Magdaline Wambui Mitugo comes from a past full of emptiness and dependency. Now the chair-lady of a vibrant one hundred-member Kamburu Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) Women Group, she talks of their long journey from isolation and insignificance to a present now full of hope and prosperity. “If there is one thing we can be thankful of ICE for, it is because they salvaged our families and households.” The family unit was dying in Kamburu, threatened by ancient cultures that dictated what chores ‘belonged’ to the menfolk and those that were the preserve of the women. “We managed household affairs in total isolation. Our husbands never knew what we were doing neither did we know what they were up to – we were like perfect strangers living under the same roof,” explains Magdalene. This affected cohesion in the family and created a rift that impacted on any meaningful development that could take place in Kamburu. When ICE visited Kamburu, this aspect was glaringly obvious. “We realised before anything else could happen here, we had to mend the prevailing situation”, explains Martin, Programme Manager at ICE. But changing a people’s culture handed down from one generation to another over a long period of time was not going to be that easy as Martin explains, ” We had to identify an entry point that the community would warm up to and use this to get them to gradually realise the value of a man and woman working together in the family unit.” “We were introduced to the concept of kitchen gardens which suddenly removed us from the dependency syndrome we suffered for long”, explains Magdalene. For the women of Kamburu, the kitchen gardens freed them from a legacy of dependence on their husbands for daily subsistence as Magdalene explains. “With my kitchen garden, I no longer bothered my husband with money to buy food for that day – I could just get it from my garden. The gardens also set the pace for a new culture of healthy eating. “Since we mainly grow indigenous foods in our gardens, we have gradually stopped relying on bread for breakfast and instead prefer the richly nutritious sweet potatoes, arrow roots and the likes”. Soon the men of Kambura were more frequent in the ‘boma’ than before! “When you don’t pester your husband with small things like money for food, you give him breathing space and a piece of mind. He looks forward to coming home every day and you are always guaranteed of an audience with him,” explains Magdalene with a broad smile settling across her face. This new ‘breathing space’ provided a window of opportunity for couples to discuss other things like joint ownership of wealth and assets in the family and development finally came home to roost at Kamburu.

Rosemary Muthoni Kago is a living testimony that nature has solutions to the problems that befall its inhabitants. When Rosemary was diagnosed with diabetes a few years ago, life for her seemed doomed. “I was told I had to eat a lot of foods with natural sugar to boost my sugar levels”, Rosemary says. For Patrick Kago, her husband of 45 years, the disease had dealt a cruel blow to his beloved. Rosemary used to trek nearly 20 Km to the market to buy these foods because she knew it meant life or death. “I never for once imagined that I could grow these very food stuffs in my backyard!” When the Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) paid the residents of Kamburu, in Central Kenya, a visit back in 2006, the Kagos never anticipated that the new knowledge on indigenous food crops ICE would introduce here could reduce the toil and agony of a fatigued diabetic lady. “We were taught how to plant sweet potatoes and yams and so many other traditional foods and the amazing part was that we never needed to spray them with pesticides nor apply fertilisers!” Not only did Rosemary save immensely on cost, now she had the very item that sustained her health just next to her house. With a regular supply of sweet potatoes and other indigenous food crops, Rosemary was not only improving her nutritional status and that of her family, she also now had an additional source of income in her backyard – not 20 kilometres away! “I now sell codgets, cabbages and Amaranth leaves to my neighbours and traders who come all the way from Githunguri (about 5 Km from where the Kagos live) to buy from my farm. My prices are higher than others but that does not deter the buyers because they know my produce is organically farmed.” She adds, “Most people nowadays prefer organically farmed produce because they are more conscious about their health.\” Rosemary and Patrick have been doing so well with their newly found enterprise that they have dedicated half of their 10 acre farm to indigenous food crops. “A few years ago, we did not have a single traditional food crop in this compound, now imagine today half of our land is full of them and we have no regrets,” Mr Kago says.