04/08/2026
Last week, our Enterprise Development team travelled to Faza Town on Pate Island in Lamu East Constituency. The purpose of the visit was to engage communities around local enterprise and economic opportunities. Yet, before any conversation about entrepreneurship, investment, or economic transformation could begin, the journey itself became a lesson in inequality.
Reaching Faza is an experience that reveals the geography of exclusion. From Lamu Island, we boarded a public boat for a two-hour journey across the Indian Ocean to Mtangawanda on Pate Island. From there, another hour on a rough, uneven road led us to Faza. The distance itself is not extraordinary; what makes the journey arduous is the absence of reliable infrastructure. For decades, communities on Pate Island have endured roads that are little more than rugged tracks, making movement slow, uncomfortable, and unpredictable. It is only now, with elections on the horizon, that sections of the road are beginning to receive attention.
For generations, mobility in Faza has depended less on vehicles than on human endurance. Walking remains the most reliable means of transport, while donkeys continue to serve as the backbone of local movement and commerce. Only three to five matatus operate along the route, making public transport both scarce and inconsistent. For many residents who have spent their lives on the island, the experience of travelling on a well-paved road is not a memory-it is an unfamiliar idea.
As we entered Faza Town, another reality emerged. The streets were dim, households were lined with untethered donkeys, and darkness settled over the town long before the night had fully arrived. It was not simply an evening without light; it was a community living with chronic energy poverty. Only a handful of homes glowed, powered not by the national grid but by privately owned solar systems affordable only to a few.
For years, residents have appealed to successive governments for a stable electricity supply. Their plea is not merely about lighting homes; it is about unlocking economic potential and safeguarding essential public services. Fishing is the lifeblood of Faza's economy, yet without dependable electricity, preserving fish becomes a daily struggle. Cold storage facilities remain out of reach, forcing fishermen to sell quickly, often at lower prices, or risk losing their catch altogether. The consequences extend beyond livelihoods. Faza Hospital, the area's primary healthcare facility, also depends on electricity for much of its day-to-day operations-from running essential medical equipment and refrigeration for medicines and vaccines to supporting emergency and maternity services. Frequent power outages and prolonged rationing therefore affect not only incomes but also the quality and reliability of healthcare available to the community, turning an infrastructure challenge into both an economic and public health concern.
Rather than investing in a sustainable solution, residents say they were provided with ageing generators previously used on Lamu Island. The result is a fragile and unreliable power system characterised by constant rationing. Villages receive electricity for only a few hours at a time-sometimes as little as three hours a day-and there are periods when entire communities spend up to a week without power.
These are not simply infrastructure deficits. They are structural barriers to economic participation. They shape who can do business, who can preserve value, who can access markets, and ultimately, who gets left behind in Kenya's development story. Before discussing enterprise development in Faza, it is necessary to understand these realities, because entrepreneurship cannot thrive where the foundations of opportunity remain absent.
