Toiling For Nil; Women in the Western Kenya Sugar Industry

Women provide the need for a major reassessment of the labour relations in the sugar industry which results in positive attempts to maximize on their labour in western Kenya. The sugar industry sought to encourage women particularly in Kakamega, Bungoma and Busia, in order to bolster sugarcane output in the area. With the onset of the private sugar companies in the area, exemplified by Butali, West Kenya and Busibwabo, sugarcane production had to continue to prosper instead of diminishing at the expense of the benefits to the labourers (the women). The Luhya women in the area bore the greatest responsibility of ensuring that sugarcane is not only produced to meet the needs of the “hungry” sugar companies, but equally the returns from sugarcane production was substantial. By 2004, increased women labour in the sugarcane industry of western Kenya had produced Luhya proto-capitalists (exclusively men), who had managed to accumulate the returns from sugarcane production at the expen