In Kakuma refugee camp, women mechanics are rewriting who keeps it moving

In Kakuma refugee camp in north-western Kenya, Sharon Mwende and Norah Matanda spend their days under car bonnets, servicing engines, brakes and suspension systems at the UNHCR's motor vehicle workshop. Both trained through a UN Women programme and are among a small but growing number of women entering an automotive repair trade long dominated by men, Nation.africa reported on 24 September 2026.

Their route into the garage was unusual. Mwende grew up in Lodwar, the main town of Turkana County, and after secondary school sold second-hand clothes, earning around KES 6,000 (about US$46 at current rates) a month, according to Nation.africa. Matanda was drawn to the trade after watching her brother work as a mechanic.

From classroom to the workshop floor

Mwende enrolled for a Certificate in Automotive Engineering at Kenya's National Industrial Training Authority and became the first beneficiary of UN Women's Leap project — formally the Women's Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection in Crisis Response programme — after being selected from a pool of nine women and 21 men, Nation.africa reported. She now works at the UNHCR workshop while studying for a diploma in supply chain management and logistics, and says the income has made her financially independent and able to support her parents.

Matanda trained on a scholarship from the Catholic Church's Don Bosco Training Institute, graduating in automotive engineering and wiring, before completing further training through the same UN Women programme, according to the outlet. She told Nation.africa that the trade has given her security: "Being a mechanic is a good skill; I cannot sleep hungry with it."

Lifting heavy machinery, proving themselves twice

Both women described similar obstacles. Mwende said she struggles at times to lift heavy machinery and regularly faces clients who doubt a woman can do the job properly. Matanda, according to Streamlinefeed, said she frequently has to prove her competence in ways male mechanics do not, on top of irregular income and a lack of mentors in the trade. She has said she hopes eventually to open her own garage and train other aspiring women mechanics.

A colleague at the workshop, Vitus Tangishaka, has publicly backed the pair's professional ability, Streamlinefeed reported — a small but notable show of support in a male-dominated field.

Kakuma's economy, and a distinct story from Dadaab

Kakuma, established in Turkana County in 1992, now hosts roughly 300,000 refugees from around 20 countries, according to UNHCR data, making it one of East Africa's largest camps alongside Kalobeyei settlement nearby — though Dadaab, in Garissa County, remains Kenya's single largest refugee complex. Formal jobs such as those at the UNHCR workshop are scarce and prized; most residents depend on an informal economy of small shops and services. A World Bank and International Finance Corporation study found the camp supports more than 2,000 refugee- and host-run businesses with a consumer market worth about KES 6 billion (roughly US$56 million at the time of that research), Capital FM reported.

Kakuma is distinct from Dadaab, the refugee camp complex in Garissa County near Kenya's border with Somalia, which Fica News has reported on separately this year amid flooding and funding shortfalls. The two camps have different populations, locations and administrations, though both fall under Kenya's broader Shirika Plan to integrate refugee settlements with host communities.

The UN Women Leap programme that trained Mwende and Matanda, funded by the government of Japan, has run vocational and livelihood courses for women in both Turkana County, where Kakuma sits, and Garissa County, home to Dadaab, according to UN Women. Beneficiaries elsewhere in the programme have included women trained in beadwork, handicrafts and cooperative businesses.

What it signals

Analysts and camp-based programmes increasingly frame vocational training, rather than aid alone, as a route to self-reliance for refugees who in Kenya cannot legally work outside designated areas without specific permits. Mwende and Matanda's jobs at the UNHCR workshop remain exceptions rather than the rule in Kakuma's informal economy, but their visibility — profiled by name in national media — marks a shift in how the camp's labour force is being described, from aid statistics to individual careers.

Neither woman's long-term plans were reported beyond Matanda's stated ambition to open her own garage. It is not yet clear how many other women the Leap project has placed in similar technical roles across Kakuma and Kalobeyei.