In the village of Lutonyi in Kimilili subcounty of Bungoma county Nafula (not her real name) who failed to continue to high school left for Nairobi city to stay with her aunty with high hopes of finding a job in the capital city dreaming of saving and sending money back home to help her parents.
Indeed, her aunty fixed her as a housemaid at a salary of Sh. 5000 a month. But the dream turned into a nightmare even before the first year in employment ended. Nafula had to return home but without the fine fabrics or the new phone she had promised herself. She came back thin, trembling, and carrying a heavy secret. After months of silence in a city apartment where she worked eighteen-hour days for a family that barely spoke to her, she had been coerced by a “friend” of her employer. When she became pregnant, she was immediately fired without pay. Worst of all, she returned to the village not just with an unborn child, but with a persistent cough and a diagnosis that required lifelong medication.
The village saw Nafula’s struggle—the way she became an “unpaid maid” to her own sickness, her dreams of the city now a source of deep pain and isolation.
Nafula’s cousin, Nanjala (also not her real name), having been unable to continue with school just like Nafula but having learned a lesson from others like Nafula, chose a different path. While the city beckoned, Nanjala whose parents had been encouraging her with her school agricultural projects looked at the wild aloe Vera growing behind her family’s hut. She had seen a salon owner picking it and her own mother using it on chicken.
Nanjala learned that Salons use aloe Vera in a variety of professional hair and scalp treatments, including deep conditioning masks, dandruff and scalp soothing services, and as an ingredient in hair strengthening and styling products. She further learned that aloe Vera is used in poultry farming as a sustainable, organic alternative to synthetic antibiotics and growth promoters.
Nanjala learned how to process the aloe Vera for salon and poultry uses and the two became her customers. Today, Nanjala employs three other school dropouts.
Similar to Nafula’s story are some from Bumula subcounty of Bungoma county. Here many girls left (and indeed still leave) their villages chasing promises of “easy money” as house helps, lured by dreams of “get-rich-quick” in the city.
Six months later after leaving her Bumula home for the city, Meri (not her real name) returned. She didn’t come back with the trunk of fine clothes she had promised herself. Instead, she arrived in the middle of the night, her spirit dampened and her hands scarred from harsh cleaning chemicals. She spoke of eighteen-hour workdays, sleeping on kitchen floors, and having her wages withheld by “madams” who saw her as a tool rather than a person. She had been a prisoner in a concrete tower, surrounded by wealth she could never touch.
Many house girls in the city and other urban centers, who are largely school dropouts have told of sexual harassment; physical and emotional abuse, systemic labor exploitation.
Kenya national statistics show that approximately 150,000 CBE learners (roughly 12% of the cohort) failed to progress to Grade 9. In Bungoma there is a 96.8% transition rate meaning there are still a few who do not progress and those are the ones you find in urban homes facing the risk Nafula and Meri faced.
What could entrepreneurial parents do to help their pupils falling into the Nafula, Meri situations? Saving just sh. 10 a day for their kids in their last year of transition is one option among others.
Sh. 10 saved a day, which I have observed is possible for many parents with financial discipline will make up sh. 3650 (three thousand six hundred and fifty) in that last transit year. This amount is good enough to make seed capital for a number of small businesses. Let’s sample 10 of such businesses.
- With sh. 3650 a CBE primary graduate can buy 10 to 15 kienyeji chicks to start small and grow. If she bought and raised 12 birds well, she could sell mature “improved kienyeji” chickens at 600–1,000each after 4–5 months, potentially turning the Sh. 3,650 into over Sh. 7,000 in revenue. Reinvesting this will double the flock size in the next cycle. There is also he option of keeping the hens for table and hatching eggs.
- 3650 can buy 1 Buck and 2 Does (Rabbits) and leave some money to make a local sticks house for them. Rabbits feed on many local plants including the weeds that disturb farmers.
With a Doe (female) producing 4–8 kits every two months, by the end of first year, the initial three rabbits can theoretically grow into a colony of over 50–100 rabbits.
The revenue streams of this rabbit business will be the meat, the urine and the manure.
- With sh. 3650 one can start a scalable micro-insect farming business—specifically focusing on Black Soldier Fly (BSF). Sh. 1500 to 2500 will buy 1kg of live larvae or pupae from local BSF farmers. For feeding, instead of buying specialized trays at Sh. 600 each, use recycled basins or half-cut jerrycans which could be collected for free from dumping sites. Use a simple mosquito net enclosure (must be untreated) which can be bought at sh. 500 for mating. Feed the BSF on gathered organic materials like fruit rinds, vegetable leftovers, or brewer’s waste from the market dump sites.
Revenue streams for this business include sales of fresh or dried larvae to poultry and fish farmers as a high-protein supplement, sale of residue left behind after the larvae feed as a high-quality fertilizer. Sales of eggs or pupae to other aspiring farmers.
A small-scale producer can earn roughly Sh. 12,000 to Sh. 15,000 per cycle by selling mature larvae and fertilizer, allowing for rapid reinvestment and growth. Consider that there can be up to 12 cycles in a year and you can estimate the annual returns
- CBC Home Science projects teach the making of simple household items like soaps and natural cosmetics, which have high local demand. Starting a liquid soap business in a rural or peri-urban area like Bungoma with 3,650 can yield a net profit of approximately Sh. 8,000 to Sh. 12,000 within the first month of operation, provided initial returns are reinvested quickly.
- With sh. 3650 CBE pupils can convert their tailoring and garment-making skills into a business of upcycling mitumba (second-hand) trousers into tops. This creative “refashioning” business has very low entry costs because it relies on one’s skill rather than expensive new fabrics.
Sh. 1000 can bring in 10 mitumba trousers with high-quality fabric or cool patterns at wholesale prices. A sewing kit which iincludes high-quality fabric scissors, needles, variety of threads, measuring tape, and a thimble can be obtained at sh. 800. At sh. 400 buttons, zippers, or elastic bands to turn trouser legs into sleeves or waistbands can be obtained. Sh. 500 can be used for branding and marketing. Sh. 600 can be set aside for for transport to markets or specialized thread colours. One will be in business selling a top at Sh. 1,000 each to generate Sh. 10 000 and grow.
- Bungoma’s busy markets and campus areas (like Kibabii University) offer high demand for quick snacks. A tray of eggs costs sh. 600. Active vendors in busy urban areas report making between 600 and Sh. 1,500 per day in this Pasua Mayai business. A month would bring in a minimum of sh. 18 000 which is about the salary of an office clerk, receptionist and others.
- With sh. 3650 one can buy fresh milk at sh. 20 a cup and convert it into maziwa mala to sell at sh. 35 a cup. The culture to use for the Mala is ready Mala from the shops. With a start-up capital of 3,650, one can achieve a net profit of 40% to 60% per litre. The business can diversify into making cream, cooking oil and even ghee
A CBC dropout can start a highly profitable and scalable banana ripening business in Bungoma with 3,650. By applying “Value Addition” skills taught in CBC, one can nearly double or triple the value of a banana bunch in just 3–4 days. I observed that a bunch of bananas sold green fetches about Sh. 1,100–1,300. Once ripened its value shoots to over Sh. 3,000.
- A vegetable seedling business in Bungoma is highly profitable and can be launched with Sh. 3,650. Seedling nurseries typically report profit margins between 30% and 40%, with quick revenue generation compared to growing full crops. Grow high-value vegetable seedlings (kales, spinach, tomatoes) in small containers and sell to local farmers and neighbors. At sh. 1500 seeds enough to produce 2,000–3,000 seedlings of Cabbage, Kales, spinach, tomatoes can be bought. At sh. 900 one can buy 10 seedling trays. At sh. 500 the growing medium of soil mixed with manure can be prepared.
It will cost about sh 1 to 2 to produce one vegetable seedling to be sold at Sh. 5 to Sh. 15, while full trays (100+ seedlings) go for Sh. 300 to Sh. 1,500 depending on the variety. This works out at a net profit of about Sh. 6,350 from the first cycle.
- A CBC dropout can start a highly profitable beadwork and jewellery business with Sh. 3,650. The Competency-Based Curriculum specifically teaches learners from Grade 1 to 6 the practical skills of counting, pattern making, and colour sorting. By Grade 3, many students are already proficient in making ornaments using locally available materials. It will cost approximately 150 to Sh. 300(materials + time) to make a quality beaded necklace or a set of bracelets. These items retail locally for Sh. 800 to Sh. 1,500. If sold to gift shops in lodges or artisanal fairs, prices can double. One can expect net profit margins of 25% to 75%. Selling 10 sets of bracelets and 5 necklaces per month can generate a net profit of Sh. 6,000 to Sh. 10,000, easily covering the initial investment in the first month.