The County of Narok Department Trade and Industrialization undertakes measures to enhance and expand trade and industrialization in the county. The measures include policy formulation, partnership with the private sector to make capital and credit facilities more accessible and facilitation of relevant licenses and permits.

The programmes of the County of Narok Department Trade and Industrialization are based on the Narok County Integrated Development Plan 2018-22. Through this plan, the department aims to uplift the livelihoods of 243,628 residents of Narok from poverty.

The department focuses on Economic Empowerment, Social Empowerment, Women and Youth Empowerment through enhanced education and social welfare; and Increase/improve agricultural produce marketing infrastructure.

The Department is also engaged in ensuring Consumer Protection and Fair Trade practices.

The department’s vision is to be a national leader in promoting trade and investment by championing an enabling business environment.

• Services Offered
• Service Charter
• Contacts

The Narok County Tourism and Wildlife sector is compromised of two sub-secotrs namely Tourism and Wildlife Heritage. The scetors are crucial for the County sustainable economic development, job creation and poverty reduction.

The sector envisions being a premier tourism destination in Africa with a mission to develop and promote unique and diverse tourism products within a sustainable framework and to facilitate tourism investment by championing enabling legal and policy framework for domestic and export business to thrive.

The sector envisions being a premier tourism destination in Africa with a mission to develop and promote unique and diverse tourism products within a sustainable framework and to facilitate tourism investment by championing enabling legal and policy framework for domestic and export business to thrive.

Strategic Objectives

• To reduce poaching and effectively manage wildlife resources.
• To improve accessibility, communication and connectivity.
• To increase wildlife dispersal area.
• To ensure constant availability of Revenue from the Mara regardless of the season.
• To promote Mara ecosystem as a filming destination.
• To enhance conference tourism.

Services Offered

• Developing tourism policy standards.
• Development and promotion of tourism.
• Tourism research and monitoring.
• Protection of tourism regulation.
• Training of tourism services and marketing for local and international tourists.
• Promotion of cultural tourism and women empowerment through the Ushanga initiative.

Ushanga Initiative

Introdution

The Ushanga initiative, started in 2016 with an aim of empowering women from the pastoral communities through Community based tourism to get them into commercial beadworks through the co-operative model of doing business.

The initiative seeks to transform the traditional bead activity practiced by women from Narok County into a commercial business in order to improve their livelihoods and to integrate their products into the mainstream economy.

Beadwork for a long time has been the cultural mainstay of the Maasai; some even ascertain that Narok County is the origin of Maasai beadwork. Back then, most of the beads were made for sentimental and cultural values and were not for any commercial purposes. Each community / Maasai sub-tribe had a unique sense of style and story behind their different type of beadwork which needs to be preserved and protected In the modern age , most of the pastoralist women have strived to commercialize beadwork but have faced major challenges namely:- Ineffective marketing of their beadwork products ; Exploitation ; Low quality of beads products produced and lack of access to knowledge and added value

Stakeholders

The project is a multi-sectoral initiative and it has the following stakeholders:-

1. Office of the Deputy President –focal point of communication, coordination and oversight of the project.
2. Ministry of Tourism – the lead implementing agency in terms of product development, capacity building, marketing and promotion of the Ushanga and Shanga Project. The critical institutions within the Ministry will include : Kenya Tourism Board and Tourism Finance Corporation
3. Ministry of Industry, Trade and Cooperatives – registration of cooperatives and assist in capacity building of the cooperatives

Components of the project

1. Creation of awareness and project sensitization of the Ushanga Initiative

- Conveying the knowledge and benefits of the Ushanga Narok Initiative

2. Bead Mapping and Profiling

- Providing a powerful tool to better understand the beadwork in Narok and further identify the potential

3. Mobilize women into co-operatives

- Co-operatives have the benefit of social interaction, collective marketing & bargaining power , Economies of Scale and sustainability of Ushanga Enterprise.

4. Capacity Development

- Enhance their technical skills in beading and their entrepreneurial skills.

5. Development of Infrastructure

- Development of Training Centers , Workshops and Galleries .

6. Market Development

- Expand to untapped local, regional and international market for bead.

Achievements

Since its inception in 2016, the Narok County Ushanga Initiative has made some notable steps. Namely :-

1. Created Awareness of the Narok Ushanga Initiative throughout the 30 Wards in Narok County
2. Registered and facilitated certification of 18 beadwork co-operatives

The co-operative were formed with the following consideration:-

1. Administrative units of the County
2. The communities involved
3. The type of beadwork

The 18 co-operatives

SUB COUNTY	LOCATION	NAME OF CO-OPERATIVE
Narok North	Town	ENDUATA NADUPOREKI CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
Narok East	Suswa	ENKIBUNGA SUSWA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD
	Ntulele	MOSIRO NALEPO BEADWORK WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LTD.
	EorEkule	NALEPO ILDAMAT BEADWORK WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
Trans Mara West & Trans Mara East	Kilgoris Central Ward	OSUPUKO LEMAA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Shankoe / Keyian Ward	OSIM LEMAA IWUASINKISHU CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Lolgorian	ENTAEI WOMEN BEADWORKS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	EmuruaDikirr	DIKIRR CHEMALUK BEADWORK WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
Narok West	Siana- Sekenani	SIANA SHANGA WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Naikarra	NAIKARRA NABOISHO BEADWORK WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Aitong	MARA BEADS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Mulot	ILMASOSA BEADS CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETTY LIMITED
Narok South	Entasikira	EWANGAN ELOITA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Narosura	NASHILI ENGARE CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Majimoto	OSILIGI LOMARETA BEADWORK WOMEN CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Olulunga	NABIKI CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
Narok North	Olokurto	ENCHULA ENKAJI EMAA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED
	Oloropil	ENKOROPIL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY LIMITED

Trainings

1. Training for TOTs (Training of Trainers ) in Narok Town
2. Camp Training

The initiative organized a 15 day training in 3 camps ( Nkoilale, Mararianta and Kawai centres ). These trainings sought to strengthen the business and production capacity of the women as well as improve the competitiveness of beadwork from both local and world markets

3. Master Beaders Training

The initiative organized a training for Master Beaders who would become trainers of trainers at Watakatifu Wote in Kajiado County

Profiling of beaders in Narok County

-This will enable Ushanga Narok to know the competitive advantage of each beader and categorize them

Future of Narok Ushanga Initiative

The Ushanga & Shanga Initiative envisages that there will be a company dealing with the beads market in the international market. It will therefore be a company which will be involved in finding the market for the various types of beads made by the Maasai women who will be bound to sell their products (beads) through their co-operative societies.

Members will individually make their beads which will sell it to the co-operative society in line with their mutual agreement. Payment can be done at the point of selling the beads or after selling to the end market. The negotiation is between the member and co-operative society and available market outlet.

Contacts

• tourism@narok.go.ke