Alex Carson
Local Government
Dealing with your local government isn’t always easy. Whether you want to have a pothole on your street filled in, have a new traffic light installed at a busy intersection, or if you want the government to lower your taxes, asking often won’t get you too far. It isn’t just cities and towns in the United States who have issues like these. A small village in Kenya has experienced issues; however, their problems were much more serious than needing to have a pothole filled in.
Kaganda
One Road
In
Making Do
Some of the villagers began using a shortcut, but it meant that they had to wade through bushes. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it was working. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the shortcut was blocked off. Part of the shortcut was located on private property. The owner of the land was tired of people going through his property all day long, so he put up a fence. This made the shortcut inaccessible, and the villagers were back to square one. The villagers decided that they had to do something, but the man had the law on his side. Things started to get bad again, so a man named Nicholas Muchami took matters into his own hands.
Nicholas Muchami
Nicholas is a 45-year-old man from the village. People have always known him to be a gentle soul. After he took steps to help his fellow villagers, they started calling him a Good Samaritan. Nicholas was furious. He didn’t want to sit by and watch the locals suffer due to poor politics and the greed of the property owner who installed the fence. He knew he had to do something, and soon, he knew exactly what to do to help himself and the others in the village.
Putting His Plan Into Action
Nicholas gathered all of his tools and headed toward the bushes right outside the fence the separated the greedy property owner’s fence. He would go there every day to cut down trees, pull up roots, and dig to create a dirt road that would connect the villagers to the church and the shopping center. He worked every single day from 7 am to 5 pm, regardless of how hot it was outside.
Working For Free
At first, Nicholas’ neighbors thought that he was being paid for his work. It wasn’t long before they all discovered that he was volunteering his time. He told his fellow villagers that he wanted to make life easier for someone, and he had enough energy and determination to get the job done. The only problem was that when Nicholas was working to build the road, he wasn’t working a paying job. This meant that he had to stop to earn some money. By April 10, 2019, he had dug 0.9 miles, and the road was about ¾ of the way done. He needed rest, so a few of the villagers decided to lend a hand and help him finish the job.
Word Spread
In less than a month, the news of Nicholas’ hard work and kind gesture spread. BBC News paid him a visit to take some photos of the work that he was doing. Soon, people from all over the world heard about what Nicholas was doing for the people in his village.
Donations
When word spread, people began sending Nicholas money, gifts, and food to show their gratitude. Finally, he had the money and the food that he needed, so he no longer had to worry about working. Instead, he could focus on finishing the road. Finally, it was complete. The residents of the village now had a proper road to get them to the shopping center quickly.
Thankful
This Kenya man digs almost 3 miles by himself for an incredible reason. He wanted to make life easier for the people in his village. When the road was
