One Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) graduate from the University of Nairobi (UoN) is empowering women and youth through Kuroiler chicken rearing, a venture that has seen the smallholder farmers boost their incomes—earning up to Sh900 per mature Kuroiler bird in just four months, compared to Sh500 from traditional indigenous breeds—offering them a path to economic empowerment.

According to Dr. Teresia Wairimu Ng’ang’a, the Social Science PhD graduate, the famers have been keeping the pure indigenous chicken which confined them to subsistence life despite the potential of poultry in alienating rural population in Kenya from poverty and starvation.

“Before 2015, I worked with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) on a ‘being rich at old age with chicken’ project in the semi-arid eastern part of the country popularly known as Ukambani when I realised that chicken farming, which requires small space to practice, can be a key economic enabler for the women and youth in the rural and periurban settlements,” said Wairimu.

After the end of the initiative that majorly targeted women, the social scientist would embark on a research to find the best breed of chicken that would not only mature faster but also require lesser cost of production.

Around 2016 she travelled to Uganda for a week-long interaction with farmers and researchers to find out more about Kuroiler breed which around the time were being introduced into the Kenyan market from the neighbouring nation.

“After the end of the period, I bought some 1,000 Kuroiler chicks to bring back to the country of which 400 died but 600 which survived I multiplied,” she said.

“I realised these birds just feed on household waste, greens and few supplements and grow faster to attain market weight of 2.5kg in just four months and start laying eggs in five months. This encouraged me to import more and multiply to sell to local farmers who have increasingly embraced the breed,” Wairimu added.

Importing F1 commercial Kuroiler chicks from India

As demand for the bird surged in the country in 2019 just before Covid-19, farmers started receiving F2 Kuroiler chicks from Uganda which were of low quality. 

However, for Wairimu, an Indian firm which had the parent stock would reach out and after engagements, she started importing 3,000-5,000 F1 commercial Kuroiler day old chicks a week from the South Asian nation selling to local farmers at Ksh150 each.

This gave her the determination to develop and streamline the Kuroiler chicken value chain in collaboration with other stakeholders.

From a small piece of land at Kamura in Rongai about 30 km from Nairobi central business district, Wairimu has established a simple brooding space and where she runs Jolly Footprints Limited, a private agribusiness company she founded on February 5, 2015.

“Our vision is to transform rural livelihoods through agribusiness and a mission to uplift women and youth at the bottom of the pyramid further making a significant impact in advancing food security and economic empowerment in Kenya and across Africa,” she said.

In this, the company specializes in breeding and supplying certified F1 Commercial Kuroiler Chickens, known for their resilience, high yield, and ability to convert household waste into nutritious meat and eggs.

WYETU Model

In order to impact the community and create a structure indigenous poultry value chain in Kenya and beyond, Dr. Wairimu has since embarked on a project that is meant to empower the women and youth especially in the rural and periurban areas.

Dubbed Women and Youth Economic Transformation Units (WYETU) model, the social scientist through Jolly Footprints Limited has started transforming the informal indigenous poultry value chain into a sustainable, formalised and profitable agribusiness.

In this, the company adopts a data-driven approach, focusing on community-level impact by tracking changes in nutrition, education, and livelihoods while amplifying voices through participatory monitoring and evaluation to ensure meaningful transformation.

“Our smallest level of business is the mother units comprising of women in a particular area who come together to start poultry farming with as low as 50-100 day old chicks which we give them at a fee and assign a youth as their paraveterinary officer,” said Wairimu.

Some who opt to start individually can begin with 10 chicks but the idea is to have this level of farmers have first-hand experience in handling the birds then they might improve with time.

Out of these there have been reported success cases where others have graduated to a more economical level to start rearing up to 100-500 birds, the ideal number for business.

“I am happy that a good number of farmers have mastered the venture, understood the direction we need to go and the market is soon recognising the potential of indigenous chicken, which for long have been sold informally, in enhancing food security, and empowering women and youth—the backbone of Africa’s economy.” 

Reflecting back and seeing a number of projects and properties born out of her Kuroiler venture, Dr. Wairimu is confident that this will soon be the story of many indigenous poultry farmers.

The business of Kuroiler farming

Based on her many years of experience, Dr. Wairimu says that for Kuroiler farming business, a farmer needs at least 100 birds for a start because of the economy of scale and to realise some profit margin.

“Though it is good to begin from somewhere, I always recommend to first-time farmers getting into commercial farming to consider starting with 100-500 birds. With this, they are able to feed, vaccinate and provide the other necessities to the many birds using the same resources that would as well be required by the smaller number,” she said.

She explains that starting in the business doesn’t require much capital—around Ksh15,000 is enough to buy one-day-old chicks. With this investment, a farmer can begin as long as they have some space, whether it’s in the living room or a simple structure made from locally available materials within the compound.

However, in case a farmer feels the need of a structure or a poultry house, he or she should spend on 30 per cent of the seed capital on the structure while the rest should go into getting the chicks, vaccination and feed supplements.

“I normally advise first-time commercial Kuroiler farmers to avoid overspending on building a poultry house, only to struggle with stocking it and leaving it unoccupied for a long time. This can lead to losses, especially if the construction funds came from a loan.”

The agricultural sociologist suggests other simple methods for raising chickens for the market, such as using a charcoal jiko to provide warmth during cold periods and setting up a small vegetable garden to supply greens for feeding the birds. This approach makes the venture even more sustainable.

If done well, a rainbow rooster (jogoo) will hit market size in four months and can be sold at Ksh700-900 while the hen Ksh700 depending on the live weight which can at least be Ksh350 a kilo translating to a profit of not less than Ksh200 per bird.

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For the eggs, Wairimu says the market is as well not quiet structured but even at that a farmer can still sell a tray at Ksh600 or Ksh900 for fertilised ones and will still not miss at least Ksh200 profit to take home.

“Kuroiler eggs are very nutritious and sweet because of their natural diet composed of much greens and ones a farmer finds a market the possibilities of the consumers increasing and demanding for more is very certain,” she said.

For her, she sells 1-2 day old chicks at Ksh100-110, a week or two weeks old chicks at Ksh250, twice vaccinated three weeks old hicks at Ksh300 and live mature birds at Ksh450 per kilo and fertilised eggs at Ksh1,200 a tray.

All sales are made on order through the Jolly Footprints Limited Facebook page and a WhatsApp group with 244 members.

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