Villagers weave their way to wealth

They were poverty stricken. Their children were dropping out of school, while Aids ravaged their youth. Now pay day comes every week.

What started humbly as an attempt at turning around the lives of a people in a poor setup by using local materials is today a major industry raking in millions of shillings.

Every week, more than 15,000 sisal discs nicknamed by the villagers “CD” are sold from Migwani District of Mwingi South to be used in decorations for special bags.

Decorated bags

The CDs measure no more than four inches. The decorated bags are eventually shipped to markets in Europe, the United States and Japan. The discs fetch just about Sh30 apiece. But this translates to some Sh450,000 a week for the groups.

For the weavers across the dusty villages of Migwani, pay comes via the paying points in trading centres or through electronic M-Pesa and Zap. Groups in the aloe industry are equally buoyed financially, making about Sh60,000 every week. Result? The once hopeless villagers are smiling all the way to markets and shops. Children are going to school and deaths from Aids have gone down due to better nutrition.

A local organisation known as Regional Institute for Social EnterpRise (Rise) through Mr Philip Mwangangi, says from a situation where people earned nothing, nearly Sh2 million is earned by ordinary villagers each month. He said: “We are training farmers in nursery management, grafting and water harvesting for irrigation. About 400 group-based farmers have been targeted for the first phase. Fruit tree nurseries are already in place,” he said.

Other areas Rise has targeted, according to Mr Mwangangi, include greenhouse horticulture and agro-forestry. He says five pilot greenhouses have been planned for growing tomatoes by selected community organisations. The agro-forestry endeavour is visible in the tree nurseries tended by each of the 19 organisations, and tree planting is taking place on Kwa Mutotya Hill in Nzauni Location that has been rendered bare by illegal loggers and charcoal burners.

“As the rest of the country focuses on Mau Forest, we plan to focus on this hill, which for generations has served as the water tower for Migwani,” he said. A founder director of the organisation, Mr Temi Mutia, said the loss of a close relative to Aids, which he previously took for granted, made him discover that poverty contributed to its devastation. He swore to alleviate poverty among his people. This was the subject of his PhD thesis.

“I found out that the Aloe vera that grew wild in our neighbourhood could be used to empower the people. In conjunction with my team, we also decided to focus on the natural Kamba talent of weaving, using the readily available sisal. My University at Utrecht in the Netherlands and some of my classmates agreed to help me look for markets, and the CD project kicked off,” he said.

Mr Mutia, who did a Masters in Entrepreneurship at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, teamed up with Dr Patrick Kareru of the Chemistry Department. “With help from the agricultural sector co-ordination unit that supports private sector in agriculture and the Micro EnterpRises Support Programme Trust, it has been possible to bring about this reality.”