• They say they have depleted their savings after Governor Mwangi wa Iria ordered the closure of their shops.
• They are ready to follow all preventive measures, including attending one client at a time.
Operators of beauty and barbershops want the Murang'a government to allow them to continue with business.
They say they are struggling to feed their families since Governor Mwangi Wa Iria ordered the closure of their businesses.
They also ask why their shops were targeted while other businesses were allowed to continue operating.
Appealing to the county government to consider revoking the order, the operators said they are ready to adhere to the laid down public health guidelines.
Julius Kamau, who operates a barbershop, said most of his counterparts are the breadwinners in their families.
Without their businesses, he said, their families are struggling to survive.
Kamau said thousands of graduates of the Ufundi Kwa Vijana programme, a county government initiative that trains youths on short technical courses, are employed in their shops.
The county has so far trained about 40,000 youths through the programme and has set up a Sh100 million kitty to provide them with tools to enable them become self-reliant.
"Governor Wa Iria should know that even the many youths he has trained are suffering as they have no source of livelihood with the closure of our shops," he said.
Kamau said they are ready to provide soap, water and sanitisers and a client at a time.
Rebeccah Wanjiku, a beauty shop operator, said staying at home with their families for the two weeks has drained their small savings.
"Some of us have children in secondary schools and had already paid school fees before they were sent home due to coronavirus. Now we have nothing and need to go back to work to survive," she said.
She asked the governor to announce the requirements they should follow to protect themselves and their clients.
Lydia Waithera said they rely on merry go rounds to which they contribute weekly to be able to pay their rent and support their families.
The merry go rounds, she said, screeched to a halt when their businesses were closed down and they have no other means of survival.
"We have come out today because we are hungry and desperate. We do not have farms that we can go back to and get food," she said.
Wa Iria closed down the shops saying it would be impossible to maintain the required social distance between the operators and their clients.
He said the shops may become fertile grounds for the spread of Covid-19, arguing that their services are not as essential and that people can do without them.
The governor also stopped movement of public service vehicles in and out of the country before the national government imposed cessation of movement in Nairobi county that affects most parts of the neighbouring Kiambu county.
Edited by E.Kibii