Kager, Kenya

Kager is a rural village in the Homa Bay District, Nyanza Province in western Kenya. The village of Kager faces the similar challenges that tens of thousands of other rural village in Africa confront each and every day: food scarcity, poor access to safe drinking water, high prevalence of disease (malaria, HIV/AIDS) and lack of jobs.

The major challenge of Kager village is the level of poverty, which leaves most villagers struggling to bring food on the table, bring up families and take children to school. Farmers lack farm training and have no access to working capital to boost their production. Kager villagers are subsistent farmers with large gardens (less than 1 acre) of maize / corn and other vegetables with no equipment, no fertilizers and no irrigation. Farm yields are typically less than 20% of their full potential and seasonal famines are not uncommon due to drought, pests and lack of food storage.

Women play a vital role in the community as they fill many roles: homemakers, farmers and entrepreneurs. Large amounts of their day are spent in the time intensive tasks of gathering firewood, carrying water and cooking meals. They also spend their day working in the fields and tending the family’s livestock. A small proportion of women generate meager incomes through selling of crops, sewing and making charcoal.

The village is challenged with poor roads, no electricity and lack of essential services. The major mode of transportation is bicycles. Motorcycles are used on a limited basis, but due to poor roads, maintenance is difficult and they do not last.  A lot of people struggle to take their little produce to the market, bring in building materials and have access to general transportation services.

The Kager village people are native dwellers who own land and are largely related to each other.  The majority of the people are Christians belonging to different Church affiliations that cohabit peacefully among each other. Villagers mainly depend on farming for their daily living. There are a few people employed as teachers, and some self-employed people working as masons, carpenters and blacksmiths.

To see Kager on Google Earth / Wikimapia, click here.