Friday 1 May 2026
We are off to Limuru for a funding. 10 groups says Purity. Turns out to be 13. In Kenya this is more or less the same thing. When whatever god you believe in was handing out precision, Kenya must have turned up late.
We are finding it more difficult to get safe houses for the funding so we are in a side room of a nyama choma eating place. The smell alone would turn you vegan but …
I order soda for everyone and goat’s head soup for some.
These groups are amazing, and remind my why all the ghastly days in the shop are worth it and why each and every one of our donors is sooooo important.
All of the women are beaten wives with beaten children. Frequently with a bit of recreational and drunken rape thrown in. Broken bones. The whole horrible nine yards. The standard story is grim. Violent husband who has no work. Sends his wife out to ‘kibarua’ (casual labour) which can be anything from mountains of laundry to carrying hods of stones from building sites. Now, buckle up. The going rate for this is 50 to 100 bob per day. Which is about 40 to 80 PENCE. It is just enough to buy some flour for ugali for the otherwise starving children. Except it never reaches them because as soon as the woman gets home she is beaten and the money taken by hubby for drink (and in a couple of cases, gambling). Depending on the kind of kibarua, there is a high risk of on-the-job rape and one group of women has 9 positive ladies because of this. Other groups have positive members because the husbands sleep around and bring every kind of infection home.
Most of the groups have gone to their local Chief for help, which is a BIG DEAL and takes a lot of courage, but here in Kenya, the local Chief cannot interfere with a man beating his wife and children, or anything else he might do. The best that the best of the Chiefs can offer is support once the women have managed to leave the marriage. But this is a LOT better than nothing.
And so Mama Biashara provides the wherewithall for these women to have a new life with their soon to be non-starving/beaten/raped children. And the businesses are phenomenal. As usual, all the groups have got themselves orders from schools, hospitals, supermarkets etc, ensuring big sales and a fast start to profit. The average profit margin is 250%. Right from the word go. This makes me very very happy. 157 women 330 kids between them who will no longer be beaten and raped and starved. They all – in case you were wondering – have new places to live and the protection of the local Chief. I finish my goat’s head soup (do not grimace, it is nicer than it sounds. Not for the goat,obvs)
Purity, David and I have lunch. They are both huddled in puffa jackets and concerned that I have taken my jacket off. I explain the good old Scottish tradition of Taps Aff as soon as the ice on the puddles melts.They are not impressed.
Back at Corner I discover (in the spirit of adventure and curiosity) Manyatta – a Kenyan cider with mint. 7%ABV and the girl next to us is drinking it with the addition of a double shot of Jack Daniels. As usual the place is thronging with hawkers and I buy a couple of pairs of colourful socks (25p), a sheet for the bed and a pair of beautiful leather shoes for David, whose own are falling apart (about £8). These hawkers are so hardworking and certainly worth ‘promoting’ as they say. And the cider seems to have made me considerably more susceptible to their sales technique.
Of course, now it rains.
