Household Livelihoods Survival Mechanisms and Women Enterprise Fund Up-take in Isiolo County, Kenya

Abstract

The general public and government social transformation agents alike assume that all Women have equal access to Development safety-net funds. Isiolo County, though a predominantly pastoralist region, has motivated women of all ages to take advantage of enterprise investment facilities to invest in small and medium business enterprises. The study sought to investigate whether women livelihoods survival mechanisms were improving as a result of women fund up-take in the area, against the popular notion that pastoral women, particularly those of Islamic religion, never engage on cash driven business ventures. It was anchored on Coleman’s Social Capital Theory and the Rational Choice Theory due to their emphasis on rational thinking in investment decision making. Fifty (50) women entrepreneurs were involved in the study, which adopted mixed research design. Stratified, Snowball and multistage sampling techniques were widely employed to select the nature of businesses and their locations, while purposive and simple random techniques were used to identify and select respondents for inclusion in the sample. Structured observation, interviewing, focus group discussions (FGDs) and Key Informants Interviews (KIIs) were used in data collection. Qualitative data were analyzed by generating essential key themes as they emerged from the verbal expressions, while qualitative data were analyzed by application of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Consistent sensitization, mentorship of young women and training are highly recommended.