On 21 November 2018, Rebecca Asiye was making a living at a quarry site near River Kathita, about half a kilometre from Embu Level Five Hospital, where she broke stones into kokoto and building bricks to support her family.
Asiye said she began the work seven years earlier after doing casual jobs in factories in Nairobi and on construction sites. She started with stone hammers bought for Sh300 and built a small operation around the neighbourhood quarry.
Although quarrying is often treated as men’s work, she said she had managed to make it profitable. She employed two or three men each day to help her, and together they produced about 40 wheelbarrows of ballast. On her own, she said, she could produce 10 wheelbarrows a day, with a tonne of ballast selling at Sh1,000.
The income, she said, covered rent, household needs and school fees for her three children. Her eldest child was preparing to enrol for a diploma in Information Communication Technology.
Asiye also described the social pressure that came with the job. Men mocked her for working behind a large rock, she said, while her children were taunted at school because their mother did work considered lowly by some. She said she told them to accept the situation because she could not steal to provide for them.
She said the Ministry of Mining had taken notice of her work and was helping her secure licences for artisanal mining and environmental mining. That process, she said, would allow her to qualify for a Women Fund loan.
With the loan, Asiye said she planned to buy a stone-cracking machine, increase daily output and lease rocky land to expand production. She said she sometimes received orders for 20 or 30 tonnes, but could not meet them because her current capacity was too small.
The ministry also promised to help her obtain protective gear, including goggles, an apron, gloves and footwear.
