It is imperative that the women of Kajiado County join cooperative societies to empower themselves financially and improve their living standards. Janet Sereu, the County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Gender, Cooperatives, Culture, Tourism, and Wildlife, emphasized the crucial role played by cooperative societies in economic growth. By pooling their resources together, members of these societies can achieve collective and individual development. Sereu stresses women’s need for a savings and investment culture to attain financial independence and urges them to join legally registered groups to avoid falling prey to fraudulent individuals.
Sereu highlights the numerous benefits of groups over individuals, such as more substantial bargaining power and easier access to funds that target women and youth from county and national governments. She also underlines the importance of connecting cooperative societies to international markets to give them vast markets for their products, such as beadwork.
To empower women, Sereu calls for innovative policies at the grassroots level to identify, establish, and secure accessible market stalls in trading centres and towns for women to make sales and close business deals. She acknowledges the vital role played by women in the socio-economic development of societies across Kenya, particularly in agriculture, small-scale industries, and other primary sectors in rural areas.
