Nairobi Woman Set To Renovate Parents' House After Saving KSh 40k From Uji Business: "Inaingia Maji"

• Dorothy Kawira left Meru county in 2021 in a quest to help her struggling family back home get out of poverty
• When she arrived in Nairobi, she was hired as a househelp, then she started a salon business, which failed, and finally, she started her Meru Uji business
• From the uji business, the young woman has saved KSh 40,000, which will go into renovating her family's house, which has been leaking

Nairobi: Dorothy Kawira from Meru county is over the moon after she finally saved KSh 40,000 to help renovate her dear parents' leaking house.

How did Kawira start Meru Uji business?

Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, the 24-year-old shared that she left Meru in 2021 to become a househelp so that she could help her family.

"While I was working as a househelp, I had to think of a way of helping my family because the money was not enough, so I came up with the idea of selling uji," she said.

"I just made a step of faith and started selling uji around the Maziwa area in Nairobi; I did morning and evening rounds. The first days were so hard for me because I had to wake up at 3 am to make uji and chapati by 6.40 am," revealed Kawira, who is a trained beautitician and salonist.

She tried her hand at working in a salon and later opened her own beauty business.

Meru Uji business sells 50 litres per day

When Kawira moved out to live on her own, she started by sleeping on the floor. Later on, she bought some furniture for her house with the proceeds from the sale of her salon equipment.

"I started my uji business with KSh 2000 and five litres of uji. I had God's favour and people accepted me. These days I sell about 50 litres of uji a day and and I also deliver raw uji for some families. Some people call me to deliver the uji for them when they have functions such as ruracios," she said.

"So far, I have saved KSh 40,000, and will used it for the renovation since water seeps into the house whenever it rains," she said of their house made of mud.

At the moment, Kawira's Meru Uji business is still mobile, and the hardworking woman is looking to establish a kibanda.

Kenyan woman quits Saudi job, turns to selling uji

In June 2024, Lucy Kioko returned to the country from Saudi Arabia and started selling uji to ordinary customers, such as mjengo people.

Uji power is reserved for people who have money in her neighbourhood, and the travel operations graduate said that it costs KSh 60.

Lucy also told TUKO.co.ke that she wants to make headway into the gospel music scene and has since recorded a song.

Proofreading by Mercy Nyambura Guthua, journalist and copy editor at TUKO.co.ke