Grassroots Economics - Two Years After the WFP Pilot in Kitui

Two Years After the WFP Pilot in Kitui

Tags: WFP, Kamba, Kitui, Food Security, Thome

The Resilience of Mwethia

In September 2024, the Grassroots Economics (GrE) team embarked on a journey back to Kitui to reconnect with the communities involved in the 2021-2022 pilot program with the World Food Programme (WFP). The project was a study which focused on Community Inclusion Currencies (CICs) and Syntropic Agroforestry (SAF), was initially designed as a six-month partnership, later extended to ten months. Now, two years after the pilot, it was time to see how the community groups were faring.

A Thriving Community Model

The gathering, hosted by Baraka group members at the homestead of Eliza Kavutha in Kasunguni sublocation, Zombe ward, was more than just a review of progress—it was a celebration of community strength and resilience. The Thome, a traditional council meeting among the Kamba people, provided a perfect platform for this. In attendance were representatives from all 14 groups across Kitui county, local leadership, chiefs and county government officials, and GrE’s team, including Antony Ngoka, Will and Nia Ruddick.

The day began with an activity central to their ecosystem restoration efforts: digging a 20-meter traditional Hügelkultur style trench filled with buried rotting wood, for water catchment. This simple, yet profound, act of mutual service, or mwethia (the Kamba version of the coastal Mweria), exemplified the strength of community labor and shared goals that the original pilot hoped to cultivate. Under the guidance of Aude Peronne, an ecosystem restoration and stewardship specialist, the group exchanged not only physical labor but valuable knowledge on soil and water conservation.

Building Strong Foundations for the Future

During the afternoon session, participants shared their experiences, successes, and challenges. Baraka, one of the most active groups, attributed their success to a strong internal constitution that included fines for late meetings and missed appointments, ensuring accountability among members. The group emphasized how their weekly mwethia gatherings helped them achieve significant milestones—from providing each member with a chicken to starting a brick-making initiative aimed at providing each family with goats.

The group's Mwethia as well as local market transactions, are visible on the Sarafu.Network, reflect a vibrant community economy where mutual support and resource coordination flourish. This network, made possible through the Commitment Pooling Protocol pioneered by Grassroots Economics, allows communities like Baraka to formalize their commitments through Community Asset Vouchers (CAVs) and connect them among each other across the county. These vouchers serve not only as a medium of exchange but as a testament to the power of collective commitments, a modern evolution of the age-old traditions like Mwethia.

Since starting this pilot with WFP using the Celo Blockchain we've seen:

485 pool swaps (cross exchange between vouchers)
2872 active user accounts.
74 pool deposits (Seeding commitment pools)
144,558 voucher transfers (User to user exchanges)
278 mints (These are for creating vouchers)
5,138 Celo faucet gives (Enabeling anyone to use Celo with no charges via USSD/SMS)

The Mwethia Tradition: A Pillar of Sustainability

At the heart of this resilience is Mwethia, a traditional labor-sharing practice that continues to provide a strong foundation for these groups. Mwethia is not just about labor; it is about commitment, trust, and the pooling of resources for the betterment of the community. This tradition, combined with the innovative use of digital currencies and vouchers, enables these communities to manage their resources more effectively and sustainably.

The strength of these groups lies in their ability to blend tradition with innovation. While modern tools like Sarafu and CAVs enable greater efficiency and broader reach, it is the ancient practice of Mwethia that continues to unite these communities and drive their success. As the Baraka group looks to expand into goat stewardship, they embody the vision of community-driven growth that the WFP pilot initiatives hoped to inspire.

Note that the norm in many humanitarian projects is that they stop completely after the intervention. We found something different. By focusing on traditional mutual service and rotating labor organizations locally called Mwethia - we found that the communities only needed support in restarting these ancient practices.This program was originally a study with control groups where there was no intervention, now all these group are following the example of the treatment groups.

What’s Next?

Two years after the pilot, the Kitui groups are thriving and growing. The bonds they have forged through Mwethia are strong, and their future plans—expanding agroforestry, increasing livestock, and enhancing community savings—speak to the sustainability of the model. These communities have demonstrated that when resource coordination is rooted in both tradition, digital accountability and interoperability between groups, it can lead to long-term, self-sustaining growth.

For Grassroots Economics, this visit reaffirmed the power of commitment pooling and the importance of supporting communities as they take ownership of their future. The journey from pilot to long term community practice is not without its challenges, but the resilience of the Kitui groups provides a clear answer to the question of what happens after seeding such pilots: growth, sustainability, and collective well-being.

Check out the progess so far on each group in Kitui below:

Group Name	Voucher Symbol	Progress on Vision
Great vision	GRTV	Environment restoration by planting trees seedling some given to members and some sold to other people. The group has been setting tree nurseries where they sell ad also plant in tyheir farms. The group has also helped with Land clearing, planting and also harvesting
Mwakasi	MWAKA	A community with food security through Syntropic farming and livestock keeping by DEC 2024. The chama has been doing mwethyas on a weekly basis for the first cycle where there have been helping with farm work and digging teracces
Kyeni	KYN	A community with food security through Syntropic farming and livestock keeping by DEC 2024Members have been able to buy 2 goats for 6 members so far and they are also doing Mwethyas in their farms
Makuka	MAKUKA	Makuka group's ambitious goal to boost agricultural production through terraces, agroforestry, and water catchment by December 2025.The group has seen more than 40 terraces on members' farms and two significant water catchment facilities.
Moseyo	MOSEYO	Moseyo group is on a mission to achieve syntropic farming for food security by December 2023.The group determination is evident in their meticulous land selection, fencing, terracing, and preparation for planting.they are awaiting the elnino rains to start.
Wendo wa makayaa	MBUNI	The group's vision is to have a community with enough food by practicing syntropic agroforestry by December 2025.We have seen them already establish a community farm where they produce and work on a weekly basis. They have also established more than 50 terraces for their members and are working towards recruiting more group members to share in their success.
Bondeni	BONDE	To improve the economic capacity of the community through goat keeping by ensuring every member is keeping five goats in their homesteads by the August, 2024.The groups has saved KSH 50,000 but since the price for goat purchase has gone up, they are waiting for a better season to purchase. They have already bought 2 goats
Baraka	BARAKA	Improve food security by rearing 22 chickens, vegetable farming on one acre of land by March 2024They have bough 22 chickens and have prepared the one acre of land planted vegetables and are already harvesting
Umiisyo	UMISYO	To improve their economy through rearing of 50 goats by December 2023.The group members stopped meeting 5 months ago. They have internal group wrangles therefore there has been no progress on the vision.
Kithito	KITHIO	Promote food security through farming,empower the group through sustainable growth via buying a public address system for the purpose of renting, production and sale of construction bricks as income generating activities.The group has so far acquired 2 manual brick making machines and have already kickstarted brick selling business. They have made 3500 bricks so far and are looking forward to dry them and sell. The have a ready market. Every week they make 250-300 bricks For the PA system they usually contribute 20ksh during every meeting till August next year They are still working on their farms doing farm works like ploughing,planting ,harvesting . The group has een doing rotation of labour around their visons.
Mumo	MUMO	Promote food security through farming and livestock keeping.The group is remaining with 4 people to finish the issuance of goats to members. Which happens every month after a contribution of 400 per member every month. They are still helping one another with farm works and together they have set up a group syntropic farm. Some of the work they have been doing in the farms include planting,clearing land for tilling, fencing, harvesting
Maskalini	MASKA	Promote food security through farmingMembers have been in rotation helping one another in tilling land, planting and harvesting. The group has a 2 acre communal farm donated by one of the member. Right now the group is putting up poles to fence with a wire donated to them by a well wisher as they prepare to plogh the land once the rains starts. Most of the members have terraces which they are unblocking/prepare .
Inguluku	KEMWA	To improve living standards of members through keeping goats for sale in their local markets by end of 2024.The group meets on Thursdays to on about their action plans and steps forward. Currently they have two goals under care of two chama members, they also contributes some savings and loaning it to members. They have adopted the ancient practices of rotation labor, they have done terracing, fencing and land preparation for the rainy season.
Wikwatyo wa kalinga	KPS	To improve the economic capacity of the community through goat keeping by ensuring every member is keeping in their homesteads by the end of 2024.The group meets every Wednesday at their central place to talk and plan for their action steps. Currently they have six goats,all given to different numbers to take care of them, they also do savings and loaning to members. The group members have also been helping one another by uniting their efforts and working together in land preparation line tilling the soil, making fences, setting terraces, helping harvesting making granaries.

Here is the updated HTML table with the requested formatting:

Group Name	Voucher Symbol	Progress on Vision
Great vision	GRTV	Environment restoration by planting trees seedling some given to members and some sold to other people. The group has been setting tree nurseries where they sell and also plant in their farms. The group has also helped with land clearing, planting and also harvesting.
Mwakasi	MWAKA	A community with food security through Syntropic farming and livestock keeping by DEC 2024. The chama has been doing mwethyas on a weekly basis for the first cycle where they have been helping with farm work and digging terraces.
Kyeni	KYN	A community with food security through Syntropic farming and livestock keeping by DEC 2024. Members have been able to buy 2 goats for 6 members so far and they are also doing Mwethyas in their farms.
Makuka	MAKUKA	Makuka group's ambitious goal to boost agricultural production through terraces, agroforestry, and water catchment by December 2025. The group has seen more than 40 terraces on members' farms and two significant water catchment facilities.
Moseyo	MOSEYO	Moseyo group is on a mission to achieve syntropic farming for food security by December 2023. The group determination is evident in their meticulous land selection, fencing, terracing, and preparation for planting. They are awaiting the El Niño rains to start.
Wendo wa makayaa	MBUNI	The group's vision is to have a community with enough food by practicing syntropic agroforestry by December 2025. We have seen them already establish a community farm where they produce and work on a weekly basis. They have also established more than 50 terraces for their members and are working towards recruiting more group members to share in their success.
Bondeni	BONDE	To improve the economic capacity of the community through goat keeping by ensuring every member is keeping five goats in their homesteads by August 2024. The group has saved KSH 50,000 but since the price for goat purchase has gone up, they are waiting for a better season to purchase. They have already bought 2 goats.
Baraka	BARAKA	Improve food security by rearing 22 chickens, vegetable farming on one acre of land by March 2024. They have bought 22 chickens and have prepared the one acre of land, planted vegetables and are already harvesting.
Umiisyo	UMISYO	To improve their economy through rearing of 50 goats by December 2023. The group members stopped meeting 5 months ago. They have internal group wrangles; therefore, there has been no progress on the vision.
Kithito	KITHIO	Promote food security through farming, empower the group through sustainable growth via buying a public address system for the purpose of renting, production and sale of construction bricks as income-generating activities. They have so far acquired 2 manual brick-making machines and have already kickstarted a brick-selling business. They have made 3500 bricks so far and are looking forward to drying them and selling. They have a ready market. Every week they make 250-300 bricks. For the PA system, they usually contribute 20 KSH during every meeting till August next year. They are still working on their farms doing farm work like ploughing, planting, and harvesting. The group has been rotating labor around their visions.
Mumo	MUMO	Promote food security through farming and livestock keeping. The group is remaining with 4 people to finish the issuance of goats to members, which happens every month after a contribution of 400 KSH per member every month. They are still helping one another with farm work and together they have set up a group syntropic farm. Some of the work they have been doing in the farms include planting, clearing land for tilling, fencing, and harvesting.
Maskalini	MASKA	Promote food security through farming. Members have been in rotation helping one another in tilling land, planting, and harvesting. The group has a 2-acre communal farm donated by one of the members. Right now, the group is putting up poles to fence with a wire donated to them by a well-wisher as they prepare to plow the land once the rains start. Most of the members have terraces which they are unblocking/preparing.
Inguluku	KEMWA	To improve living standards of members through keeping goats for sale in their local markets by the end of 2024. The group meets on Thursdays to discuss their action plans and steps forward. Currently, they have two goats under the care of two chama members. They also contribute savings and loan it to members. They have adopted the ancient practices of rotational labor, and they have done terracing, fencing, and land preparation for the rainy season.
Wikwatyo wa kalinga	KPS	To improve the economic capacity of the community through goat keeping by ensuring every member is keeping goats in their homesteads by the end of 2024. The group meets every Wednesday at their central place to talk and plan their action steps. Currently, they have six goats, all given to different members to take care of them. They also do savings and loan to members. The group members have also been helping one another by uniting their efforts and working together in land preparation, tilling the soil, making fences, setting terraces, and helping with harvesting and making granaries.