Hard life of Vihiga widows who earn living from crushing stones

In the remote Gimwenge village in Vihiga County, over 30 women sit on a heap of gravel, each one of them wielding a heavy hammer.

They are widows who ventured into crushing stones to earn a living, after losing their husbands who were the sole breadwinners.

As each stone crushes under the weight of the hammer, these widows hope that their children’s dream of getting a good life will not be shattered.

Whatever savings they make from crushing stones goes into paying school fees for their children and fending for their families.

The ‘Widows of Gimwenge’ as they are popularly known in the village have been crushing stones for at least 25 years.

Miriam Yaya, 62, is one of the widows and she has been toiling in the rocky area for over 15 years.

“Poverty pushed me into crushing stones in order to buy food and provide other basic needs for my children,” says Yaya.

Her rough palms and visible scars on her arms tell a story of a woman struggling to raise a family.   

Yaya’s son died about ten years ago, leaving five children in her care.

The faint-hearted would not stand the painstaking process of breaking and stacking stones.

We find Yaya taking a nap under a tree perhaps waiting for the sun to go down before she resumes her duties.

She is awakened by her friends who look somehow younger, the widows in the group are aged between 30 and 65. The women hit the rocks hard, crushing them into smaller particles which they sell in form of ballast. 

Yaya said they used to sell one tonne of the ballast at Sh1,200 “until brokers emerged and now they pay us Sh700 per tonne.”

“It’s only through stone crushing that I can educate my grandchildren who are orphans. Proceeds from the gravel help me buy food and clothes for them,” said Yaya.

Lois Jepkoech is busy crushing stones as sweat drips down her brows at her farm.

Her late husband left her with half an acre of land, but the parcel is rocky and cannot support farming.

Jepkoech said she could not afford to employ young men to crush the rocks for her like other families in the neighbourhood do.

“I value education. Although I did not achieve much in school, I want the best for my children and will do whatever I can to see them through school so that they will become responsible adults in future,” says Jepkoech.

There’s demand for gravel in surrounding towns of Majengo and Mbale and this appears to excite the widows. Their biggest regret though are the poor prices they are offered.

It takes them at least four days to one week to crush one tonne of gravel, but the meagre earnings appear to mock their efforts.

“Our biggest problem is getting value for our products,” said Josephine Makuru, the widows group leader.

She laments that middlemen have been exploiting the widows.

Sometimes, the widows sell the gravel in small quantities. A wheelbarrow of gravel goes for between Sh60 and Sh100, according to Makuru.

They are paid Sh3,000 for a lorry-load of gravel. The proceeds are divided between the women and the middlemen who link them to the buyers.

Makuru said the County Government of Vihiga should provide a ready market for their gravel to cushion them from exploitation.

They believe, a multi-million-shilling granite factory to be set up in the county will offer them job opportunities.

Governor Wilbur Ottichilo’s administration has acquired a 10 acres at Buyangu in Luanda Sub county where the plant will be established.