Mkulima Moments: Workers sabotage use of milking machine

Neighbouring farms also took advantage of my absence to experiment with the machine, with the farm workers from Mashambani congregating on my farm to see the gadget and try to use it. ILLUSTRATION | IGAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Wandia, whom I never knew was talented in marketing, is getting more orders than we are able to supply.
  • After a two-day silence last week, Wandia did the unexpected. She bought me a surprise gift – a milking machine.
  • But challenges arose. Wekesa, despite the excitement, started demanding a salary increment as he thought that I was now making more money after investing in the machine.
  • Muchiri, my former worker, further muddied the waters by telling the other farmhands that they will soon be jobless as their employers too will acquire the machine.

My business partnership with the lovely Wandia has started bearing fruits.

You will recall that we started supplying Nyayo estate residents in Nairobi with fresh vegetables, grown organically using water from the Mashambani village springs.

It had started as just a gift from my shamba but when she reached the estate, where she stays, with the groceries, residents surrounded her small car and they bought all of them.

Demand has been rising especially after the residents realised that some of the vegetables they have been buying at the local market are planted in polluted areas and that they are laced with toxic chemicals that may be causing a litany of ailments.

Wandia, whom I never knew was talented in marketing, is getting more orders than we are able to supply.

These days the farmers are making orders and paying in advance.

Our hashtag, ‘KnowYourFarmer’ to ‘KnowYour Food’ is gaining momentum as residents inquire more about how the vegetables are being grown.

They are so concerned about their health that some are even asking for our spraying schedules and the type of pesticides used. In short, they are doing what is normally done in European markets.

Like a majority of good ladies do, Wandia decided to be saving profits on my behalf for reasons better known to her. I did not inquire about the money, fearing I might upset the good ties I am enjoying with her after the foreign visitor’s fiasco.

SURPRISE GIFT

After a two-day silence last week, Wandia did the unexpected. She bought me a surprise gift – a milking machine.

“Dear Mkulima, this is the fruit of our labour,” read a message that was written on a card that accompanied the machine delivered in Mashambani by one of the courier companies from the city.

She called later, her smooth, lovely voice encouraging me to use the machine to improve production.

The landing of the milking machine at Mkulima Mixed Farm excited the village. Wekesa, my farmhand, could not believe that a cow could be milked by a machine. “Walala, walala!! Ya dunia ni mengi!” he exclaimed.

“This will make your work easy,” I said as I showed him how to operate the machine.

But Wekesa looked anxious and asked worryingly if I would sack him because of the machine.

“Don’t worry, it needs someone to operate. Uzuri ni kuwa itakamua ng’ombe wengi kwa muda mfupi,” I assured him.

I spent time explaining to Wekesa how the machine works and he quickly adopted the technology.

But challenges arose. Wekesa, despite the excitement, started demanding a salary increment as he thought that I was now making more money after investing in the machine.

Again, rumours emanated from Check Point Hotel that I was going to sack him because of the machine.

SPREADING RUMOURS

But the most annoying of them all was how workers from neighbouring farms took advantage of my absence to experiment with the machine.

All the farm workers from Mashambani were congregating on my farm to see the gadget and try to use it.

Without knowing the machine was a gift from Wandia, they started spreading rumours that I was making huge profits to enable me acquire the gadget at Sh300,000.

Muchiri, my former worker, further muddied the waters by telling the other farmhands that they will soon be jobless as their employers too will acquire the machine.

Based on these rumours, Wekesa has been on a go-slow, giving me excuses twice of why he was not using the gadget.

“I put the machine on the cow’s teat and it started crying, throwing kicks,” he told me the other day when I found him milking with his hands. “I could not risk my life using the gadget,” he added.

I am in dilemma whether to throw him out or forget about the machine altogether.