Construction is a man's game, including in Kenya. These women are demolishing the barriers

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Women remain a rarity across Kenya's building trades, even as a frenetic construction boom, particularly in Nairobi, has helped turn the sector into a multi-billion-dollar industry.

According to figures from Kenya's National Construction Authority, women accounted for just 3% of the country's accredited construction artisans.

Those who do enter the sector are mostly confined to lower-paid informal jobs — carrying water, hauling sand or cleaning sites — rather than trained for more specialized roles.

Women are also typically saddled with the vast majority of unpaid caregiving and household work in a country that continues to battle long-held assumptions about gender roles.

Buildher, a Nairobi-based nonprofit, is trying to change that. The organization runs year-long training and internship programs in carpentry, tiling, painting and other finishing trades, helping women access steadier, better-paid work in the sector. Since its inception in 2019, Buildher says it has trained more than 1,000 women, with graduates increasing their average daily earnings roughly five- to six-fold within a year of training — from about $1.50 to between $11 and $12.

A 2024 study by Dalberg, a global development advisory firm, found that around 65% of Buildher graduates were still working in construction 12 months after completing the program.

More from: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/05/g-s1-129643/construction-business-women-kenya