Single Mother Faustina Khayati Making a Living Through Carpentry

‘Mama fundi’ or ‘engineer’ as the residents of Kawangware  in Niarobi popularly know her is Faustina khayati Muhenje is a carpenter. Her zeal and hard work wherever she is at her workshop and the sight of her final products of seats and beds that are displayed at Congo shopping center cannot go unnoticed by any passer by.

When I arrived to meet her at her home just next to where she displays her products she had left early in the morning to purchase the raw materials that she would be using for the following day when she opens her job early in the morning.

Her job begun in the late 90’s when she learned the skills from her husbands’ workers whom he left at his workshop wherever he went out to attend to other duties. “I begun gaining interest in this job because I felt sitting around idle and waiting for my husband to cater for us was just not good.” She begins.

At first as she says it was hard but because of passion she eventually learned how it is done. The job she says has come to be a blessing because she never knew that later in life she would be making a living from it and helping her take care of her four children.

The husband would later come to disappear after they had sired their four children leaving her all alone to cater for everything.  “Trouble started when my husband came to realize that I was learning carpentry from his workers in the workshop.” She says. He reduced the amount of money he used to leave in the house for food and other needs every morning whenever he left.

This forced her not only to get more serious in what she was learning but to also do marketing for the items they had made in a way she knew best in order to get clients. Her efforts bore fruits and money started flowing in and at this point she begun saving more to put food on the table when the husband who was now moving around with other women had refused to assist.

“Life continued that way until 2003 when he worsened and asked me to leave the city and go upcountry to stay with my in laws. Though I tried to resist, he pushed me until I left. “

Life in the village was even worse and at that time Ms Muhenje had 3 children which she still had to provide for by all means possible since the husband was not sending even a single coin and besides, the education of her 1st two children was greatly affected.

Ms Muhenje worked in people’s farms and at times together with her in laws leased farms to cultivate and plant maize and beans to survive on it after the produce was sold. The man only called whenever there was a harvest to find out how many bags they had harvested.

Two years later she came back to the city after she heard of the robbery that had been done twice in the workshop because of her husbands ignorance. “I came back to the city to try and revive my workshop which was now back to zero. This time leaving my two children at my parents’ home because I knew starting life at zero with them was going to be tough.”

Everything had come to a standstill and getting back on her feet wasn’t easy as she was in constant fighting with her husband who was really against her come back. ‘Mama fundi’ felt like she would dumb her children and leave for unknown destination but somehow as fate would have it she took heart to fight for her space as a woman.

Since she had tailoring skills that she had learned form her father back home she bought materials form the small savings she had after selling the farm produce form the village. “I thought it was wise for me to try and use what I had to see if it was going to work and bring income to enable me take care of my children’s needs to show my rebellious husband that I did not come back to the city to burden him like he thought.” She said.

Luckily for her the tailoring business was not bad at least from knitting children’s clothes and selling women’s petticoats she was able to save some money in order to revive the workshop that was now closed. After a while she took a loan from one of her chamas in order to add on what she had saved.

But by bad luck just after she thought she was back on her feet robbers visited her workshop and stole beds, seats and tables that were ready for sale. “This incident really discouraged me but whenever I looked at my children and believed that God had a reason for what happened I stood up and started my journey once more.” Says the 41-year-old mother.

Muhenje reported the incidences to the relevant authorities and to the chama that she had borrowed from who understood and gave her more time to recover their money. She was later assisted with another second chama that she was in which gave her a loan to start all over again and ever since she never looked back.

With all the ups and downs she was going through she was heavily pregnant with now her fourth born child when in 2006 just after she had given birth her husband vanished for good and has never shown up to date.

Since she was already used to being the sole provider to her children her husband’s disappearance came as a relief. “I was more stressed because of how her behaved towards me and my children and the kind of mistreatment he showed us while he was around but when he finally packed and left us for another wife, I felt it was a relief. Seeing him around yet he was not taking care of his family was painful.” She reveals.

Being the only woman around amongst men with workshops around her area, she admits that earlier it was such a major challenge because of competition and clients were hard to come by. At times it was even hard for clients to trust her credibility in her products because she is a woman as she admits after she took control of the workshop. Sometimes whenever she had a lot of work and sort the help of other carpenters she hired to assist, some of them did not believe that it was possible to work under a woman and they ended up stealing from her whenever clients came by in her absence.

She has however learned to live by it. With everything she has gone through to make it to this far she gives all glory to God for giving her a strong heart. ”I have moved so many steps ahead form where I begun from, today I have learned to fight for my space and my family. I have created good relationship with clients and even my competitors because we need each other. ” Says Ms Muhenje.

Her greatest principles she holds on to success everyday in her business is to be trustworthy whenever a client leaves an order for an item say a bed, seat, table or shoe rack she makes sure it is ready in time.

“I totally love what I am doing as it not only provides for my family but it has taken me to places. In my current women’s group ‘roots to fruits’ we attend workshops and trainings where we are able to get more skills and also share ideas on what we do n our different aspects of businesses.”

She adds that she makes good sells in Jan, Feb, Aug and Dec when most people are moving in the city to make a new living while others buy the items to take home to their families for the festive season.

The ‘roots to fruits’ self-help group assists them in getting small time jobs when the season is low and their businesses are low. The members are hired to wash vehicles as well as participate in training other groups. With this they are able to earn something small that can sustain them.

Article by Shillah Mwadosho.