The Socioeconomic Impact of the African Market Women Trade in Rural Kenya

Abstract

This study examines the socioeconomic contributions of Kenya's rural market women traders to national development and livelihood, in the context of the role of women in global society. In Kenya, multifaceted female roles often overlap -but they always constitute indispensable services in the sustenance of life among both urban dwellers and peasants in the countryside. active economic participation of rural market women traders has been an integral part of Kenyan socioeconomic life and development over the past 40 years, largely undocumented in research literature. During this time, population has increased fivefoldfrom 4.3 million in 1947 to an estimated 20 million in 1988 (Kenya, 1970, 1981; United Kingdom, 1946, 1949). Agricultural food production has failed to keep pace with the dramatic growth of population, which averages 2.7% per year for Africa (Ayari, 1983) and close to 4% for Kenya the highest growth rate in the world (Kenya, 1981). Between 1970 and 1980, the decrease in traditional agricultural self-sufficiency rapidly accelerated. The decline in per capita food production had reached 15% per year by 1980. Africa's deteriorating food situation threatens the very survival of African nations, because agriculture provides the livelihood of most of the people in Africa. food crisis in Africa is the world's greatest economic