Inside Jacinta Kioko’s daily struggle to balance motherhood, farming and housework

By  Pius Maundu

Correspondent

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• From 5am to 10pm, Jacinta Kioko juggles childcare, farming and household chores, leaving herself barely 30 minutes to rest.
• Access to piped water has freed her family from spending three hours daily fetching water, thus giving her more time for productive activities.

In the sleepy Kivandini village of Machakos County, the morning sunshine finds Jacinta Kioko already cutting sweat. The mother of four wakes up at 5am to start her day. 

“My day starts and ends with preparing my daughter for school. The last born is in Grade 4. The morning starts with preparing her meal. Before escorting her to the main road, I get chickens from their coop and secure chicks so that they do not fall prey,” she tells the Nation.

After escorting her daughter to school, she embarks on preparing breakfast for her husband. This occurs simultaneously with sweeping a sprawling compound. By the time the sun rises, Jacinta is working on her sixth chore: preparing the farm ahead of the short rainy season. This entails producing charcoal, which is part of her preparation for the rainy days ahead. The other work is making firewood from what remained of her pigeon pea crop. 

Nothing announces the end of a task and the start of a new one. Oftentimes, she undertakes multiple tasks simultaneously. When she is working on the farm, for instance, Jacinta is often preparing lunch for the family. One of her most favourite daily chores is preparing a hot meal for her daughter who attends a nearby school. “My daughter likes her lunch hot,” she says. 

The Nation has established that Jacinta only rests for about 30 minutes. She rests while taking lunch and uses the 30-minute lunch break to respond to missed calls accumulated during the morning hours and to catch up with friends and relatives on the phone.

Immediately she is done with taking her meal, Jacinta embarks on a second round of chores, including cleaning utensils and washing clothes. In most cases, she spends at most one hour attending a merry-go-round meeting in the neighborhood. Besides boosting her financial freedom, she says the meetings help her unwind through catching up with friends and neighbours.

Jacinta is the last one in the family to retire to bed. Before that, she cooks and serves supper, tidies the kitchen, and spends at least an hour assisting her daughter with homework. She does not sleep until around 10pm. Her daily chores change slightly during the rainy season.

When she is not planting assorted seeds, she is accompanying her husband to their farm to weed and tend crops ahead of the harvest season. Although the 45-year-old has learned to play down the weight of her daily chores, arguing that a housewife should be a workhorse, she has singled out motherhood as a tough full-time job that requires commensurate remuneration.

“When my children were young, it was tough. At one point you are a nurse, a teacher, a playmate, and a disciplinarian. Although it is a full-time job, motherhood is fulfilling,” she says.

Jacinta’s hard work has not gone unnoticed. The husband acknowledges that it would be hard for him to manage the homestead without her. “Without her, I do not think I would own a chicken. She has a smooth way of ensuring everything falls into place,” Peter Kioko says.

Until recently, Jacinta’s list of daily chores included fetching water from a distant stream. But now the family has joined a small league of villagers who have access to piped water. “We used to spend at least three hours daily fetching water from a distant stream. We thank God the water woes are now a thing of the past. That time goes to other meaningful work,” she says.