Matatus at the main Nyeri Town bus terminus/KNA
As Kenyans break for the Christmas and New Year holiday season, business operators in Nyeri have expressed mixed opinions ahead of the festivities that come with lavish spending and joyful merry making.
While a number of business operators view the season as the perfect opportunity to make a kill from Kenyans who are ready to indulge in a spending spree, whether by travelling or making unbudgeted purchases for the season, others say things have only changed for the worse.
Peris Muthoni, who operates a food joint near the Nyeri Huduma Centre, says she plans to close her eatery over the Christmas season as most of her clients are government employees.
She says she will be providing catering services during the break before resuming business on Monday next week.
Muthoni has nevertheless described this year as the toughest for her business, following shrinking sales and piling unpaid debts from a number of her most dependable clients.
“This year has been one of the toughest for me, and I only hope things will get better in the coming year. The cost of doing business has been on an upward trajectory, with prices of basic food items rising constantly.
We have also seen a dip in sales following a drop in the number of clients visiting our eatery. Right now we have closed the year with most of our clients, who include the County Government of Nyeri having not paid us and this has really put a strain on our business.
Muthoni’s sentiments are echoed by Peter Kioni, who operates a grocery store and two hotels in Nyeri town.
Kioni says, unlike in the previous years when he used to cash in on the December festive season, this time round things seem to have taken a turn for the worse.
The trader laments that sales are too low compared with a similar period some years ago when customers used to line up at his store to be served ahead of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.
The same scenario is replicated in his two eateries, where he says they have recorded low sales during the entire year.
“Business is really bad, and people seem to have lost the zeal they had for festivities in years gone by. Previously, there used to be a beehive of activities at my store during the December holidays, with long queues of customers lining up to be served," he said.
"Unfortunately, things seem to have changed, and people seem to have stopped buying, perhaps owing to the harsh economic times we are living in. Times have changed for the worse to say the least."
But even as a section of business operators rue their dwindling fortunes, Peter Theuri, who is Nyeri Nyena PSV Sacco chairperson, says, they have been forced to hike fares on a number of their routes due to an increase in the number of passengers traveling to the countryside for the holidays.
Theuri has defended the move by claiming that most of their vehicles leaving Nyeri to either Nairobi and Nakuru are finding it hard to get passengers on the return journey and therefore the need to recoup the loss.
“People are complaining that we are hiking our fares, but they forget that these vehicles are travelling to pick them up from Nairobi and elsewhere while empty, as few customers are traveling from the countryside," Theuri said.
"Unless we increase the fare to these destinations, we shall be operating at a loss, which no sober person will do. We must operate at a win-win situation in view of the prevailing circumstances."
The Sacco official has also singled out the year as one of the toughest for the PSV sector, with a number of his members having lost their vehicles to auctioneers after defaulting on paying loans they took to purchase their matatus.
He also says the introduction of new levies, both at the national and county level, has not augured well for their businesses.
The majority of PSV matatus plying the Nyeri-Nairobi route usually charges between Sh400 and Sh500 on either way.
However, following the high demand for PSV vehicles in the city and other major towns, passengers are now having to part with between Sh800 to Sh1,000 depending on the Sacco.
