Feature: Kenyan women's innovative journey to socio-economic empowerment

As Kenya remains relentless in promoting empowerment of women, some are making steady steps toward achieving the goal.

For the 37 women of Koriema Stage Women Group from the Rift Valley county of Baringo, it is a socio-economic journey that takes effort, commitment and focus.

The women from Marigat area started on small scale buying and selling honey having been pushed by harsh economic conditions coupled with unfavorable weather poor for crop growth. The little profits they received became the capital for expansion.

"We decided to adopt a table banking strategy in which the profits became the funds loaned out to the members and dividends used to strengthen our activities," Susan Kipng'ok, a member told Xinhua on Thursday.

With the loans, the members are able to start off individual income generating activities and refund with the interest which goes into the revolving fund, she said.

However, every member of the group is required to have some shares to be able to benefit from the loaning program.

"We started with 1 U.S. dollar for each share but in just two weeks we had realized the collections were not enough to meet the needs of the members," she said.

"And so we doubled the amount to 2 dollars and members are allowed to have as many shares as they can manage," she added. The contribution has so far been raised to four dollars as members continue to improve their earnings.

Kipng'ok said the group has agreed to double the amount each year so as to increase amount available for loaning. The loans are refunded with a 20 percent interest.

The group has now advanced into large scale buying and selling of honey. They buy pure honey at 120 dollars per 17kg, process it into 20 liters and package it under the label of Koriema Women Stage Group. They sell a liter of the honey at 7 dollars).

"Our plan is becoming a cooperative. We are soon going to manage a revolving fund of more than a million and that means we can become a source of capital for not just the members but other women too," she said.

"Our progress has been tremendous and we are determined to succeed," she added. She said they are providing a ready market for other women selling honey since they buy in bulk.

The formation of the group was out of the frustrations they experienced while selling honey single handedly at Marigat stage of which they have managed to address through pool sourcing of customers, she said.

"We were tired of hawking honey to passengers. It's tiresome. You compete for the same customers and it's just stressful," said Kipng'ok.

The members have now managed to attract customers from cities of Nairobi and Mombasa and other small towns who buy their products in bulk.

She said forming the group was the best choice they ever made and wishes other women would follow their example.

However, Kipng'ok. wishes the government would assist women in business from the rural and semi-arid areas to access markets.

She said often they are disadvantaged as they are unable to reach profitable markets due to long distances and poor terrain resulting to high cost implications of marketing their products.

To this, Professor Tom Nyamache, an economist agrees noting that assisting women in selling their products is a key element to elevating them from poverty.

"Significantly, a product has to reach a market for it to draw any benefits to its owner. But it should not be any market but one which brings in profits to the seller and women struggle a lot to find that kind of market," he said.

For him, women need more than entrepreneurial skills since the result of building their capacity is a product that ought to be sold to generate an income.

"There need to be a deliberate commitment from not just the government but other stakeholders to ensure women have the capability to negotiate for a good price of their products regardless of where they are selling it from," he said.

The government is currently implementing various initiatives targeting women with the aim of improving their social and economic standards.

The Ministry of Devolution indicates that at least 65 percent of the zero interest loans given under the Uwezo Fund and Women Enterprise Fund and some of state initiated funding programs for women go into financing agribusiness.

However, finding profitable markets still remains a bitter reality for majority of women in very many parts of the country.

Overtime, farmers have been encouraged to form associations or cooperatives to overcome the marketing challenges but still issues of brokerage have continued to be integral part of discussions in many forums concerning farmers.

For many years, middlemen have been the convenient selling points for farmers due to lack of a better option. Unfortunately, they command the price to the disadvantage of the farmers. Endit