Future of Work: In Images - Maurine

MEET MAURINE

Growth means many things to Kisumu-based agronomist Maurine. There’s skillfully nurturing the growth of her seedlings, and then there’s diligently growing her sales. Both are crucial.

Earlier in her career, Maurine had focused solely on grafting, weeding, pruning, and potting. Now, having built her own business and trained her colleague Millicent as a nursery assistant, she can focus on operations, inventory diversification and innovation, and providing personalised service to her clients.

“In Kenya, formal employment opportunities have worsened. If all else fails, my son Gift will be equipped for success in this field.”
Maurine

Despite the challenges posed by sourcing supplies from over 300km away and servicing clients across the region, Maurine remains determined to grow her business for better economic sustainability. She envisions passing down her skillset and business to her son, recognising the diminishing formal employment opportunities in Kenya. She aspires to establish more branches in the future and contribute to the economic empowerment of her larger family and community.

Maurine-1-scaled — Maurine Akeyo, an agronomist based in Kisumu attends to seedlings at her nursery with Millicent Achieng’.

Maurine-2-scaled — Maurine has trained Millicent Achieng’ as a nursery assistant to help with caring for seedlings, grafting, weeding, pruning, potting, inventory and sales

Maurine-3-scaled — Previous employees majored on supply of seedlings, but Maurine is glad having her own practice she can impact her Agronomy skills without limitations.

Maurine-4-scaled — Maurine grafts some seedlings by attaching scions to the root system of another plant to allow for hybrid trees with more desirable traits from two different plants.

Maurine-5-scaled — Maurine Akeyo, an agronomist visits her clients to check up the fruir tree seedlings as wellas advice on attending to them.

Maurine-6-scaled — Maurine Akeyo,engages her client, Professor Jacob Midiwo from neighbouring Siaya county on the progress of fruit trees planted a month earlier.

Maurine-7-scaled — “In Kenya, formal emloyment opporrtunities have worsened. If all else fails, my son Gift will be equipped for in this field”

Maurine-8-scaled — Maurine seeks to perfect her craft for economic sustainability so that she can transfer this skillset to her offspring, larger family and the community. She sees a future where she shall open more branches.

The importance of the informal economy in Kenya cannot be overstated; it accounts for 24% of Kenya’s GDP and also employs five times more workers than the formal economy.

TRANSFORM has been working to understand the current realities and future possibilities for the millions of entrepreneurial Kenyans who hustle to sustain livelihoods across the informal economy (read more about the context of the work here).

Brink, Procol Africa, Busara, Laterite, Ideas Unplugged, and TRANSFORM have collaborated throughout to deliver this work, alongside hundreds of ecosystem actors and informal economy entrepreneurs.

These blogs offer an insight into the lives of some informal workers we spoke to over the course of the project, told through images.