Prisca Nafula Mayende: A Rural Activist Transforming Women’s Lives in Bungoma County

Prisca hails from a small village called Naigai in Bungoma County, Western Kenya. The energetic mother of nine lives with her  husband and children on her 3.8 acre farm. Her husband works on another shamba (farm) owned by the family and Prisca manages the home shamba with the help of her children.

Prisca an active member of the community is chairperson of Naigai community water project, initiated in 2009. Seventeen households (4 men, 13 women) worked together to dig a borehole on Prisca’s farm and also started an early childhood education project.

Prisca is a true description of an environmental activists. For more than a decade, Prisca has been at the forefront of capacitating other farmers in her county. She is a dedicated leader of Viriso farmers Field school, which is a community based organization (CBO) consisting of 49 farmers groups bringing a total of 1520 farmers together.  As part of her daily routine which she loves, Prisca trains women groups, which make 75% of the CBO in practising farming that is in harmony with nature. She has been doing this long enough to earn the name Environmental Scientist by her peers.

Her passion for the environment has made her to be nominated to head the Kenya Agriculture Carbon project which functions under Viriso CBO. This project deals with carbon harnessing, conservation agriculture, water harvesting techniques, agroforestry, building terraces and planting fodder trees. 

Through Prisca’s training most of the women farmers in Bungoma county have adapted to agroforestry and sustainable agriculture and are able to feed their families and have surplus for sale. According to Prisca, sustainable farming is not only increasing yields on her shamba and that of her fellow farmers, but  also improves soil fertility and health using locally available resources.

Prisca’s Profile can be found here.