Muhuru Bay Statistics
-
Muhuru Bay is a highly isolated area
-
The population of Muhurua Bay is 30,000
-
Of the small population, 33% are HIV positive
-
Muhura Bay lacks high quality healthcare
-
HIV infection is a major barrier to girls accessing secondary education
-
-
50% of girls who pursue education are forced to engage in high-risk HIV activities in exchange for money to fund school supplies and basic necessities
-
57% of girls are married before the age of 18
-
20% of girls become mothers before the age of 18
-
-
Prior to WISER Girls, only 9% of girls completeted their education
Why Muhuru Bay?
The multitude of challenges present in Muhuru Bay presented the WISER founders with an opportunity to address the educational, health, and poverty crisis of the community through increasing rates of girls education. The founders used existing research that has shown that the more education women have, the lower the rates of child marriage, teenage pregnancy, the lower the rates of contraction of sexually transmitted infections, and the lower the rates of poverty.
​
The founders adopted a Women in Development (WID)/Smart Economics approach to tackle such issues. They determined that by educating women, other development related issues will also be solved through the labor and efforts of women.
Muhuru Bay
The Effects of Colonialism, Neoliberalism, and Globalization
Colonialism
Once the British colonized Kenya in 1895, Kenyan educational institutions were restructured in adherence to British standards of education. Education became completely under the control of European missionaries. Missionaries used education as a vessel to evangelize Kenyans and instill a western way of life into the nation. Schools heavily prioritized boys education by instructing them on secular subject areas in addition to religious studies while girls were primarily taught domestic skills and religious studies. This left a lasting impact on education in Kenya, creating further systemic and cultural barriers for girls to access high quality education, especially in rural communities such as Muhuru Bay. ​
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britian (Government Art Collection, 2025).
Neoliberalism
As with many developing nations, Kenya made significant efforts to embrace neoliberal policies in the 1970s. Neoliberal policies included the privatization of institutions, deregulation, free trade, open markers, and a reduction of government power. This effected the education sector by leading to increased privatization, increasing costs and barriers of entry for low-income families. Additionally, the increased demand for production led to the further exploitation of labor, creating a demand for child labor which disproportionately affected low-income girls who were forced to forego education in order to work and earn an income for their families to survive. Despite efforts from the Kenyan government to make primary school free for all children, secondary school remained inaccessible to the most vulnerable communities, such as Muhuru Bay.
Globalization
A cost-sharing policy enacted in the 1980s shifted the cost of education from the government to families (Wangari et al., 2000). Primary school remained free, however, this policy change made secondary school further inaccessible. Many families could not send all of their children to school due to financial constraints which resulted in some families investing in their sons secondary education and not in their daughters education. This is a result of cultural expectations that portray sons as long-term investments for the financial well-being of the family while girls are expected to be confined to domestic labor and eventually support the well-being of their husbands family.
Cartoon depicting income inequality, which was exacerbated by aspects of neoliberal economic policy (Ll_Sevenpillers, 2015).
Map depicting the movement of globalization in Africa (Globalization as We Know It Has Failed. Africa Has an Alternative, 2024).