Name: Jane Njeri
Age: 37
Location: Pipeline IDP Camp, Nakuru
Does your spouse/partner live with you? No.
What is your primary job? Small scale business selling food and non-food items at the camp. I also brew chang’aa (an illicit brew) in the camp.
What is your monthly salary? 10,500 shillings ($122) 
from 7,500 shillings ($88)
What is your household’s total income - including your partner’s salary, and any additional same sources? I am the only one who earns the 10,500 shillings ($122).
How many people are living in your household - what is their relationship to you? Five people. My four children and I.
How many are dependent on you/your partner's income - what is their relationship to you? My four children and my mother who is aged. 
How much do you spend each month on food? About 6,500 shillings ($75.60) I also give 1,000 ($11.60) to my mother for her food and other expenses. 
from $5,000 shillings ($59)
What is your main staple - how much does it cost each month? Ugali (maize meal) and either vegetables or beans or a mixture of both (vegetables and beans) I usually mash the beans and add water to make a thick soup as stew. It costs about 3,300 shillings. from 2,700 shillings ($38)
How much do you spend on rent? Nothing; the camp is free (the government provides tents).
How much on transport? 400 shillings ($4.65). I travel to Nakuru Town on a weekly basis to pick up new stock for my mini kiosk. from 200 shillings ($2.40)
How much do you spend on educating your children each month? 1,700 shillings ($19.77)
After you have paid all your bills each month, how much is left? Most of the time I have an average of shillings 500 ($5.81) nothing
Have you or any member of the household been forced to skip meals or reduce portion sizes in the last three months? Yes. It is normal for us to have only two meals a day. Most of the time we forgo lunch. But I try my best to provide enough food for dinner.
Have you been forced to borrow money (or food) in the last three months to cover basic household needs? Yes, I borrowed from a friend of mine a 1kg tin of beans in January because business was low and I did not have food for my children.
“I am happy that there is peace in the country, but I am also disappointed that another election caught up with me in a camp,” said Njeri, a mother of four.
Njeri’s family was among the thousands displaced when violence erupted after the 2007 election. Her family was forced to flee the Nakuru area of Makongeni; Nakuru was one of the worst-affected areas.
At Pipeline IDP Camp, she runs a small vegetable kiosk and supplements her income by brewing ‘chang’aa’, an illicit brew. The kiosk and the brew bring in about 350 shillings (US$4) a day.
“I use my kiosk to advertise my chang’aa business. When customers come, I ask them whether they mind a drink at a reasonable price, most of them respond positively,” she said.
Njeri’s monthly income has risen from 7,500 shillings ($87) in December 2012, to 10,500 shillings ($122) now.
“I would be making an average of 300 shillings [$3.50] in profits, but about 100 shillings [$1.20] goes to bribing police officers and replacing broken glasses,” she said.
Njeri also pays 100 shillings ($1.20) per month for a toilet constructed for her in late 2012 by a well-wisher who read her story on IRIN.
“I have just completed repaying 800 shillings [$9.30] for a solar lamp that the same person brought for me at the camp.”
Njeri has also planted some maize and beans for subsistence on a piece of land near the IDP camp. “I hear the land is [set aside] for the construction of an airport. But will the rich keep their interest in landing and flying as I starve?” she asked.
Recently, a local politician offered to pay part of the school fees for her first-born daughter. “But I am yet to clear [the] 5,000 shillings [$58] I ought to have paid by now as fees for the first term.”
rk/aw/rz
*Exchange rate as of 26 June 2013 (86 Kenyan shillings to US$1)
< December 2012
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
