Sani please hide my name.
My name is @poyoloko.
I live in Athi River. I work for a Chinese owned manufacturing company, also based in Athi River. Our company is located inside Graylands Business Park situated opposite Sidai homes where one of the 239 passengers of Chinese national who arrived in Kenya yesterday is self-quarantining.
Athi River is an industrial town. There are more than 40 different industries situated here. Companies manufacturing cement alone are more than six. Simba cement, Mombasa cement, Rhino cement, Savannah cement, East African Portland Cement, and others.
We also have Maisha Mabati, Tuffoam, Poa tank, Top tank (housing Kaleikim manufacturing Industrial chemicals), Stejes (The one I work for. We manufacture plastic chairs and toilet Cisterns), Devki Steel, Athi River Steel Makers, Export Processing Zone, EPZ (which also houses more than 40 different companies manufacturing different products), Athi River Industrial Park, Saj ceramics, Kenya meat commission, Associated Battery Manufactures, among others.
Recently, more Godowns have been constructed in Athi River. Most are complete and operational. Some are nearing completion. Most of these newly constructed Godowns are occupied by Chinese investors. For this reason, you will notice that Athi River, compared to other regions of Kenya, has more population of Chinese. Great Wall gardens, a very magnificent real estate establishment in Athi River, is owned by a Chinese investor. There is even a road named “Beijing road” in Mlolongo.
These companies in Athi River employ thousands of Kenyans. Devki group of companies alone employs more than 6,000 people. Most of these employees are casual labourers. Meaning, they are not “well educated.” This is what worries me the most.
You see, I don’t go to the factory everyday. I, most of the time, work from outside the factory as my work involves visiting different towns within and outside Kenya. But whenever I do visit the factory, which is once or twice a week, I like having a chat with the casual labourers when they’re on lunch break.
Today, when I visited the factory after the news of a Chinese national quarantining herself in Sidai homes estate, I asked a group of about six of the casual labourers what they thought of the Coronavirus epidemic and the “risk” of interacting or mingling with Chinese nationals at their stations of work.
I was a bit taken aback when 4 out of 6 people I talked to confessed of not knowing what Coronavirus is and how it is spread. Ignorance, they say, is pure bliss. If this Coronavirus Will be brought in Kenya by a Chinese national working and residing in Athi River, then I am sorry it will be picked up by these “ignorant” casual labourers who Will in turn spread it like bush fire.
I think it has reached a time when the public should be sensitized on this virus. I mean, the sensitization should focus on every Kenyan, but more so on these “ignorant” but vulnerable casual labourers interacting with Chinese nationals on a daily basis. The Ministry of health and Media should camp in Athi River and talk to these casual labourers working in Chinese owned companies
If I have said bad, then ignore me.