sh35.

In a group of eight youth they set off for Mandera. But after the recent wave of attacks in which six people from the village have died in two separate incidents, Muthoni is changing her mind.

“We always knew going to Mandera was a risk on their part, but it is in search of better livelihoods. What other option did they have?” she poses.

While none of her sons has fallen victim to Al Shabaab, Muthoni contends that it was time they returned home.

“They will earn less than they do, but at least they will be safe. The killing has been too much,” she says.

Muthoni says it is impossible to escape allure of the quarries in Mandera.

“After three months, Kinyua and Wanjau came home with a lot of money. They must have had about Sh80,000 between them,” she tells The Standard on Sunday.

“They have helped me pay school fees for the rest (five) of their siblings and Kinyua is building a house worth Sh170,000 and his brother has bought two cows.”

Muthoni says each time her sons come home to visit, they return to Mandera with more of their friends who yearn for prosperity.

Eunice Wangare, a widow who lost her husband David Munene during an attack in a residential area in Mandera in early October, says her life had changed significantly in the years Munene worked in the northern Kenya county.

“Life was considerably better; we were even planning to buy land. He would send me Sh4,000 a week when my mitumba business was not doing so well,” she recalls.

Munene, who worked as a lorry driver, had seen his daughter through high school and paid for part of college before he was killed.

Promise of more

In Nyeri quarries, many workers make between Sh200 and Sh400 a day, but the promise of more for half the effort drives them away.

Following this week’s attack and as Chaka prepares to bury more of its sons, Muthoni is frantically looking for a way to have her sons and brother-in-law back home.

Chaka is a busy town and even without the sub-county headquarters, its glory will not fade away.

The town hosts one of the fastest growing open-air markets in the county, which is now a threat to Karatina market.

Every Wednesday and Saturday, traders flock to the market as early as 4am to buy farm produce for sale in Nairobi, Mombasa among other big towns.