Nareyio's Story

She was thirteen when she was told she was going for a visit. The visit did not end. It was a marriage arrangement.

Nareyio entered a polygamous household as the youngest wife among older women who already understood the structure she had just been placed into. She did not. There had been no preparation. No conversation about rights. No income of her own. No education that would allow her options.

She became a wife before she understood what adulthood meant. Children came in close succession. Pregnancy, recovery, pregnancy again. Within the household, conflicts were common. Favoritism shaped daily life. When tensions rose, she was often the one blamed.

She reports repeated physical assaults and long periods of neglect, especially during pregnancy and after childbirth.

There was also economic control. When she tried small-scale farming, the income did not remain in her hands. When she began selling potatoes, the earnings were taken. Saving became impossible. Independence remained out of reach.

Returning to her parental home was not a viable option. Community support was limited. So she endured. More than three decades passed this way.

Over time, through informal labor and disciplined saving in small amounts, she began rebuilding something. Not freedom yet, but capital.

Eventually she relocated to Narok town. There, she started selling Maasai beadwork and traditional fabrics. For the first time in adult life, she controlled her own income. She describes that period as the first time she experienced relative stability and peace.

Today her beadwork and textile business is operating. Some of her children have completed school. Younger children remain in school.

The years of abuse, however, did not disappear with relocation. Emotional trauma carried forward. Isolation leaves marks that income alone does not erase.

In 2026, Nareyio joined the Women’s Resilience Circle. Not because she had failed, but because rebuilding after decades of control requires more than determination.

Through the Circle, she is receiving trauma-informed counselling, Spiritual Discipleship, business strengthening guidance, and peer support through the end of this year.

Her priority now is steady growth. Enough stability that her remaining children can complete school without interruption and her business can sustain her long-term.