Women count on factory to shore up leather trade

A woman displaying leather items decorated with beads in Narok Town. For a long time they have been ripped off by middle men in hides and skins trade. PHOTO| COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Things are looking up for Mrs Naserian and other women  in the business with  the recent opening of the Ewaso Ngiro Leather Factory in Narok County.
  • Mr Sammy Naporos, the CEO of Ewas Ngiro South Development Authority (ENSDA), which is  in charge of the factory, says that in the recent past, traders in Narok County have seen improvements in the prices of hides and skin.
  • “Local traders, mostly women, have suffered a lot, but now they have a reliable place to sell their skins and hides, with a factory nearby.  Besides, we have established buying centres to make it easy for them to sell their products,” he says.
  • According to the Economic Survey 2016, Kenya’s hides, skins and leather industry accounts for about 5 per cent of the agricultural GDP and 1.5 per cent of the overall GDP.

Mrs Elizabeth Naserian, 43, is sitting under a makeshift shelter in Masaantare Village, chatting and laughing with other women as she cures the skin of a recently slaughtered goat.

Women in the village on the outskirts of Narok Town  in Maasailand have  for a long time been considered their husbands’ property, so they owned nothing and could not earn an income. 

Their roles were confined to household duties like fetching water and firewood, caring for the children, building and maintaining their homes, tending livestock and cooking.

However, this is changing for women in Narok County as more and more of them turn to income-generating activities to support their families. This has seen some of them move from the village to  nearby trading centres, mainly to sell hides and skins.

“I started my business three years ago, selling Masai beads and ornaments but recently I opened a small shop to sell hides and skins, which are now my main focus.  The two businesses give me some financial independence and the freedom to manage my own resources,” Mrs Naserian says.

However, since she began trading in leather, she hasn’t been earning as much as she could because of middle men.

“I sell one goat or sheepskin for Sh30, and sometimes even less. This means I have to sell several to get a reasonable amount of cash. A cow skin fetches between Sh100 and Sh150 but considering the distance I walk to get the products and deliver them to the buyers, the price is still low,” she says.

In Narok County, the hides and skins business in the village is done mostly by the women; the man’s job is simply to slaughter the animal for the family meal.

“Most of our men do not care about hides and skins after slaughtering animals,” says Mrs Naserian. “When a friend introduced me to the business, I started buying hides and skins from the village and selling them at Olulunga Trading Centre.”

Things are looking up for Mrs Naserian and other women  in the business with  the recent opening of the Ewaso Ngiro Leather Factory in Narok County.

Mr Sammy Naporos, the CEO of Ewas Ngiro South Development Authority (ENSDA), which is  in charge of the factory, says that in the recent past, traders in Narok County have seen improvements in the prices of hides and skin.

“Local traders, mostly women, have suffered a lot, but now they have a reliable place to sell their skins and hides, with a factory nearby.  Besides, we have established buying centres to make it easy for them to sell their products,” he says.

According to the Economic Survey 2016, Kenya’s hides, skins and leather industry accounts for about 5 per cent of the agricultural GDP and 1.5 per cent of the overall GDP.

Government statistics also show that in recent years, the country produced more than 2 million hides (mainly of cattle, with some camels’) and around 4 million skins (goats and sheep).

The livestock sector contributes 12 per cent of Kenya’s GDP, accounts for more than 30 per cent of the farm gate value of agricultural commodities and employs more than 50 per cent of the agricultural labour force.

However, value addition in the livestock sector has been minimal, and most of Kenya’s exports have been in the form of unprocessed hides and skins.

“The Ewaso Ngiro Leather Factory is the government’s strategy to develop the leather industry in line with its Vision 2030 Programme that aims at promoting industrialisation and value addition in key sectors. The industry contributes to economic growth through expanding exports of both semi-processed and finished leather goods,” offers  Mr Naporos.

 The Sh700 million factory aims at securing improved livelihoods among small hides and skins traders in Narok, Samburu and Kajiado to address some of the key challenges faced by pastoralists, which include poverty, food insecurity, low incomes, gender inequality and marketing constraints.

“The rationale for this factory is to benefit small-scale leather traders in the three marginalised counties who are used to selling hides and skins at give-away prices due to the monopoly of buyers and lack of accurate information on market prices,”  says Dr Richard Lesiyambe, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Traders in Narok say they spend a lot of time looking for buyers and also risk being robbed of their hard-earned cash on their way home. The pastoralists, who slaughter large stocks in livestock markets in the region have also not been spared by the poor prices.

Activities under the factory will include the construction of buying centres as part of the decentralisation of the market and bringing the buyers closer to the factory.

The traders will also benefit from training on quality of hides and skins, livestock production and management, business management, negotiation and advocacy skills as well as exchange visits to promote learning,” says Mr Naporos.

In Narok, Kajiado and Samburu, which the leather factory is targeting, livestock and their products serve as a currency. When community members lose livestock,  as happens during prolonged droughts, they lose economic security.