NANDI, Kenya – The Nandi region is reviving the coffee industry with “Kahawa na Mama,” an ambitious grassroots initiative.
Y News has established that this ground-breaking program enables rural women to achieve financial independence through coffee farming.
The initiative has changed the lives of thousands of women throughout the county and is based on four main pillars: environmental sustainability, grassroots self-reliance, agricultural resurrection, and women’s economic empowerment.
According to Cynthia Muge, the Nandi Woman Representative, “the project was inspired by what I saw during my campaign tours—women working tirelessly on farms but excluded from the financial benefits of cash crops.”
By providing women with direct ownership of coffee trees, training opportunities, and other resources like links to marketplaces, the project is shifting the narrative.
Which Nandi sub-counties benefit from the initiative
Muge, the initiative’s leader, disclosed that during the project’s pilot year (2023–2024), 900 women who were arranged into 63 self-help groups received almost 150,000 certified Batian and Ruiru 11 coffee seedlings.
Following the start of the second phase, 500,000 more seedlings were given out, increasing the total to over 650,000 seedlings and about 4,000 female beneficiaries throughout the county.
The sub-counties that benefit from the program include Nandi Hills, Aldai, Mosop, Chesumei, Emgwen, and Tinderet. Nandi Hills has the largest number of participants, with over 1,000 women having received seedlings and training.
In addition to revitalising defunct coffee estates, the program provides women’s organisations like Mogobich Progressive and Kapng’etuny with stable incomes.
Kaptis women as well as women. For additional revenue, the Cheboite Women Empowerment Group in Aldai Sub-County intercrops coffee with avocado.
How Nandi women are rewriting the narrative
Y News understands that the initiative is now more than just a pilot; it is a movement that is producing tangible and financial results.
“The coffee is ours this time. In addition to planting coffee, women are also rewriting the power relations in the home, fostering independence, and bringing back a crop that was previously forgotten,” Sarah Jepkurui of the Tulwop Ngetuny Group in Chesumei said.
According to experts, a coffee block of one acre planted with 600 enhanced bushes can produce up to Sh 220,000 a year, which is over three times the amount of money made from maize growing on the same plot of land.
By encouraging coffee to be interplanted with bananas and shade trees, the program fosters agroforestry, which reduces soil erosion and increases sustainability.
The movement seeks to protect women’s rights to coffee by ratifying a charter requiring spouses to register coffee bushes jointly. In rural households, it encourages shared decision-making, a strategy that is receiving recognition for promoting gender equity.
Why Kenya is keen on boosting coffee farming
This new development comes when the ruling Kenya Kwanza administration already plans to boost coffee production in the country.
According to Wycliffe Opanya, Cabinet Secretary for Co-operatives and Micro and Small Enterprises, the amount would increase from 50,000 metric tonnes to 150,000 by the 2028–2029 fiscal year.
CS Oparanya urged farmers to prioritise farming and treat it like a business, pointing out that to reach the goal, the government will find locations that are suited for growing coffee and will entice more people to do so.
Additionally, he stated that the government will collaborate closely with the 33 county governments where coffee has a good crop, by President William Ruto’s order to meet the output goal.
How Kenyans can benefit from coffee farming
By the fiscal year 2028–2029, President Ruto ordered that coffee production rise from 50,000 metric tonnes to 150,000. This task is not simple. Speaking to coffee growers in Kikima town, Mbooni West, Oparanya stated:
“As Kenyan farmers, you must prioritise farming and treat it as a business that can improve your lives. As a government, we will determine the best places for coffee cultivation and enlist additional farmers to sow it. If we are to succeed, county governments must be included in our approach,” said CS Oparanya.
The CS voiced concerns about Makueni County’s low coffee output per bush during the conference, which was attended by hundreds of farmers from the Kilungu and Mbooni sub-counties.
Y News has learnt that the average amount of coffee produced in Makueni County is two kilograms per bush. I have an opportunity.
Regarding reforms, the Cabinet Secretary stated that the government will implement changes to governance to guarantee that farmers profit from their produce, as opposed to the current situation where they receive meagre wages.
He stated that to help farmers get the most out of their coffee crop, new elections would be held after the Co-operative Bill is approved by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
