Hearthholds of mobile money in western Kenya

Abstract

Kenyans use mobile money services to transfer money to friends and relatives via mobile phone text messaging. Kenya's M-Pesa is one of the most successful examples of digital money for financial inclusion. This article uses social network analysis and ethnographic information to examine ties to and through women in 12 mobile money transfer networks of kin, drawn from field data collected in 2012, 2013, and 2014. The social networks are based on reciprocal and dense ties among siblings and parents, especially mothers. Men participate equally in social networks, but as brothers and mother's brothers more often than as fathers. The matrilineal ties of mobile money circulate value within the hearthhold (Ekejiuba 2005) of women, their children, and others connected to them. Using remittances, families negotiate investments in household farming or work, education, and migration. Money sending supports the diverse economic strategies, flexible kinship ties, and mobility of hearthholds. Gifts of e-money are said to express a natural love and caring among mothers and siblings and are often private and personal. Consequently, the money circulations of the hearthhold avoid disrupting widely shared ideals of patrilineal solidarity and household autonomy.

Scripting development through formalization: accounting for the diffusion of village savings and loans associations in Tanzania

“…). Public discourse about money draws attention to the importance of using money responsibly (Kusimba, Yang & Chawla ).…”

“…The generative power of money means that it is extremely private, even between domestic partners, who may choose to keep assets and cash 'secret and separate' (Geheb et al 2008). Public discourse about money draws attention to the importance of using money responsibly (Kusimba, Yang & Chawla 2016).…”

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“…Most Kenyans participate in numerous networks; family networks shaped by money transfers are reciprocal and often involve siblings, cousins, mothers, and mothers' kin. Women and men can have positions of advantage, such as central nodes with many connections or bridges between different family groups-these women may be family matriarchs, employed or schooling daughters, cousins who look after the family farm, and so on (Kusimba, Yang, andChawla 2015, 2016).…”

“…The mobile account certainly gives highly valued security and privacy, which can enable secret or even illicit transfers and payments (Kusimba, Yang, and Chawla 2015). Security was indeed important in this rural area of semipermanent housing, and was represented on drawings as a flashlight or a neighbor.…”

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“…M-Pesa links into informal networks of reciprocal transfers and expands the social circles of mutual obligation (Jack et al 2013;Mas and Radcliffe 2010). Centring on women-centred household units, mobile money networks in Western Kenya both facilitate resource pooling among extended kin and provide new economic and social opportunities (Kiiti and Mutinda 2011;Kusimba et al 2016). These 'matrilineal ties of mobile money', which are sibling focused, build on affective elements of caring and support.…”