“I Know How to Handle My Husband”: Intra-Household Decision Making and Urban Food Production in Kenya

Abstract

This paper highlights the role of gender in decision making in urban gardening in Eldoret, a medium-sized Kenyan town. It is based on a household survey of 160 urban farming households in and follow-up in-depth interviews among 24 of the surveyed households. The results show that although men generally wielded greater decision-making power at the household level, women exploited their social spaces and gender roles to (re)negotiate significant roles in decision making in urban gardening. Nonetheless, there were notable gender differences in terms of the initial decision to farm, choice of crops to cultivate, and use of crop products and income. Urban gardening was mostly the initiative of women, who showed preference for and exercised greater control over subsistence crops, and dominated decisions related to the consumption use of crop products. In contrast, men’s role was more pronounced where gardening was income-oriented and economically more visible vis-à-vis other livelihood strategies, and in decisions related to sale of crop products.

Keywords: Gender, Urban Agriculture, Decision-making, Eldoret, Kenya