image via – youtube.com
If you’ve ever had to deal with government bureaucracy and all the red tape that goes along with it, then you know how long and frustrating it can be to get anything done. It seems like even the simplest of problems can take months, usually even years, to get fixed. By the time that happens, most people have already found ways around whatever the issue may be or gone ahead and tried to fix it themselves.
It’s not just an American or first world problem, even the remotest of places in the middle of Africa are stuck dealing with government ineptitude. For the small village of Kaganda, located two hours north of Nairobi, Kenya, residents had been asking the local government to build a road for years, yet they never seemed to get anywhere. A date had previously been set to begin construction but that was over 5 years ago, so they began to lose hope of ever getting the road built.
The villagers badly needed this particular road built because there was only one paved road in town and a couple of dirt ones. The one road that brings them to the closest market and church in the area isn’t a direct route, instead they have to travel 2.5 miles out of the way to get there. Then they must walk that extra 2.5 miles with all their groceries on the way back. Despite their constant pleas for a new direct route to the market, the government could not get the ball rolling and they remained majorly inconvenienced for years.
For a while the villagers used a shortcut through the bush, but they were cutting across private property. The property owner eventually put a fence up, effectively blocking the shortcut, and so they went back to taking the long way. At that point, a local 45 year old man named Nicholas Muchami decided to get the job done the old fashioned way. He was sick of waiting for a road that might not ever get built and so he set to work digging it himself.
Using just the farm tools he had, he worked to clear the land. He cut down trees and bushes, pulled up roots, and dug out a path for the road that would lead directly from the village to the market area. Nicholas worked tirelessly from 7am to 5pm no matter what the weather was or how hot it got. In just six days he had managed to clear 1.5km and had made a dirt road wide enough for cars to drive on and the villagers were thrilled.
Eventually Nicholas had to take a break from his volunteer work. He normally worked odd jobs to make money and since he wasn’t getting paid, he needed to get back to work to provide for his family. He also needed to rest, and when he did a few other villagers picked up where he’d left off to help finish the road.
News of the road and how it was built soon spread and major news outlets like the BBC sent camera crews to get pictures of it. When the story went global people started sending Nicholas gifts, food, and money to help support and show how much they appreciated what he was doing. Their kind gifts enabled him to focus and work only on the road, which he soon completed.
In the end, Nicholas had dug just under three miles almost all by himself. When asked what motivated him, he said that he did it for the women and children in the village and to save everyone time. Now trips to the market or church are drastically shorter and the elderly, sick, and disabled can take a car there in just minutes. All this is possible because one man decided to do the work himself rather than wait for the government who had been promising it for years.
Watch the video below for the full story:
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