Don’t quarantine your car, auto mechanics’ desperate plea

By Steve Umidha

Automobile mechanics are asking vehicle owners not to quarantine their cars, as they face unprecedented plunge in demand of ‘faulty’ vehicles due to uncertainty caused by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and partial lock-down.

“We want them to visit our garages for minor to major checkups, business has been so low and we are worried if this situation continue we could struggle to fend for our families,” commented Moses Opallo, a lead mechanic at ML Motors based on Nairobi’s Ngong Road.

Due to stay-at-home directives by the Government, most vehicle tires have not left their packing spots in weeks in lieu of gradual wear and tear, as they are enjoying extensive rest and recuperation or simply R&R. As a result, this has had a huge impact on mechanics daily source of living in earnings from car repairs.

Mr. Opallo, a veteran and renowned car surgeon with years of experience, is as worried as most Kenyans today and the father of one is more deeply concerned with the futures of his twenty-three (23) other colleague-mechanics with whom he shares the same rented auto car garage space.

“In this space we are about 23 mechanics each with different roles ranging from electrical, mechanical, car body and general vehicle service specialists and we are all struggling to get orders, our phones have gone quiet,” narrates a distraught Opallo, who estimates a decline of over 75 per cent in the number of vehicles driven through his yard for various patch-up services.

On a good day before the pandemic hit the country, Moses says a total of about 20 vehicles with various mechanical issues would be serviced at the yard on a daily basis but that is not the same anymore with the garage now managing a paltry 3 vehicles a day mainly major repairs – this he says is slowly becoming catastrophic.

“You can clearly see how devastating it is for us,” he said in an interview, adding that the situation had been worsened by the recent partial lock-down of major affected cities by the Covid-19 which potentially locked long distance passenger vehicles plying those routes from entering or leaving the capital and as a result denying them a key component of their regular incomes.

In his address to the nation on April 7, President Uhuru Kenyatta announced immediate cessation of movement in and out the Nairobi Metropolitan area for 21 days – in a move that is meant to contain spread of COVID-19 with the Capital City established as the major of four identified hotspots. Other counties who join Nairobi in the partial lock-down were Mombasa, Kilifi and Kwale.

“We are urging those with cars to regularly visit mechanics for minor checkups like oil, brakes, wear on belts and hoses, it is a healthy for the car,” says Paul Omondi, an instructor and a certified mechanic in Nairobi.

With schools closed, there are no pupils to be dropped and picked, and while few Kenyans continue to go to their physical place of work, majority are staying at home with their personal vehicles effortlessly parked as they hope the numbers of Covid-19 infections continue to fall and a recall to normalcy is declared.

Mechanics only hope will be to see the parked vehicles back on the road if their lives are to improve.