Poor families depend on picking roses

MOVING from bush to bush cutting flowers, sweating workers work inside the flower greenhouses.

For most Naivasha workers surviving on flower farm wages is their only income.

Without the industry, feeding, housing and clothing families would be near impossible.

Then again, many might never have travelled to the region if not for the lure of the booming trade.

The average wage for rose pickers is around 5,000 Kenyan shillings (€55) a month or just under €2 a day. This is double the minimum wage. A picker can work on two harvests a day, cutting enough flowers for 30 bunches.

Many are bussed in to work while larger farms have housing across the road from the greenhouses.

Thomas Gathogo, 45, is a store man for Nini farm. Since starting in 1997, he has witnessed remarkable changes.

The father of four recalls the farm beginning with three varieties of roses. It now grows over 20.

Thomas gets three times more than an average rose picker but still struggles with debts.

“I can’t say (the money) it’s bad and I can’t say it’s good. But we rely (on it). I use it to fix the house, feed the children and (pay) the school.”

Rose picker Mary Nyambura, 24, has worked on Nini for five years. She gets under €2 a day but it sustains her family. “I have one boy and a husband. I want to continue working because it helps me buy basic things like food for eating and clothing.”

Boosting wages is not an option though, said farm manager Ruth Vaughan.

“We’re on the breadline at the moment so we can’t afford to put our costs up. The only way to boost wages is to mechanise and reduce numbers, it means a lot of these people would loose their livelihoods.”