"My family is entirely dependent on my husband, who works as a chef in Mombasa. Every two weeks, he sends me KES 1,000 to help with family needs like food. However, due to rising food prices, this amount rarely lasts a four-person household through the next two weeks. As a result, I am mostly prompted to obtain maize flour on credit from the store, promising to pay later after my spouse delivers cash. Besides food, the little he earns barely covers school fees for my two primary school children. In fact, when I received the transfer, they had missed a day of classes due to past-due fee balances. As a result, I utilized KES 500 to cut off the tuition debt so they could resume classes. I spent the remaining amount on food since my children had starved the whole day."

"Because I do not have a formal job, it was difficult for me to raise funds to buy food for my family at first.  I only do casual jobs, which have been scarce in Kenya over the last four months of intense campaigns. To make matters worse, despite the inability to find casual work, food prices have been high. This puts my family, among other low-income families, in a difficult situation. However, courtesy of the transfer, we have seen a significant improvement in our lives because obtaining food has become much easy."

"When I received my first transfer, I was overcome with delight. I am elderly and completely dependent on my sons' income from their jobs in Mombasa town. More harm than good has resulted from the village's drought, which has forced us to pay exorbitant prices for food at the store. I go to bed hungry when my sons fail to send me money. My health is getting worse, making it harder for me to find myself. I finished up all of the food stock in the house two days before getting my transfer. I felt weak and worn out from hunger. At last, just as I was about to give up, I got my transfer. At last, just as I was about to give up, I got my transfer. I'm thankful that I bought enough food in larger quantities to last me a week while I wait for my sons to bring me money."

"Since the beginning of the drought three years ago, life in the village has become intolerably difficult. Being a subsistence farmer, my dependence on the farm for both food and a living was great. I am compelled to pay very expensive prices in the stores since I cannot get food from the farm. For the past three years, I've been earning a living by doing hard labor tasks like selling charcoal and working on other people's farms. I occasionally struggle to find employment and turn to my children who are employed in Mombasa for assistance. I was overjoyed to receive my transfer because the night before, I had gone to bed famished and had no food. I used all of it to get food. I spent KES 600 on six packets of maize flour and 1 kg of sugar. I spent KES 400 on two hens in addition to food."

"I have saved the whole of the first transfer in my Mpesa account aiming at KES 10000 to be used later to boost my business. Restocking my kiosk has been a challenge because of the unstable prices of most of the commodities leading to a loss. We mostly rely on my spouse who is a herbalist, but he does not make enough money from it to take care of the four of us. Therefore, there are times we get foodstuffs from the kiosk. I am grateful for the support and hope for improved profits in the future."

"Providing for my family has been a challenge, especially since the onset of the rapid rise in the prices of most foodstuffs. I run a small kiosk in the village where I sell mostly foodstuffs but the profits have reduced of late. Five of my children who are in primary school had tuition arrears of KES 3000 which led them to be sent back home. They had stayed back at home for two days before I received the transfer. I, therefore, paid KES 1000 to reduce the balance, and I am glad the head teacher allowed them in school as I looked for more money to clear the balance. The remaining KES 2000 I used to boost my business and through that, the profits have improved."

"Living in extreme poverty makes life difficult for me. Unfortunately, I did not even have a bed sheet when I got my transfer. As a result, I spent KES 600 on a new pair of bed sheets. I was also struggling to buy food for the family due to the inflated food prices. The transfer was critical in assisting us in acquiring food worth KES 1200, resulting in food that lasted us seven days. Finally, I spent KES 1,200 on school fees for my four primary school-aged children. I am glad the transfer supplemented my earnings from the charcoal business."

"As the household’s breadwinner, my husband takes on casual tasks in household construction to earn a living.  However, this work is not easy to come by, and he ends up working only three days a week, making no more than KES 1,500. Given the rising commodity prices, this sum barely covers food for our six children for the entire week. In reality, they had gone to bed hungry two nights before the cash transfer since there was no money.  So, I used the full transfer amount to buy food to last a few days while my husband raised money for more."

"It was extremely difficult for me to support my family prior to receiving my transfer. My business was struggling because food prices had risen and I could not restock. As a result, I could only make a few sales per day, which was not only worrying but also deprived me of the ability to support my family. I felt a lot of relief because the transfer allowed me to buy food when I could not support my family. This is the most significant change in my life."

"We are six in our family, and we rely on my spouse who runs a small business. He has not been making enough profits from it of late due to the rapid rise in the prices of most commodities. In most cases, whenever he goes for restock he realizes the prices have doubled. This has led to the challenge of meeting our daily needs thus resulting in debts in school. At the time when I received the first transfer, our children owed the school arrears of KES 1000. I, therefore, paid KES 500 to reduce the balance and used the remaining KES 670 to purchase both corn flour and sugar for my family."