Four wheels good, one wheel better for Nyahururu ‘Pajero’

Ask anybody about Pajero in Nyahururu and you will be shown a man pushing a wheelbarrow, christened Pajero.

Stanley Wanderi Gikonyo’s wheelbarrow has been a common feature in the town since 1996 when he bought it to ease his newly started vegetable-selling business.

He has been using it for 26 years, many years before the machine was popularised by UDA political party in the run up to the August election and found its way to State House as a symbol on the Presidential Standard.

“I started off with a borrowed wheelbarrow but bought mine after the owner repossessed his for own use,” he said on his way to deliver cabbages to the Nyahururu  DEB Primary School.

Temporarily gift

 A friend had temporarily given him the wheelbarrow after seeing him carry a large quantity of vegetables in a bag on his back.

“I started the vegetable business with Sh40 in early 1996, mostly delivering on orders made by hotels in town. The business grew and the load of vegetables became big. That is how the friend empathised with me and allowed me to use his wheelbarrow for a while,” he said.

The owner of that wheelbarrow came for it and, since Wanderi had made enough money by then, he bought his own wheelbarrow which he still uses today.

The wheel barrow cost Sh1,800 from a local hardware shop in town.

Prior to venturing into the vegetable selling business, Wanderi said he used to do casual work, mostly of molding culverts. But the work was inconsistent, so he decided to do something that would engage him continuously without intermittent breaks.

 The ‘Pajero’ has seen better days. This is evident from the number of parts welded onto its body.

 “I have pushed it up to 20km as I go looking for vegetables, particularly cabbages, when there is shortage,” he said.

Wanderi says he was the first in Nyahururu to use a wheelbarrow to do such business. Others came later, mostly fruit sellers seeking a way out of an otherwise stationery business. 

Visible calluses

 Because of the way he holds the handles of the wheelbarrow, visible calluses have developed on the inside of his elbows.

Wanderi looks younger than his 58 years and he attributes this to keeping fit by pushing the wheelbarrow for close to 10km every day as he delivers supplies of mainly cabbages to schools and eateries in Nyahururu town, Laikipia County.

Wanderi was excited when President William Ruto, then Deputy President, picked the wheelbarrow as a symbol of his campaign as he sought the presidency.

Moved to own house

The business Wanderi started with Sh40 has grown, enabling him to move from a rented house to his own house on a plot that he bought for Sh37,000, one year after he started using the wheelbarrow, at the sprawling Maina village on the outskirts of Nyahururu town.

Similar plots are currently going for Sh500,000.

 “This wheelbarrow has enabled me to live in my own house and raise and educate my three children,” Wanderi, who lost his wife to cancer early this year, said.

 Despite his advancing age, he indicated that he is not about to stop pushing the wheelbarrow, or the business.