The journey from Kitale to Kakuma has never been just a journey. For the traders of Kakuma, it has been a race against time.
Every truck carrying tomatoes, cabbages, kale, fruits, cereals and other supplies heading north has carried more than merchandise. It has carried the day’s investment, the trader’s expected profit and, sometimes, the risk of watching all that money rot by the roadside.
For years, the road was the weakest link in a supply chain stretching more than 400 kilometres from the agricultural heartlands of western Kenya to the arid Turkana frontier.
Margaret Kamau, a Bamba Chakula trader in Kakuma, captured the problem simply in a World Food Programme account of the supply chain.
“We source vegetables from Kitale market. By the time the vegetables get here, some will
have gone bad.” Says Margret as she dates back to 2021.
At the time, WFP reported that trucks carrying fresh produce from Kitale took at least two days to reach Kakuma because of the poor state of the road. For traders dealing in perishable goods,every delay meant another loss.
Today, that story is changing.
The Sh100 billion Kitale-Lodwar highway, being developed with support from the Kenyan
government and the World Bank, is opening a faster connection between western Kenya,
Turkana and the wider South Sudan corridor.
The road forms part of the regional transport network linking Isebania, Kitale, Lodwar,Lokichogio, Nadapal and Juba.
And in Kakuma, the value of that investment can be seen not only in the black tarmac stretching across the landscape, but in what arrives on the shelves of shops and stalls.
Kakuma sits in one of Kenya’s driest regions, where agriculture is difficult and much of the food consumed in the settlement and surrounding communities has to come from elsewhere.
UN-Habitat survey of businesses in Turkana West found that 68.3 per cent of cereals and
pulses, 66 per cent of fruits and vegetables and 73.8 per cent of processed food reported by
businesses were sourced from Kitale.
Those figures put the importance of the highway into perspective.
For a Kakuma trader, Kitale is not simply another town on the map. It is a major supplier. For a farmer in Kitale, Kakuma is not simply a distant settlement. It is a market and between the two lies a road that determines how quickly food, money and opportunity move.
When the road is bad, everyone pays. When it improves, the benefits travel in both directions.
Abayisaba Jean Claude, a Bamba Chakula trader who operated a shop in Lokitaung market in Kakuma 3, experienced both sides of the equation.
When WFP interviewed him in 2020, he said he had started with business capital of about
Sh200,000. After joining Bamba Chakula and expanding his stock, he said his shop had grown to a value of Sh400,000.
More importantly, the programme gave him the ability to travel to Kitale himself to buy goods.
“I am able to go to Kitale and buy the goods that I want myself, at a fair price,” he said.
But there was still one problem.
“The road from Kakuma to Kitale was very bad. When we go to buy goods for our shops
and the car breaks down on the way back, all the perishable goods spoilt resulting in big
losses.” Said Jean.
His words offer perhaps the clearest picture of what poor infrastructure once meant to a small trader.
A broken-down vehicle was not merely a mechanical problem. It could mean tomatoes becoming too soft to sell.
It could mean cabbage losing its value. It could mean a trader returning to Kakuma with less merchandise than they had paid for and ultimately, it could mean higher prices for the consumer.
Now the road is becoming a market-maker The improved road is already changing the economics of towns along the corridor.
In Lokichoggio, trader Halima Mohammed told Sifa FM that fresh produce from Kitale that once took days to arrive could now reach the town in a day.
“Initially, we used to make orders for vegetables and fruits and it would take three days for
a lorry to fill up. When the commodities got to Lokichoggio we would incur losses due to
most having gone bad, and even the remainder would be sold at very high prices.” said
Halima.
The improved road, she said, has changed that experience as fresh farm produce could arrive much faster.That is the less visible dividend of a highway.
It is not only the shorter travel time. It is the cabbage that reaches the market fresh. It is the trader who does not have to price in three days of transport delays.
It is the consumer who does not have to pay for the vegetables that spoiled somewhere between Kitale and Turkana.
The road is also strengthening trade beyond Turkana. Turkana Chamber of Commerce and
Industry immediate former chairman Pius Ewoton has previously linked the improved road network to increased cross-border business.
“The vehicles are able to move fast,” Ewoton said, noting the improvement in movement along the corridor.
He also said more vehicles were operating between Kakuma and South Sudan because of the improved road.
At the time of the report, the Turkana County Commissioner Julius Kavita says an average of 20 Probox vehicles carrying goods traversed the Lokichoggio-Kapoeta road every day.
Twenty vehicles may sound like a small number against the scale of a Sh100 billion
infrastructure investment.
But each vehicle carries a chain of economic activity. A trader buys the goods. A transporter
earns. A driver gets paid. A supplier makes a sale. A customer receives the product and another business gets an opportunity to grow.
Ewoton has also argued that better regional roads can reduce the distance and cost of moving people and goods, while opening markets across Uganda, South Sudan and Ethiopia.
The road is changing more than transport,The economic effect is already visible in places that were once considered too remote for serious investment.
A recent account of Lodwar’s transformation found that businesses, hospitality establishments and transport operators have benefited from the improved road network.
Guesthouse operator Julia Akorilem described the change in simple terms:
“Ever since it was opened for use about two years ago, I have never lacked visitors in my
guesthouse.”
Transport costs have also fallen. Lodwar tout John Munyasa said a journey from Lodwar to
Nairobi that once cost roughly twice as much had dropped to Kshs 3,000 by road.
For travelers, that is cheaper transport. For a hotel owner, it is more guests. For a trader, it is a larger market. For a farmer, it is another customer.
That is how a road begins to reshape an economy.
The figure Sh100 billion is difficult to visualise. It is an amount too large to fit comfortably into the experience of an ordinary trader. But its impact can be understood through smaller numbers.
400 kilometers of supply routes.73.8 per cent of processed food businesses sourcing from
Kitale.66 per cent of fruits and vegetables sourced from the same market.
According to an earlier county report 20 goods-carrying vehicles crossing towards South Sudan daily,For decades, northern Kenya’s greatest economic disadvantage was not necessarily a lack of demand.
It was distance. Distance made goods expensive. Distance made fresh produce risky. Distance made transport unreliable. Distance discouraged investment.
The improved Kitale-Lodwar highway is beginning to attack that disadvantage at its source.
For Kakuma’s traders, the change is deeply practical.
A better road means the journey to Kitale is no longer simply a trip to buy goods. It becomes a more predictable business operation. For Kitale’s farmers, it means a distant market is becoming easier to reach.
For Turkana’s consumers, it offers the prospect of more reliable supplies and lower transport-related costs.
And for the wider region, the highway provides a physical link between Kenya’s agricultural heartland and the markets of northern Kenya and South Sudan.
The real value of the Sh100 billion highway, therefore, may not be found in the kilometers of road built. It may be found in the vegetables that arrive before they spoil.In the trader who returns from Kitale with a full load.
In the truck that makes another trip instead of breaking down. In the customer who pays less.
And in Kakuma business owner who can finally look at the road not as an obstacle between her shop and her suppliers, but as the route to a bigger market.
For northern Kenya, the highway is becoming more than a road. It is becoming an
economic lifeline.
