Rich history of ‘Jam Street’ and why it’s crying for a makeover

Athumani Kipanga Road, popularly known as “Jam Street”, in Kamukunji Constituency, is a 650-metre stretch of potholed tarmac and loose cabro that straddles Muratina Street, Kirongothi Street, Major Muriithi Street, and Captain Mungai Street as it links Mweni Road to the Mohammed Yusuf Haji Avenue.

The road is lined with high-rise residential apartment blocks and buildings, with rented offices, hospitals and pharmacies, fancy restaurants, and modest roadside food stalls. There are also retail and wholesale supermarkets, roadside kiosks, barbershops and salons, a mosque, and a market, among many others.

In many ways, Athumani Kipanga Road is always alive with activities that bring together people of different economic and social classes, ethnicities, and religions. The road is so busy and full of people that in some stretches there is no space for pedestrians as people and vehicles scramble for space. The congestion gets worse near the retail and wholesale supermarkets, where goods are constantly being offloaded.

As we overlook a congested 200-metre stretch of the road leading to Galmart Supermarket, our photographer, Ahmed Shafat, who is a long-time Eastleigh resident, remarks that it could take us 30 minutes to get through this stretch. 

“People cannot even look down as they move,” he says. 

True to his words, we see heads bobbing over vehicles as people rub shoulders, pushing to move in different directions.

It is this aspect of life along Athumani Kipanga Road that had led Eastleigh residents to nickname it “Jam Street”, and there are even several businesses bearing that name.

Jam Street, Eastleigh, in Kamukunji Constituency, Nairobi. (Photo: Ahmed Shafat/EV)

However, despite spending so many years living, working, and shopping on this road, most Eastleigh residents are oblivious to the existence and legacy of Athumani Kipanga, a pioneer Kenyan comedian after whom the busy road is named.

“He has never occurred to me as someone I should know,” John Gitonga, a boda boda rider, tells The Eastleigh Voice.

“Going by his name, I always thought he was someone from Mombasa who probably ended up settling around this area. Other than that, I know nothing else about him,” Daniel Kihara, Gitonga’s colleague says.

Athumani Kipanga lived in the Pumwani-Majengo area, as did many other actors and comedians of his generation, such as Mzee Pembe and Mama Tofi.

Veteran journalist, Gishinga Njoroge, who was born in the mid-1950s, recalled growing up listening to Kipanga on the radio and how famous he was. Kipanga used to present a 15-minute comedy show on KBC radio titled Cheka na Kipanga which used to air twice a week just before the news started.

“Kipanga was the first Kenyan to have a comedy show on Kenyan radio. He, President Jomo Kenyatta, and the athlete Kipchoge Keino were the most famous Kenyans of the 1960s because we heard about them almost daily on the radio,” Gishinga says.

He reveals that Kipanga started his craft in the 1950s, when, under orders from the colonialists, he created content meant to ridicule Mau Mau fighters. However, the aspect of his craft was shelved when Kenya got independence, and he would mimic Kenyans of all tribes and races as he poked fun at various aspects of Kenyan life at the time.

“He was so talented. He could mimic the accents of almost every tribe, as well as Europeans and Indians,” Gishinga says.

Kipanga died on November 11, 1982, aged 52 years. Athumani Kipanga Road in Eastleigh was later named after him, making him the only Kenyan comedian to receive such an honour.

The road is currently one of the busiest in Eastleigh.

“Our side of Athumani Kipanga Road is a bit calm. It has fewer people and vehicles. Also, matatus do not use this road. It is only boda bodas and taxis. We like it that way because we can move much more easily,” Gitonga says.

Comedian Kipanga Athumani (left), widely regarded as the father of Kenya's comedy, gets the opportunity to meet his idol and world-famous comic actor Charlie Chaplin in 1958. (Photo: Handout)

Their area of Athumani Kipanga Road is almost always permanently shadowed by high-rise residential apartment blocks, some already occupied and others under construction. That makes the area to be permanently cool as the air mixes with the trapped smell of mixed cement and concrete.

However, Kihara rues the dust that rises from time to time and the poorly maintained road which could do with better drainage.

“Because of the construction works, this place can get dusty and when it rains, it floods terribly because there is no drainage,” Kihara says.

Up the road, at the junction of Athumani Kipanga Road, we meet two water vendors, Samuel Njuguna and Steve Mugo, who have been selling water in the area for 10 and 15 years, respectively.

They agree that the road’s drainage needs to be improved, potholes covered, and pavements for pedestrians created.

But what makes Athumani Kipanga Road one of the busiest roads in Eastleigh?

“The biggest retail and wholesale supermarkets are on this road. So is the market where people can buy fruits, vegetables, spices, and cereals. There is a Forex bureau which trades in large volumes of local and international currency as well as a shop where people can buy and sell gold and silver,” Njuguna says.

Mugo then adds that people come from all over Eastleigh and other parts of Nairobi to buy necessities from the road’s market and supermarket. 

“This place not only attracts area residents but people from as far as South B and South C and even areas on Thika Road,” he says.

Njuguna also reckons that the increasing number of residential apartments has added to the pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area.

“Almost all of these apartment blocks are full of people and they all use this road to access their houses. The housekeepers working in those houses do not stay with their employers. They come from Huruma, Kiambiu, Mathare, Majengo, and other areas, and, there is always a huge number of them coming here for work,” Njuguna says.

Njuguna and Mugo admit that the busy nature of the road helps to sustain their businesses as there is an almost constant need for water in the area, particularly when boreholes dry up.

Other than selling water, Njuguna, also helps people move to new houses by moving their household items, as well as doing deliveries for shops and other businesses in the area.

“There is always someone moving to a new house within this area and shops needing help with deliveries,” he says.

While many Eastleigh residents are oblivious to comedian Athumani Kipanga and his legacy, there is no denying that they are very aware of the road’s reputation as one of the busiest in the area.

Boda boda riders at Jam Street, Eastleigh, in Kamukunji Constituency, Nairobi. (Photo: Ahmed Shafat/EV)