"When I was growing up, my father did not have the opportunity to take me to school due to the high school fees charged then. Looking at my home's financial status, I opted to look for any causal job. I was finally employed as a shamba boy. As well, I used to feed dairy cows of my beloved employer. This made me have the urge and ambition to own cows in the future. For a long time, since I started to raise my family, I have tried to find means and ways to buy at least a single cow but all has been in vain. This has been due to my inability to get a life-long sustainable job, considering that I am illiterate. So, receiving this money will mean to fulfill my dream of owning a herd of cows. I will buy 6 cows, at a cost of 15000 Kenya Shilling. Also, I'll be able to construct a byre for my cows to ensure their safety and healthy."

"To me, receiving this money means I will be able to establish a better incoming generating activity at home. I am planning to spend KES80000 to invest in farming. I wish to use KES45000 to put up a chicken poultry farming in my compound since with this I will be able to collect eggs that I will use for household consumption and sales for income. In addition, I will use KES35000 to buy a dairy cow to add to my herd. Having more cattle in my farm means more milk production thus a higher income. With this higher income from farming, I will be able to meet my household's daily needs and children's education. We receive low rainfall in our area hence getting clean water is sometimes a hard task here. When I receive my cash transfer, I will use KES18000 to buy a 2300 litre water tank thus I will be able to collect clean rainwater from my iron roof and this will ensure I have clean water for my domestic use at my doorstep. I wish to spend another KES12000 to buy furniture and other household basic needs."

"I want to start small business of chicken keeping especially egg laying chickens. This will help me get more income. To begin with i need to construct a small house for them . I need 150 dollars to make a good one. Then purchase 30 chickens costing 2.5 dollars each."

"I spent the money on two things, firstly I spent the money on buying bricks to improve my house then I bought 15 bags of maize with the other money"

"Receiving this money means a long-term investment project in my household. This is because I am planning to spend $600 of my transfer to buy 6 goats and 3 indigenous cows. Since I don't have a reliable source of income to depend on, this will help me in getting milk to sell and earn income. The remaining amount will help me to construct a decent house because the one I currently have is not spacious."

"The biggest hardship that I have ever faced in my life is financial instability. Currently, I do charcoal work and my husband is depending on casual jobs which are also not reliable. With the worries of being forced to leave where we currently live, I have been stressed a lot since we lack money to pay the balance that we owe our neighbor who sold land to us. I am now happy that, I will soon be able to own a land courtesy of GiveDirectly."

"Food security has continued to decline in this region. This has been informed by the under-utilization of land as a result of lack of resources for farming. I have a 3-acre piece of land where I cultivate maize in, but due to lack of ploughing machinery, I usually end up harvesting only 2.5 bags of maize, which is barely enough to take my family of 5 through the next harvesting season. I end up spending all my income from selling 3 liters of milk daily at $1.5 on buying food, while my spouse toils hard engaging in casual jobs to earn some income that would enable us to support our 3 children's education, hence no money is left for building up savings. This is the biggest hardship we face."

"The biggest hardship I have faced in my life is lack of money to meet my family's basic necessities of life such as proper healthcare, food among other needs. It all started when the retail shop business I own in the village started performing poorly. This has made gee my life miserable."

"The biggest hardship I have faced in my life is worries attributed by sleeping under an old house with a leaking roof. This has really endangered my family's life given that the house might collapse anytime."

"Financial constraints. I did not advance my studies after finishing class 8. Competing with those who got better studies mean that I have to work extra hard in order to be at par with them. This has been a challenge because of the little income that I earn from my small business"