From missing secondary school to running a multimillion-shilling manufacturing business

When Martha Wanjiku Kamundia failed to gain admission to secondary school in the 1980s, she felt as though her world had come to an end. However, today, Martha's multimillion-shilling detergent-making venture serves as a powerful testament to the transformative impact of a women's merry-go-round self-help group.

She was among the best performers in the Certificate of Primary Education examination at Lesho Pondo Primary School in Ndaragua, Nyandarua. She was admitted to three different schools but joined none. Born in 1968, after failing to join secondary school, she enrolled in a weaving class where she specialised in pullover weaving in Nyahururu town before getting married in 1986.

After marriage, she ventured into a general shop and then initiated a community welfare association: Ziwani Community Welfare Association. With time, she felt frustrated that most of the residents were uncooperative and decided to form a women-only self-help group. This group, Ziwani Unity Women Self-Help Group, has transformed her life and the lives of 11 other women in Ziwani village.

“Thirteen members formed the group, but two of them dropped out. Our main objective was to assist each other in times of need, and then we invested in table banking, contributing Sh20, which gradually increased to Sh200. Looking back today, I find it hard to believe the achievements each of us has realised. All our members are self-employed, either doing business or in agribusiness, including poultry farming,” Martha says.

Courtesy of the women's group, Martha is today running a multimillion-shilling detergent-making business after training by the Women Enterprise Fund, which she advanced through short courses at the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and Kenyatta University, among other educational institutions, where she also gained entrepreneurship skills.