Women in Athi River have opted for construction jobs popularly known as ‘mjengo’ due to poor wages paid by most of the industries in the town.
In addition, the industries allegedly have poor terms and conditions of work.
Christine Ndunge (24), one of the women who works as a casual labourer at a construction site in Athi River, said most of them had seen the job as alternative to working in companies that expose them to lots of health risks but pay peanuts to employees.
The mother of two argued the construction firms were more reliable than the companies revealing they paid Sh 500 per day to mason helpers as opposed to the industrial jobs which paid as little as Sh 100 per day.
Ndunge said she was able to plan with the money since she was very aware that each week she could make at least Sh 3000 from Monday to Saturday.
Josephine Waithera (20), a form four certificate holder said she decided to work in the construction sites after unsuccessfully seeking formal employment for almost three years.
"I hustled for three years looking for formal employment both in Nairobi City and Machakos town in vain before settling for "mjengo" here. I decided that a job is okey as long as it pays," said Waithera.
The two women are just examples of the many women in Athi River who are doing the job after experiencing frustrations from the many industries in the area.
They said they were able to plan with the little income they received from the job and pay for all their expenses including school fee for children, house rents among other basic needs.
The women encouraged other women to get to any forms of employments as long as they were legally credible and could earn them descent livelihoods.