Busia women defy cultural taboos to build homes and businesses

Risper Oketch looking at the house she built 20 years ago after defying cultural beliefs that prohibit women from constructing houses.[Benard Lusigi, Standard] When Ms. Risper Oketch, 60, decided to build her own two-bedroom mud house in Odiado village, Funyula Constituency, back in 1993, she knew she was crossing a dangerous cultural line. In her community, women were forbidden from building houses-a role strictly reserved for men. Any woman who dared defy the norm risked banishment or being branded a curse. But for Oketch, whose husband had gone blind that same year, fear of wild animals lurking around her dilapidated one-room hut outweighed fear of cultural punishment. "One morning, I woke up to find a leopard hiding in my house. By God's grace, it ran away, but that was the moment I decided I had to build a proper home for my family," she recalls. With her husband's blessing and 28 iron sheets donated through her local church, Oketch constructed the house with the help of her children and a few friends. But the price was steep-she was mocked, isolated, and rejected by in-laws and neighbors, who considered her an outcast. "For over 25 years, no relative from my husband's side has ever visited. They said I had cursed the family with poverty and bad luck," she says. Change through empowerment The turning point came in 2023 when Village Enterprise, in partnership with local leaders, launched empowerment and anti-harmful culture awareness programs in Busia. Oketch was selected to lead a group of four women and received a Sh28,500 grant to start a business. Together, they chose goat trading-an activity traditionally dominated by men. The venture was not easy. The women were once arrested after being accused of stealing goats, but with support from the area chief, they continued and have since expanded from three goats to 20, selling beyond Funyula. "Now the same people who mocked me respect what I do. I've even built two more houses and supported two of my children through university," Oketch says proudly. Women breaking taboos beyond homes A few kilometres away in Mulakha village, 40-year-old Lilian Awoko is thriving as a tree seedling entrepreneur-another role once forbidden for women. Lilian Awoko looking after her tree nursery in Funyula Constituency, Busia County. [Benard Lusigi, Standard] Her culture dictated that women who planted or sold trees would die. "When I started, people refused to buy my seedlings. They said they wouldn't grow because I was a woman," Awoko recalls. Through Village Enterprise, she received training and a Sh9,800 grant to expand her nursery. Today, she manages more than 20,000 seedlings and supplies to county and national governments under President William Ruto's ambitious 15 billion tree-planting program. "In a good day, I make Sh50,000 to Sh100,000," she says, adding that her once-skeptical husband is now her biggest supporter. Shifting mindsets According to Judith Otieno, a business mentor at Village Enterprise, the organisation has empowered more than 300 women in Busia with grants worth Sh15 million, thanks to support from the Swarovski Foundation. "With mentorship and funding, we're enabling women to break free from poverty and defy cultural barriers that once held them back," says Otieno. "Mindsets are changing, and women are now thriving in roles once considered taboo." For women like Oketch and Awoko, this shift is not just about survival but about rewriting the narrative of what women in Busia-and across rural Kenya-can do. "Women are the pillar of society," Oketch insists. "We should be allowed to use our potential without being tied down by outdated norms that don't add value to our lives."

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