'Beast of burden?' Diary of a Pokot woman

Esther Chepokorio milking her goats at Masol area, West Pokot county.[Irissheel Shanzu,Standard]

It’s 6am in Masol, West Pokot, and Selina Kipkirkir is already in her cowshed milking cows and goats.

This is a routine the mother of six follows every day before the livestock are released to the grazing fields. Selina, who was married at a young age, tells The Standard that her family made arrangements to have her married off like many girls in the Pokot community.

She is now a grandmother of 20 and for her, the Pokot culture has left many women overburdened with house chores and often forced to endure a hard marriage life.

“Many girls from remote parts of West Pokot are married off when they are 15 years old. This has left many without education or skills which they can rely on to fend for their families. They are only seen as productive when they have many children,” Selina explains.

She adds that when she wakes up in the morning, she patrols the homestead before preparing the children to head to the grazing fields.

While the children are away, Selina is holed up at home, where she will fetch water and also take the calves to the watering points.

“The water points are not near. One has to walk for hours to get water,” she adds.

When she comes back, she washes the gourds as she waits for her husband to be back for lunch. Milk and meat is served then she can get some time to relax afterwards.

At around 6pm, the cows start arriving and she prepares to milk them. After milking, she ensures all livestock are counted just in case some got lost.

She assembles all her children for dinner at around 7pm where they share their usual meal of milk and roasted or boiled meat.

Selina adds that in Pokot culture, it is the duty of the woman to ensure that her family is well taken care of.

“The man does not care how the woman will get food. In most cases, his duty is to marry many wives and give birth to many children,” she said.

In the gold pits of Chepkoghin, tens of women are searching for the precious commodity in a bid to support their families.

A woman at the gold mines.

It is an activity that is often reserved for men in other parts of the country, but here majority who dig the pits are women. Esther Chepukorio says for years she has had to work in the gold pits to fend for her eight children as her husband goes to herd livestock.

“I have been in this mine for the past 10 years just to feed my family. In the Pokot community it’s the duty of the women to take care of the children,” she adds.

Chepkorio, 45, is not alone; there are scores of women who have resorted to mining to take care of their families.

According to Pokot Council of Elders organising secretary Joseph Lopetakori, most of the men usually migrate with their livestock leaving their families behind.

He said this forces women to build their own houses because the men moved to another place in search of pasture for their animals.

“In Pokot culture, the woman does the milking. Illiteracy has also contributed to overburdening of the women in the community. Sometimes men disappear even for one year without coming back home and as a woman, she will still repair her house if it collapses,” Lopetakori said.

He noted that men value their animals and have to search for pasture, leaving their women on their own as they struggle to feed and care for the children.

“We are trying to change the narrative by telling our men to start sharing the responsibilities with their wives. Sometimes you meet the women in the gold pits, but they have their husbands who are herding their livestock,” said Lopetakori.

He said it reaches a point the woman has to go and look for her husband to come back home so they can make babies because it is her responsibility to look for him.

“As a man, I am the overall decision-maker. A woman has no right to sell one of my goats if I am not around, she has to ask for permission. She can meddle with her chicken, but not my livestock. Even if she has a financial constraint and I am far, she has to wait for me. Our life depends on livestock keeping, that’s where our life lies,” he said.

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