When crops fail in Kenya, women turn to cutting trees to sell as firewood in order to feed their families.
But around Kobolwo, in western Kenya, men have banned women from cutting down the few remaining trees near the village, where maize crops have been decimated by the drought.
So Gladys Korir, a 54-year-old mother of six, and 50 other women have come up with another plan to survive. Using donkeys, they now fetch water from the Mara River near Kobolwo and carry it to distant landowners in exchange for the right to access their land to cut wood.
“We no longer have trees (near home). The few trees that are available are not supposed to be cut,” Korir said.
So the women rise at 4 am to walk hours to the Kipleleon hills, an area owned by herding communities that often face water shortages.
“We allow them to cut shrubs that can regenerate easily,” said Francis Koriata, one of the landowners there.
But the women make little money from the business — only enough for one meal a day and other basics like buying school uniforms for children.
After cutting the wood, they travel several kilometres looking for markets in hotels, restaurants, selling the wood for 100 Kenyan shillings ($1) per stack.
“We need food for our children,” said Joan Mainek, another woman in the business.
Korir said that before she began selling firewood five years ago, in times of drought, she used to work at a sorghum plantation near her home. She earned 250 shillings ($2.40) a day — not enough to support her family, she said.
She makes four times more money selling the firewood than she used to. But it’s risky because sometimes they encounter wild animals.
According to Paul Orengoh, a coordinator for water and ecosystems at the Kenya-based Research Triangle Institute, “We need to help women find alternatives sources (of income) to firewood, like planting fruits trees, while preserving the environment.”— Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wesley Langat
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