Women's stories: Mary from Kenya

In the first of her stories to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, Amy Merone talks to 22 year-old Mary Chege from Kenya about how gender issues affect her day-to-day life, and her future.

Mary Chege: ''Things are difficult here. I have to help mum and to care for the cows. But I wish to be a journalist one day.'' Mary's mum

Mary Chege celebrated her 22nd birthday last month by becoming a 'villager.' She's a clever young woman who dreams of becoming a journalist but, because of the cost of further education in her country and because she is a woman, she is forced to care for her family and their cattle.

Mary lives in Karuri; a town in the Central Highlands of Kenya. The youngest of four siblings her family are unable to afford to send her to college. Her elder brothers are doing well. John is the headmaster at the local primary school, and her two other brothers, David and Peter, are both teachers.

But things are different for Mary and her sister Loise. They live with their elderly mother working long hours sifting rice, digging crops and caring for the cattle. Until recently, Mary attended high school in the nearby town of Kiambu where she was doing well but, after finishing her finals, there wasn't enough money for her to go onto further education.

"I would like very much to be a journalist like you," she says, as we sit outside the dilapidated family home, sifting rice and preparing the staple dish of Kenyan cooking, ugali. "But you know, things are difficult here. I have to help mum and to care for the cows. But I wish to be a journalist one day."

Sadly, Mary's story is not unique in Kenya. Like her elder sister and the other women in her village, she is expected to look after the family and their needs. Two fifths of the population in Kenya are unemployed, with many more women out of work than men. Women, who generally have lower status than men, are culturally limited and education, if affordable, is generally favoured towards men in the household.

I ask her brother John about his hopes for Mary. "She will become a villager," he explains simply. "She will join mum to look after the cows for there is nothing else for her to do."

Since 2003, free primary education for children in Kenya has meant that one and a half million children have gone back into education. But for those wanting to progress into secondary education, they must pass the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education and, more importantly, be able to pay the fees. Presently 65 per cent of Kenyans survive on less than 80 shillings a day (roughly 60p), putting education low down on the list of priorities compared with needing to feed and clothe children.

Mary is bright and intelligent, but recognises the struggles that her family and the communities around her face. Since I was in Kenya last year, the country has experienced severe droughts, resulting in food shortages and starvation. More than four million Kenyans are currently in need of food and aid, pushing up the cost of basic services across the country. John says that the increases in costs are straining many of the country's people.

"Just this morning the government announced that the cost of electricity will go up because the dams from where power is generated have run dry. The cost of almost everything has risen, but everybody is doing what they can to cope with life."

Kenya, like many developing countries, is besieged by poverty and natural disasters hampering the development of its people. The current food shortages in many parts of the country means that, for Mary and thousands of other young people like her desperate to learn, their dreams of doing well and becoming successful seem all the more distant.