THE WOMEN'S SELF-HELP MOVEMENT IN KENYA: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE, 1940 – 80

In Kenya, there has been a rapid growth in the number of women groups which are involved in self-help activities of a welfare or economic nature. Although a number of authors have written about the larger question of 'Women' in relation to law, wage employment, and so on, nothing much has been written about the origins and growth of the Women's Self-Help Movement in the country. The few writings on the topic have also not been conducted within the framework of community development. In this paper, we show that the women's movement during the colonial period was characterized by intensive training efforts of women leaders and formation of women clubs which carried out homecrafts and home and community improvement activities. In the immediate post-independence period, owing mainly to lack of official support of the women clubs of the colonial period, traditionally-based groups dominated the movement and, among other things, led to politicization of the movement. The formation of the Women's Bureau and the introduction of monetary and material grants to the groups led to rapid growth of the movement during the late 1970s. Official support of the movement has, however, been inadequate.