Meat cutting has always been seen as a man’s trade. But physical strength aside, how do women compare in this male-dominated industry in this region?
We follow the life of one woman who has fearlessly carved her own path in the world of butchery. Meet Roselida Akinyi Ouma, a trailblazing female butcher who has shattered stereotypes and redefined the boundaries of her craft.
Akinyi is a wife and a mother of four. She started her pork selling business in 2016 and, as of now, owns four pork butcheries: one at Tangakona, where she comes from; another at Nambale town and two at Mungatsi market.
She narrates how she became interested in the trade, specifically working with pork, what inspired her to pursue the trade as a career, and all the training she received. She traces her journey to her father-in-law, Gabriel Ouma, who owned a pork butchery.
‘Before I began this business we had no food in the house and at times I would send my children to their grandfather to ask for food,’ she says.
Life, she adds continued to treat them harshly until one day she came up with an idea of opening a pork butchery and told her husband about it.
She says the hubby was skeptical because of their living status then as they could barely feed because of lack of money, but she reassured him that she would save for the venture.
It was shortly after that she went to her father in law one Gabriel Ouma and asked him to train her on the trade.
Ouma agreed and gave her 5 kilograms of pork meat to sell. Selling she adds she did but suffered a loss of 30 shillings.
‘When he saw I could manage to sell the meat, he employed me and paid me Sh200 per day and after a month I had saved around Sh5000,’ she says, adding he sometimes gave her meat for cooking lunch and supper which enable to increase her savings.
Her husband, she says also contributed some money and after two months they opened a butchery around Nambale Boys High school. As a startup the father in law loaned her 10kg pork. During that time, the husband would run the butchery while she worked for her father in law.
However, she says luck was not on their side as the business began to crumble and soon they were forced to shut down their business. Akinyi says they did not lose hope and once again began making savings from their meagre earnings.
She says at first the new butchery at Nambale town did very well profit wise but after four to five months the sales and profits started dwindling. ‘We finally gave up and closed the business. The trade did not go as smoothly as we had planned,’ she recalls adding that she informed her father- in- law that they would be closing their butchery and would open another one at Tangakona.
At Tangakona she narrates she could not afford the rent and had to approach a friend, she only identifies as Freddie for a small loan that she used to pay the rent. ‘That same day I paid the rent and the next day I slaughtered a pig, sold all the meat by 2pm, brought another pig, slaughtered it and also sold out all the meat. From that day onwards my business started blooming,’ she says.
She later on went back to Nambale and opened another branch there. Afterwards she learnt from a friend that at Mungatsi 1kg of pork cost Sh400 as opposed to Tangakona, where they sold it at 360ksh. She saw this as an opportunity to open up another branch allured by the extra Sh40.
However, like any other business, Akinyi faces some challenges one of which is waking up at dawn to search for pigs to slaughter.
‘I am forced to look around the market place until I get someone who is willing to sell their pigs at good prices, this can be very time consuming,’ she says.
Another challenge is that at the slaughter house, she pays Sh100 to have the pigs slaughtered. ‘If I don’t get a man to slaughter the pig for me, I have to do it by myself,’ she says.
The other challenge is on the part of paying her eight employees including their transport expenses. ‘Dishonesty among some of my employees is another challenge,’ she says, adding that at times she runs into huge losses.
‘Despite these challenges, I am able to feed my family, pay bills and pay fees for my children,’ she says adding that when starting the business, they used to live in rental houses and their rent would be paid by their father in law but have since bought half an acre, built a house, another small house for her children, a kitchen, a latrine and also dug a well in her compound.
‘We also own several cows which provide us with milk,’ she reveals adding that they have also acquired another parcel of land for farming. Besides they own two motorcycles and engage in poultry farming which has helped the family get more income.
For women intending to venture into the trade of selling pork, her advice is this: ‘When going to the market to purchase the pig, they should have someone to negotiate the price for them because a lot of women are scammed when it comes to buying because the buyers assume the women don’t have knowledge of the trade. Without support then things would not work out so well.’
She also says that in order to succeed, one has to try and not let fear bring them down.
‘With proper training, anyone can succeed in the pork butchery business,’ she adds.
Through her expertise and commitment, Roselida has not only earned respect from her customers, but has also thrived in a traditionally male dominated profession.
Source: Kenya News Agency