To Wajir in 27 hours! The story of sand, dust and floods

We left Nairobi for Wajir around 2pm. On the previous day, we had been warned not to use the popular highway between Garissa and Wajir because of security reasons.

A six-hour drive from Nairobi through Thika, Mwingi and Nanyuki took us to Isiolo Town, where we spent the night before continuing our journey the following morning.

Several kilometres from Isiolo we left the tarmacked road that goes to Meru and began a rough and bumpy ride.

As we approached Kinna trading centre, the land began to lose its green cover… all was sandy and grey.

We were now driving straight through the desert. And getting closer to Eldas, about 200 km from, the trees looked dry in the sweltering heat.

There was hardly a cloud in the sky and we could see women carrying firewood while men cared for their livestock in the dusty landscape.

Along the way we took pictures of dik-dik, gazelle, giraffe, ostrich and warthog. But the closer we got to Wajir Town, the more barren the landscape became.

Ahead of us we saw a wave of water cutting across the road and we had to stop to assess whether we could drive through.

We took the risk but got stuck and had to disembark to push the car to safety.

After an hour’s drive we suffered a puncture and stopped in the middle of a forest to change the wheel. On the way we saw a convoy of lorries carrying goods to Wajir, Moyale and Mandera.

Then just before we reached Habaswein, about 120km from Wajir, the car got yet another mechanical problem.

The locals introduced us to Hussein, the only mechanic in Habaswein who operates without a garage. It took him three hours to repair the vehicle.

By the time we got back on the road it was already approaching 7pm.

The road became sandy, making it hard for the driver to control the car and finally we became stuck fast in the sand.

We had to walk for one kilometre to get help from truck drivers parked on the road. They lent us a spade that we used to shovel away the sand that had trapped the car.

We were soon travelling again, but everyone was tired. At 2am, in the dead of night, we finally arrived in Wajir Town, welcomed by scorching heat and swarms of mosquitoes. We spent the night at Hotel Alhamdu.

Wajir, the proposed county headquarters, is a small and dusty town about 315km from Mandera, developed around wells that have been fought over by rival clans for generations.

The following day, we travelled around town and its neighbouring shopping centres and villages, where we met friendly people and families who live in makeshift huts on the outskirts of town.