All along, I have depended on farming and hoped to raise enough capital to enable me to venture into the retail business. I am a passionate electrician with a certificate in electronics. When I received the transfers, I had so many goals lined up that I could not spare a coin to start this business. I am glad that I accomplished the goals I had, and even though I have no clear source of the initial capital, I am hopeful that I will be able to build my savings from the small casual labor I have been doing to feed my family within the village. I have been getting offers to help connect electricity to the newly constructed houses in the village and the business premises in the nearby town. With all the hard work I am putting in every work, I am hopeful that I will finally open an electronic shop.

GiveDirectly's program changed a lot in our village, and we all appreciated it. The free cash transfer was the best idea that allowed us to choose how to spend it, unlike the material goods we had been getting from other organizations. The entire process was straightforward, and no one could raise any complaint since they fairly conducted it in every household and disbursed the same transfer amount.

Even though I am newly married and have no children yet, buying a daily liter of milk has been straining because we both don't have reliable sources of income. I am grateful that the second transfer solved this problem when I bought a lactating Friesian cow at KES 35000. Since then, we are enjoying a plentiful supply of milk, both for our household use and surplus for sale. I also bought a sack and a half of the dry maize grains used for foodstuff. Buying sifted flour from the shop has been so expensive that we had to buy maize in bulk, which would take us months before exhausting. I also bought some pieces of ceiling boards to complete the interior furnishing of my new house at KES 5000 and spent the remaining amount on buying other household consumables that were missing.

  I was attending my uncle’s funeral that day and it was in the evening as we were seeing off the guest who had come from a distance to attend the funeral. As I was up and down making sure our guests were in their comfort, I received a message which uplifted my spirit even thou it was quite a difficult time for the family. I was happy but waited for an entire week in order to spend the cash because it was a mourning season for the family.

Now that I have a stable home is a major difference in my day-to-day life. I was struggling with finances for building a new home. The project wanted a lump sum of the amount because building materials are expensive and few traders would lend out their goods on credit without a consistent income. The biggest difference is being able to achieve a spacious home that gives me room to host guests and also be able to start a family.

I am a peasant farmer who mainly depends on farm produce to earn a living. With, the unemployment and the climate changes that have affected the rains. I have been living hand to mouth with not much expected from the farm. I live in a small single-roomed mud house which is not stable and can crumble at any point of a heavy downpour. As soon as I received my cash transfer, I saw an opportunity to build a two-roomed house. I spent the entire amount of KES 55,000 to purchase all the items and materials required and paid the construction contractor for his labor. The house is complete, and I was so pleased to move in and leave my older house, which would not last this rainy season.