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Mlolongo spanner girls break stereotypes to build profitable ventures servicing trucks
Susan Gitau shows assorted tools at her shop in Mlolongo Township on September 19, 2022.
What you need to know:
- Before starting her tools and spares shop in Mlolongo, Waceke went to the Middle East to seek greener pastures.
- As luck would have it, Waceke had an easy time learning the ropes of the tools business since she landed in the hands of good mentors in the same business.
Wearing dreadlocks and draped in an oily dust coat, Gladys Waceke easily passes for a mechanic as she darts across a busy street at Mlolongo Township in Machakos County, a wheel spanner at hand.
She is among dozens of entrepreneurs who have challenged the stereotype that the vibrant township characterised by queuing trucks is only known for nightlife. She sells and hires out assorted spares and tools for repairing trucks.
Waceke has sprawled all manner of new and used spanners, bolts, nuts and hydraulic jacks on the veranda of a tiny kiosk which stands next to a garage at the heart of the busy township. The veranda of the kiosk is lined up with steel towing bars, assorted chains, chain blocks and ratchet ropes. Truckers either buy the tools or hire them when their vehicles break down.
“We work very closely with mechanics to keep truckers on the move,” she tells Powering SMEs during the interview.
Waceke shows assorted tools at her shop in Mlolongo. She is among a handful of entrepreneurs in the township who earn a living by hiring out tools to truckers.
“Although we stock a wide range of tools, jacks and wheel spanners are the fast moving ones. We hire out a 10-tonne jack, a wheel spanner and a steel bar at Sh500 per hour. A towing chain goes for Sh1,000 if the towing is done within Mlolongo and the rate increases if the job is outside the township,” she says, adding that good interpersonal skills give the dealers a competitive edge as there are several shops dealing in the same business.
In addition, Weceke says that basic understanding of the tools used by mechanics is important in running a tools and spares business. When she was a greenhorn in the tools business, she went at a loss on several occasions simply due to a lack of technical knowledge of the tools of her trade. She incurred huge expenses repairing jacks which she hired out to clients without establishing the gravity of the task.
“Today, I am more versed on the tools in my inventory than some of the mechanics who work on these trucks. I do basic repairs on jacks such as replacing oil and fixing the seals myself,” she says. So, how did she get into entrepreneurship?
Waceke’s story started in the Middle East where she worked as a housemaid for two years after working briefly as a messenger in a Nairobi printing company.
“Although I was not mistreated while in Lebanon, I was dissatisfied with the work especially after realising the pay was a small fraction of what the agent had promised. But I saved every coin. After coming back home in 2016, I used Sh200,00 of my savings to set up an M-Pesa shop here in Mlolongo. It was while running the shop that the idea to open a spares shop came to me because truckers kept asking for where to get wheel spanners, towing ropes, specific bolts and nuts and assorted jacks,” she narrates.
As luck would have it, Waceke had an easy time learning the ropes of the tools business since she landed in the hands of good mentors in the same business. One of them was Susan Gitau, who set up her tools and spares shop in 2015. Before then, she was a household name among truckers who parked at the township in the wake of bottlenecks at the weighbridge. She hawked reflective and branded stickers to truckers, a business she had run for three years before settling down. Susan and Waceke were inspired by Alfred Nguru who ran an enviable spares and tools empire in the region.
“The Mlolongo economy is largely hinged on truckers. Their purchasing power is more on their way from Mombasa since they come loaded with allowances. Part of the money goes into repairing their vehicles and the rest on accommodation, meals and entertainment. The longer truckers stay, the more they spend. Machakos County government is missing a lot of revenue since Mlolongo Township has no parking bay for trucks,” Nguru.
However, the spares and tools business was hard hit after the operationalisation of the Standard Gauge Railway that removed hundreds of trucks from the highway, and the construction of the Nairobi Expressway which extends to Mlolongo Township and makes it hard for trucks to access either side of the highway with ease. Another big challenge affecting this business is the lack of trust whereby truckers suspect dealers in spare parts and tools to be close accomplices of thieves.
“We are very firm in rejecting stolen items. The bulk of our stock comes from established outlets in Nairobi. We buy the rest from highly trusted sources, among them truck drivers,” Susan says.
Many of the repeat clients cite the affordable prices offered. "The Mlolongo spares and tools shops are more accessible to truckers compared to the ones located in Nairobi’s Industrial Area. Unlike the mainstream spares shops, the Mlolongo ones remain open over the weekends and during public holidays. Importantly they stock genuine spares which are hard to get elsewhere,” said Ben Owen, a trucker who regularly frequents Waceke’s shop for tools and assorted spare parts.
Six years down the line, Waceke reflects on her entrepreneurship journey with satisfaction. She only regrets that she took a long time to set up the business.
“The money that I had gone to look for some thousands of kilometres away is found in Mlolongo,” she observes, referring to the approximate distance between Nairobi and Beirut, the capital city of Lebanon where she was stationed. She is planning to expand the business by growing the inventory of tools and spares and setting up a second outlet.