188 ANNE M. KARANJA, MOSES M. IKIARA, THEO C. DAVIES
tives, only getting involved in production at the management level. Owners also rent
out their workshop and tools to relatives and friends. Someone working for piece
wages or a casual employee can under certain conditions produce his own goods.
When he makes ‘substantial’ savings, he may buy his own materials and use a
colleague’s (relative or friend) workshop to make and market his own goods.
However, for subsistence such metal workers largely rely on irregular and unreliable
earnings from casual employment or piecework in the workshops. Employees are
hired when needed and are paid a daily wage of about Ksh. 120 – 200 (US$ 2 – 3).
According to Kinyanjui (1996), due to diversification, poor bookkeeping and the use
of family labour and credit, SSEs are often seen as lacking in entrepreneurship and
growth. These factors, however, are often those that allow people to enter, conduct
business and survive in an otherwise hostile business environment. The use of
(un)paid family labour helps keep production costs down and improves profit margins,
as the full costs of production are not taken into account. The work translates into a
form of apprenticeship or training for the worker, whose labour is given at no imme-
diate cost.
There are two angles to diversification, namely the involvement of the entrepreneur in
other income generating activities and the investment of high proportions of the
earnings in areas other than the enterprise. According to McCormick (1991), rather
than invest in the city, small-scale entrepreneurs avoid risk by investing in land, rental
property or children’s education. ‘When business is good’, entrepreneurs at
Kamukunji prefer to invest in land and other assets rather than in the business, because
these are considered more stable sources of security in old age and in the event of
collapse of business ventures. 60 percent of the small-scale metal entrepreneurs in this
study reported that they had purchased a piece of land and/or built a permanent house
in their rural homes. Although the land purchased is very small (averaging 0.5 acres
and sometimes consisting of group-owned, unsurveyed plots in government spon-
sored settlement schemes), this is considered a significant achievement. Whether it is
precipitated by the fear of collapse of businesses given the deteriorating business envi-
ronment, or simply a cultural or traditional norm or pre-occupation of entrepreneurs,
is not clear. Respondents in our surveys seemed pre-occupied with the ‘imminent
collapse’ of business, due to the poor economic and political conditions prevailing.
In many parts of Africa, residence in the city for rural-urban migrants is mainly to earn
money. It is believed that cities have more and better opportunities for this. The hope
and expectation to return ‘home’ eventually is nurtured through the maintenance of
strong ties^28 (Huntington 1977, Oucho 1986, Gugler 1997). Even those born in the
city and committed to an urban life know of another ‘real home’ and the possibility of
- This includes, remittances, visits to and fro as well as involvement and contributions to family, clan
and community activities both in town and ‘at home’.