Women’s Indigenous Brewing Enterprise in Nairobi City: Production and Consumption Dynamics in an Urban Space, 1890–2010
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Date
2025-11
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Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study examines women’s participation in the brewing enterprise from 1890 to
2010, situating it within the urban context of Nairobi. Its specific objectives were:
to evaluate how socio-cultural norms shaped the brewing and consumption of
alcoholic beverages among precolonial Kenyan societies; to assess how indigenous
brewing transitioned from rural to urban contexts and became commodified in
Nairobi between 1900 and 1928; to analyze the factors that enabled African women
brewers in Nairobi to sustain and adapt their brewing enterprises amid intensified
colonial repression between 1929 and 1963; and to explore how local and global
political-economic dynamics influenced the transformation and resilience of
women’s brewing in Nairobi from 1964 to 2010. The study investigates the
gendered socio-economic factors that underpinned the emergence of women’s
brewing enterprise in Nairobi and examines how women brewers exercised agency
within the constraints of the city’s shifting political economies. An integrated
theoretical framework drawing on the articulation of modes of production and the
concept of women’s agency was employed. Methodologically, the study adopted a
historical research design grounded in qualitative analysis. Data was obtained from
primary and secondary sources and verified for authenticity, consistency, and
reliability. It was then presented thematically and chronologically in line with the
research objectives. Findings reveal that both colonial and post-independence
policies criminalized and stigmatized indigenous brewing, but women transformed
it into a vital livelihood strategy, generating income amid persistent structural
constraints. Women brewers thus emerged not as passive participants but as active
agents who negotiated repression, commodification, and urban transformation to
assert autonomy and sustain livelihoods, which significantly shaped Nairobi’s social
and economic landscape. The study recommends further research on the intersection
of men’s and women’s roles in brewing, on women’s strategies for reinvesting
income within the indigenous alcohol economy, and on the evolving linkages
between small-scale and industrial beer production. Comparative studies between
Nairobi and other African cities could also illuminate broader regional dynamics in
women’s brewing practices and how these relate to wider urban informal
economies. Such inquiries would also help preserve and valorize women’s brewing
knowledge as a crucial resource for reclaiming cultural dignity and advancing the
broader project of economic and intellectual decolonization. This study contributes
both to scholarship and practice by advancing the historiography of gender and
urban Africa and informing contemporary policy debates on alcohol regulation,
informal enterprise, and women’s entrepreneurship in African citie
Description
A Thesis Submitted To the School of Law, Arts, and Social Sciences in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy
(History) of Kenyatta University. November, 2025
supervisors
Pius Kakai
Felistus Kinyanjui