Nairobi News

What started off as a favour to a customer has picked up a life of its own and turned into a big chicken slaughtering business for Benson Wambua 30 and Samuel Kimani 38.

The two men now make between sh30, 000 to sh40, 000 a month slaughtering chickens for Pangani residents lacking the courage.

They charge a fee of sh50 to anyone bringing a chicken to be slaughtered. However customers buying chicken from them do not pay a slaughtering fee.

The duo’s shed has ready hot water that they use to pluck the feathers. They then pack the chicken in plastic bags.

“We have hot water ready. After killing the chicken we just deep it inside (the hot water), start preparing and pack them in polythene paper,” said Mr Kimani.

Many customers have come to like their work and day by day more are coming.

“We looked for a way to help our customers by easing the slaughtering task for them and that is why we get more people every day,” said Mr Wambua.

Chicken parts like the head and legs are not left to waste. They are sold to a trader who sells them in Huruma.

“We sell heads and legs at sh5 each and our customer in Huruma gives us orders daily.”  Mr Kiman explained.

Public holidays and school holidays are peak business periods for the duo.

They prefer stocking local breeds since they are easy to manage. Their supplies come from Ukambani, Nyahururu and also parts of Western Kenya.

Official business hours are between 8am and 7pm.

They started selling chickens in 1994 in South C, but the City Council forced them into nomadism.

“1994 is when we started our business in South C. We then moved to South B because of the City Council.  But that did not end the constant evictions. We again moved to Parklands where at least stayed for long time,” Mr Wambua recounted.

In 2006, they settled in Pangani because of its multi-cultural population.

“Pangani has many people with different cultures, so we decided to come here,” said Mr Wambua.

Their slaughterhouse is very rudimentary but they are optimistic of expansion.