Poverty alleviation in rural Kenya: A case study on women enterprise fund in Kanduyi, Bungoma County

Abstract

Current poverty situation cutting across the world and more so sub-Saharan Africa calls for various poverty alleviation strategies as clearly evidenced by ever increasing absolute poverty needs to be evolved in order to actual tackle the problem. War in fighting poverty puts calls for an intensified commitment and concerted efforts involving all stakeholders to ensure appropriate strategies are developed to handle the issue. The general approach of declarations and conferences by world leaders and partners are not successful as they remain theoretical in that the present levels of poverty have not only remained rampant but also increased that’s why specific strategies have been introduced through various evolving funds like the CDF constituency development fund, UWEZO constituency uwezo fund, LATF local Authority transfer fund, YEDF youth enterprise development fund to examine and assess their performance in alleviating poverty in Kenya on various dimensions. This study therefore examines and assesses the significance of WEF in combating poverty among poor women in rural Kenya and also aims at examining the role or effect of WEF in poverty alleviation in rural Kenya. The study looks at what it entails, how it is being managed, and utilized, challenges in accessing the fund and way forward strategies that enhance usage of the fund. It is not known to what extend the fund is helping in poverty alleviation, this study is necessary to establish whether the Fund is achieving its objectives in reaching the targeted beneficiaries with the right kind of funding and support. As a case study design, both primary and secondary data was used. with the target population comprising of women, microfinance institutions, banks, women secretariat, government officials from social services ministry totaling to 250. A list of 500 women, women groups registered members who had accessed the fund was given by the ministry of Gender, Children & Social services. Kanduyi sub-county was purposively selected because the many number of people registered of the targeted population using stratified simple random technique was used to ensure representativeness of the sample, able to generate a sample size of 250 from 500.Instruments used of data collection were questionnaires, interviews schedules, FGDs and photography. Collected data was subjected to SPSS computer package to generate frequencies, tables, pie charts and analyzed using descriptive statistical analysis. From the finding of the research study apart from ascertaining the process involved in managing and utilization of the fund also recommendations established numerous ways in which the fund’s contribution to poverty alleviation can be enhanced and how several challenges of access and utilization can be overcome and it’s anticipated that recommendations made will help put in place effective strategies to facilitate actual contribution to women who are the most vulnerable.