Rael Katumbi
Rael Katumbi Muli from Kathiani Sub-County, Machakos County, is a farmer and runs a retail kiosk.
She started out as a farmer, planting dhania (coriander) and selling to her neighbours, setting off the itch to venture into business. Business Education was among her best subjects in school so it was not a big surprise when she gravitated towards entrepreneurship.
The mother of two has a physical disability.
“When I was 3 years old, I got an injection that led to paralysis on my leg,” she tells Safaricom Newsroom.
Rael is upbeat about her abilities.
“If I start seeing myself as a disabled person, it will kill my spirit and I won’t get anything done,” she says.
She continues: “I will not tolerate people looking down on me. If I can do business, then I’m just as okay as the next person. The good thing is, where I live people don’t take disability as a bad thing. I have many friends who are not disabled and I have plenty of repeat customers who love me.”
Through Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), a charity organisation that empowers communities by providing them with skills and opportunities to support themselves, Rael was equipped with entrepreneurial, soft and employability skills to enter the informal job market.
After the training, VSO bought her stock worth KES 18,000 to start her shop in 2018 and the rest, as they say, is history.
Like with every other business, challenges are inevitable. The biggest one to hit Rael’s business was the pandemic. Some of the restrictions that were put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus dealt a huge blow to her shop.
Restriction of movement between counties meant she couldn’t access more stock for her shop and the little that remained in Machakos became too expensive as the demand was high and the supplies were not coming in.
“The pandemic greatly disrupted my business because the cost of the supplies doubled, I couldn’t buy anything. And even getting them in the main market was a problem because of the lockdown, so my business shut down because I exhausted all my savings,” she says.
During turbulent times in her business, Rael relied on credit facilities such as Fuliza and M-Shwari to restock her shop. “Whenever I’m not sure if the money I have is enough to buy stock, I’m always confident because I know Fuliza will come through, or M-Shwari whenever there’s an emergency or I need cash urgently when my electricity tokens are used up, before I get money,” she said.
However, since May 2021, her shop has remained closed, but she is hopeful that things will get better and she will reopen her shop.
Rael is also a board member at Kathiani Girls High School, as well as her daughter’s school as a representative of PWDs.
Christine Syombua
Christine Syombua knits and sells school sweaters, scarves, leg warmers, gloves and other pieces of clothing from yarn . Christine has been running Tina Shalom Knitters in Kathiani Market, Machakos from 2012 from her wheelchair. She also does embroidery and makes liquid soap which she sells to her customers.
Previously employed in a knitting job, she was rendered jobless after her employer at the time left the country closing shop in the process.
Fortunately, she had received a knitting machine from the National Council of People With Disabilities (NCPWD) that helped her to get started.
“I wasn’t fortunate enough to go to school because of my disability; the bones in my legs were brittle and would break easily so I couldn’t go to any normal school and my family wasn’t financially able to take me to special schools. So, I was taken for a vocational course to learn how to make sweaters, which is now my business to date.,” she says.
At age 10, the mother of two says, she was diagnosed with polio.
The sole breadwinner says foryears, her business has sufficiently provided for her family, without having to depend on her parents for help.
Lack of working capital and the pandemic are major challenges.
But she found a silver lining through social media that she uses for marketing.
“I usually talk to my customers via WhatsApp, so I always need data bundles to connect to the Internet to advertise and communicate when they send the sizes of sweaters they want made. Customers also pay me via M-PESA if they can’t come to the shop,” says Christine.
Apart from payments, Christine also uses M-PESA services like Fuliza when she is low on funds either for work or personal reasons.
About 10 minutes from Tina Shalom Knitters, is another enterprising business woman, Christine Mathii. Christineis a deaf salon owner in Machakos and uses a hearing aid.
She started her salon business in Nairobi after undergoing a 6-month training in hair and beauty where she specialized in braiding.
But before she embarked on that career journey, Christine acquired skills on how to make sweaters at a vocational school for three years. Not satisfied with the knowledge she got, she went back to school from 1990 to 1994 where she continued studying tailoring and learnt how to make dresses.
The salon business took off well, but unfortunately in 2007, Christine along with her parents were displaced from their home and had to move to Machakos.
With the little she had; Christine began rebuilding her salon business in Machakos but it was slow to pick up. In the rush to leave Nairobi, she left a lot of her equipment which were essential in running the salon.
But she persevered and slowly customers began lining up at her salon. Today, she has two salons on Wote Road in Machakos and has hired one employee who offers nail polish services.
Most of her customers know that she is deaf so when they walk in, they usually ask for a book to write down their requests or send photos of braiding styles they want Christine to replicate.
But when communication gets difficult, her employee steps in to assist.
“Customers come and show me a photo of how they want their hair done, but sometimes we misunderstand each other, and that’s partly why I employed another person who can hear to be in the salon with me,” says Christine adding that her customers pay her through M-PESA which is easy and there is rarely any misunderstanding.
To keep up to date with the latest beauty trends, Christine depends on social media and Google.
“I use the Internet to search different designs for braids and nail polish. Also knitting as well. I use Safaricom data and I take advantage of the offers,” Christine says.
She also markets her products and services on social media.
She, however, does not solely rely on her salon business for her income. In the evenings, she teachers sign language at a nearby church.
