Our struggle to transport farm produce to Nairobi markets

After President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the partial lockdown, the following day, Wanja Muguongo (pictured), a farmer, drove to the nearest police station to inquire how she would transport her wares to Nairobi.

“The President, in his statement, had placed movement of food and farm produce under essential services,” Wanja says.

“I wanted to know what was required of me to continue transporting farm produce.”

Wanja is a farmer from Makuyu, Murang’a County. She sells organic vegetables from her farm to an eager clientele in Nairobi.

“I transport produce thrice a week from my farm to Nairobi,” she says. “Right now I am doing one or two trips per week because of restricted movement.”

Wanja was directed to visit the chief in her area.

“The chief was pleasant. She wrote me a letter – introducing me as a farmer who operates within her area of jurisdiction.”

Letter from chief

In the letter, the chief described the frequency with which Wanja transports her wares to the city.

“The letter also captured the identity and ownership of the vehicles I use to transport the produce. It also had the name of the driver,” Wanja notes.

The chief asked Wanja to take the letter to the district offices, where Wanja says she was treated affably.

“Using the information in the chief’s letter, the district agricultural office prepared another letter capturing the same details.

“The letter allows me to be on the road up to a certain number of days (for that one trip) and I have to go back for another every time I am making a trip.

“A district agricultural officer signed and stamped it,” Wanja says.

Armed with the letter from the district office, Wanja was able to move with her produce from Makuyu to Nairobi – almost seamlessly.

“The police officers at road blocks would just ask for the letter and they would allow us through,” Wanja says.

Though a tedious process, Wanja’s experience, she says, was largely uneventful.

Harassed by police

But not all farmers have been able to carry out business with relative ease as Wanja. Sylvia Kuria is one such farmer.

Sylvia says she was harassed and treated indifferently.

“My farm is in Ndeiya, Limuru,” she says.

“I make two to three trips per week to move produce from the farm to my vegetable shop along Ngong’ road in Nairobi.”

On her first trip to the farm – from the time lockdown came into effect – Sylvia recalls stopping at a road block with documentation showing that she is a farmer and sells organic produce from her farm.

“I told the police officers that I was heading to the farm and they looked at my documents and allowed me through.

“I asked them to stamp my papers just in case I am stopped at another road block. Most importantly, I needed to be allowed back into Nairobi with my produce,” Sylvia says.

But the officers cavalierly told her not to worry, ‘all will be fine’ they said.

At another road block Sylvia was told to get a letter from the chief in her area.

“I went to the assistant chief in Ndeiya who also did not seem interested much. He told me to go to Tigoni Police Station.

“At Tigoni, the officer in charge that day let me go without a letter and a stamp. He said I would be allowed through,” Sylvia recalls.

Off she went. On reaching the police road block at Mutarakwa, she was stopped and asked for ‘proper’ documentation allowing her to transport food.

“I explained that the assistant chief and the police officer at Tigoni asked me to go on; that I would be allowed back in,” she says.

Deaf ears

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. She gave them her company papers. But the officers at the road block kept frustrating her.

Sylvia insisted to the officers that she had done due diligence going to the assistant chief and Tigoni police station.

“I told them I would stay with them at the road block until they let me through,” she says.

Eventually, they let her pass – but after wasting her valuable time.

Sylvia encountered another road block along the southern bypass on her way back to Nairobi.

“At this road block the officers asked me to produce many documents – including a health certificate for food handlers,” she says.

While she does have the certificate she never transports produce with it. She has it at the shop where she sells the produce in case of an inspection.

“I felt they were just asking for random documents to frustrate me. I had been warned by friends that it was a trick by policemen to force a bribe out of someone they deemed ‘uncooperative’.”

After haggling back and forth with the officers – showing them her company documents and opening the car boot to reveal the bundles of perishable vegetables, the officers let Sylvia proceed.

“By this time I was angry. I asked them how I am supposed to carry a health certificate when I hadn’t been informed to carry one,” she says.

Sylvia called the District office the following week and was told to get an introductory letter from her chief – the same way Wanja did.

“I got the letter. But also, just to be on the safe side, I prepared a file with copies of all certificates and documentation linked to my farm.”

The extra certificates are Sylvia’s way of taking extra precaution because on a different occasion the police insisted that she produces commercial car insurance for her station wagon.

“The car is not classified as commercial but rather as personal. Yet they wanted me to produce a commercial insurance,” she argues.

“The bureaucracy being exercised on us by police at roadblocks is too much,” Sylvia says.

Fred Musyoka*, a vegetable farmer from Machakos, has had an experience similar to Sylvia’s.

He says: “I am a vegetable farmer. I grow sukuma wiki, tomatoes and onions in my farm. I ferry my produce to Athi River at least once a week.”

After the lockdown, Musyoka says he was stopped at a road block along Mombasa road (just past Athi River).

“I had a letter from the chief showing I was transporting farm produce to Athi River,” he says. “But I was refused entry.”

One police officer, he says, told him he needed ‘more substantial proof’ that he was a farmer.

A different officer pulled him to the side and asked him to part with some money and he would be allowed to continue the journey.

“They were asking for money I did not even have... My profit margins are not big. Even Sh1,000 is worth conserving,” he says.

Musyoka went back to Machakos with his produce and vowed to look for a market elsewhere.

Since the lockdown was announced – placing hard borders around Nairobi, Mombasa, Kwale and Kilifi counties – farmers like Sylvia and Musyoka have struggled to get their produce to the market.


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