Employment opportunities created by the ongoing Blue Valley Affordable Housing Project are helping keep young people in the Nyeri neighbourhood engaged in productive work, while allowing local residents to acquire new skills and earn a living.
Among those benefiting is Veronica Wachira, a Blue Valley resident who joined the project as a casual worker. Two years later, she is working in precast production, making window sills, side slabs and other construction components, skills she learnt after joining the project.
“When I came here, I did not know how to do this work. I have learnt it here for free,” she says.
The opportunity, she adds, has allowed her to gain skills that she would otherwise have had to pay to acquire elsewhere.
Her experience reflects one of the wider effects of the ongoing Blue Valley Affordable Housing Project, where skilled and unskilled workers have been drawn from the surrounding locality as construction advances.
Wachira notes that the employment opportunities have also changed the character of the neighbourhood.
She recalls a time when drug use among some young people was common, and incidents of theft were a concern, particularly in the mornings.
With more young people now engaged in work at the construction site, she says, there are fewer youths spending their days idle on the streets.
“There are young people who are now working. It is difficult to find them just sitting around,” she says.
The project has reached an advanced stage of construction, recording 88.2 per cent physical progress. Construction commenced on 15 July 2024, with the project scheduled for completion on 15 January 2026.
Major structural works have been completed across the three main residential blocks, Blocks A, B and D, including excavation and foundation works, raft foundations, foundation columns, walling, upper-floor slabs and roof structures.
The three blocks have reached the roof stage, with 11th-floor beam, reinforcement and casting works completed and roof slabs cast. Finishing activities, including plastering, skimming, screeding, tiling, terrazzo works, window glazing, door installation, electrical wiring and painting, are ongoing at different levels.
The commercial component is also advancing, with foundation excavation and columns, walling, first-floor slab casting and roofing completed. Tiling of Blocks 1 and 2 has also been completed, while other finishing works continue.
Supporting infrastructure is progressing alongside the buildings. Borehole drilling is complete, while two underground water tanks are under construction, with major structural works, including the bottom and top slabs, completed.
Other site facilities and works include a completed weighbridge, hoarding, site offices, changing rooms and fire assembly points.
Wachira, however, says the significance of the development is ultimately measured in the opportunities it creates.
She hopes the employment opportunities will continue as the project moves into subsequent phases.
“If we get this work, we can move to Phase Two. When we get Phase Two, perhaps we can go to Phase Three,” she says.
At Blue Valley, the construction of homes is therefore unfolding alongside a parallel story of livelihoods, with local workers gaining income and skills as the project progresses.
