Summary
Introduction
Engages with digital tools with real-time support, building basic capability through guided use.
Uses digital tools independently for a defined set of tasks, within a limited and stable repertoire.
Navigates digital tools independently across contexts, including more complex and evolving systems.
Pathways Segment
Of Reproductive Age Women
Devices
Relevance
Mobile Ownership (DHS-8 2022)
Smartphone Ownership
Uses Mobile for Financial Transactions
Any Internet Use Last Month
Functional Use
Entirely offline use centred on calls and M-Pesa, with minimal media engagement (primarily radio), supporting basic communication and transactions.
Mixed use combining calls and M-Pesa with occasional, largely passive social media use (sometimes via shared devices) and limited offline media.
Data-led use across multiple apps spanning social, financial, and information needs, supporting work, transactions, and networked coordination across daily activities.
Functional Use Deep Dive
Reach and Connection
Uses regular calls for business and personal needs, sometimes on borrowed phones. Messaging and social media use is very limited or non-existent.
Uses regular calls to stay in touch with family and customers. May use WhatsApp to send and receive voice notes with known contacts, with limited exploration beyond this. May passively access Facebook through borrowed devices.
Uses WhatsApp for everyday communication across personal and business needs, as well as church and school-related networks. Also uses Facebook to maintain and expand her social connections.
Entertainment and Stress Relief
Relies primarily on radio for entertainment, religious sermons, and health-related information. May consume offline media when it is made available.
Primarily consumes social media content passively when she has access via a shared device. Entertainment may centre on music and video content shared via Bluetooth, Xender, or memory cards. May use offline apps such as Bible apps, games, or basic photo filters, with engagement oriented toward consumption rather than posting or active participation.
Actively engages on platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, and Facebook by posting and interacting with content. May also download content for children.
Learning and Growth
Learning opportunities through digital platforms are limited. Use is not oriented toward intentional information-seeking.
May come across information incidentally but does not typically search widely across platforms. May use WhatsApp groups to share with known networks and ask specific questions.
Actively uses platforms such as Google, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok to search for information (e.g., health information for new mothers). May stay updated with national or local news through social media or other online media.
Transactions and Financial Security
Primarily receives money via M-Pesa and may rely on others for assistance with transactions. M-Pesa may also be used via putting SIMs in others’ phones.
Uses M-Pesa for transactions and may engage with related services such as Pochi accounts or savings features within the M-Pesa ecosystem.
Likely a confident M-Pesa user and uses it actively for day-to-day requirements. May use additional apps such as NHIF to access insurance or manage health-related funds.
Self Promotion and Expression
Use does not extend to self-promotion or personal expression.
Engagement is largely passive and oriented toward consumption rather than self-promotion or active personal expression.
Actively shares and posts content on platforms such as Facebook and TikTok for both business needs and personal expression.
Health and Finance Tracking
Does not typically engage in financial or health tracking on digital devices.
Does not typically engage in financial or health tracking on digital devices.
May use specific apps or services for health and financial tracking.
Learnings from Interactive Voice Response Survey
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
In urban Kenya, among the 57 women involved in casual work who responded to questions on digital benefits, 35% mentioned being able to contact people for work as a key benefit of using digital. Among the 51 women with small businesses who responded to the same, 25% reported the same.
In urban Kenya, among the 57 women involved in casual work who responded to questions on digital benefits, 49% mentioned ease of financial transactions as a key benefit of using digital. Among the 51 women with small businesses who responded to the same, 49% reported the same.
In urban Kenya, among the 57 women involved in casual work who responded to questions on digital benefits, 25% mentioned being able to communicate with customers and suppliers as a key benefit of using digital. Among the 51 women with small businesses who responded to the same, 47% reported the same.
Skills
Has Secondary and Above Education
Can Read Full Sentences
Cannot Read at All
Skills
Has minimal exposure and lower education, constraining use; learns through repeated demonstration and pattern recognition, relying on intermittent support from others and intermediaries for basic tasks.
Has limited early exposure but strong literacy enabling essential use; learns through observation and repeated guidance, managing familiar tasks independently while relying on others for more complex ones.
Has early exposure and higher education enabling confident, advanced use; learns through observation and independent exploration, with strong ability to transfer skills across tasks.
Skills Deep Dive
Base Capabilities
Very limited to no exposure to digital as children combined with relatively lower educational levels means that learning anything beyond the basics can be a struggle.
Early exposure to digital is limited and education levels are moderate. However, high lteracy levels may compensate a little allowing them to pick up essential digital skills as adults.
Early facilitation from parents, siblings, or peers may have supported familiarity and confidence. This combined with high education levels likely means that they are well positioned for advanced digital use.
Learning Style
Learns through repeated demonstration and observation in adulthood. Often requires ongoing and patient facilitation. Learning may rely on recognising symbols, prompts, and memorised patterns.
Learns by observing other women, husbands, children, friends, or neighbours. May explore independently but can be hesitant to ask for help. Learns through repeated demonstrations and may require ongoing facilitation that, at times, comes from a child or friend.
May be considered a digital native due to early exposure. Learns through observation, one-off nudges, and independent exploration of advanced uses.
Learning Needs
Requires support for basic phone functions such as calling and using M-Pesa.
May require assistance with tasks beyond the basics, including social media navigation or loading airtime and data bundles.
Likely fully independent in performing basic to intermediate digital tasks. May seek support for advanced apps, services, or content-based tasks. Occasional encouragement from influential figures in her network may help unlock new uses.
Facilitators
May struggle due to inconsistent facilitation. Likely to depend on M-Pesa agents, neighbours, or friends for assistance with transactions.
Children may assist with more complex tasks, while husbands, friends, or close contacts may provide regular support. M-Pesa agents and similar intermediaries may also play a role.
Benefits from a wide group of facilitators, including family and peers in early years, with peer facilitation becoming more prominent over time.
Findings Across Personas
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
In Kenya, there appears to be a broader and more diverse range of facilitators compared to other geographies. Support may come not only from family members but also from peers, neighbours, or local agents.
Certain digital processes, such as M-Pesa transactions that require reading confirmation messages, may prompt women to seek assistance from others to interpret and respond appropriately.
Passive facilitation, where tasks are completed for women rather than demonstrated, may discourage independent learning over time. This may be particularly evident among older women who rely heavily on children for digital actions.
Safety
Safety
Has limited awareness and capacity to respond; engagement with systems like M-Pesa may expose them to financial risks, with mitigation often relying on others.
Primarily concerned with M-Pesa-related risks; may take limited direct action and often mitigates through self-restriction or by relying on others (e.g., children).
Aware of diverse digital risks, including financial and privacy concerns, and may use multiple strategies to manage them while largely maintaining active use.
Safety and Security Deep Dive
Perception of Risk
Primarily concerned with financial fraud; other digital risks may be less salient.
Primarily concerned with M-Pesa privacy and the risk of financial fraud.
Aware of a range of digital threats, including account hacking and broader privacy risks that extend beyond financial transactions.
Influences on Risk Perception
Very limited early access may mean caution is not rooted in childhood restriction but develops later through direct encounters with fraud, financial loss, or community warnings.
With limited early exposure, risk perception may be shaped less by parental monitoring and more by adult experiences, peer narratives, or stories of financial fraud within her network.
Earlier parental restrictions may shape ongoing caution or privacy strategies, particularly where digital use was framed as socially risky for girls.
Response to Digital Risks
May experience financial fraud most directly but lack clear tools or strategies to respond. Digital use remains necessary, particularly for M-Pesa, even where confidence is limited.
Aware of risks but may take limited protective action. May self-restrict in response to fear or low confidence and sometimes rely on children or trusted others to manage privacy.
May take proactive measures such as using passwords and privacy controls, while continuing digital engagement with confidence.
Findings Across Personas
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
Women adopt varying strategies to protect digital activity. For those with limited use, privacy management focuses primarily on securing M-Pesa. For others, broader platform use requires layered strategies across multiple apps and devices.
Learnings from Interactive Voice Response Survey
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
Among the 405 women in urban Kenya who responded to questions on phone security, approximately 70% reported using PINs or passwords as a security measure on their phones.
Affordability
Is in the Top 40% by Household Wealth Nationally
Has Year Long Employment or Livelihood Activity
Participates in Household Decision Making
Partner Works in a Professional or Managerial Role
Household has Electricity
Device Resourcing
Relies heavily on hand-me-down and shared phones, often of poor quality; may purchase a basic, often second-hand device if required for livelihood activities, with access dependent on others.
Often uses hand-me-down or partner-provided phones (frequently feature phones); may borrow or share devices, with access sometimes controlled by others.
Has early device exposure, often linked to educational milestones, and maintains independent ownership, rarely relying on borrowing.
Discontinuities
Disruption may be the status quo, requiring ongoing adaptation to interruptions.
Disruptions are strongly felt, with slow recovery due to fewer available pathways and more limited resources.
Disruptions are strongly felt, but recovery is relatively quicker, reflecting higher resilience through multiple pathways, stronger networks, and greater resources.
Resourcing and Purchasing Deep Dive
Early Access to Device
Likely had very limited exposure to phones early in life, with little or no access during childhood.
Unlikely to have had her own phone in childhood but may have accessed phones belonging to parents, older siblings or friends.
Likely to have had early access to shared devices as children with independent access as they became older. May receive phones tied to educational milestones. Sometimes phones are purchased and viewed as a source of pride.
Current Device Access
At times hand-me-down phones may be given to them from people in their networks. If phones are essential for work then a second hand basic phone may be bought. However, access likely remains disrupted with long periods without devices. During this time they may rely on borrowing devices and inserting their SIMs into it, especially for M-Pesa use.
May buy basic or feature phones on her own. Smartphones ownership is likely rare and may be the result of a partner or other family member upgrading their phone.
May use shared or household phones. While this provides access, privacy may be limited. During access gaps, she may insert her SIM into another person’s phone.
Very likely to independently own smartphones as adults.
Findings Across Personas
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
In urban Kenya, women appear more likely to purchase phones independently compared to several other geographies. This may reflect relatively higher financial autonomy. Across personas, even women with more constrained access may purchase devices through savings or incremental payment arrangements.
Borrowing phones and swapping SIM cards is common and socially normalised. Rather than borrowing entire devices long-term, women may temporarily insert their SIM cards into another person’s phone to maintain continuity of access.
Many women may purchase phones primarily for their children’s education and then use or borrow these devices when needed. In this way, devices acquired for one purpose often become shared household resources.
Discontinuities Deep Dive
Disruptions Caused by Financial Shocks, Damage, Degradation and Loss
Disruption is likely the norm, with access often being dependent on inserting her SIM in borrowed phones.
Disruptions may be particularly acute when dependent on M-Pesa for employment or nano-enterprise. Temporary solutions may include borrowing devices or inserting her SIM into another phone for essential transactions.
May also be more exposed to damage, loss, or theft due to work conditions. Ownership of lower-quality or second-hand devices may increase the likelihood of recurring technical issues. May experience long digital gaps due to phone downgrades, leading to erosion of competence.
Where phones are central to work or social support networks, disruptions may be significant and are often addressed quickly due to their functional importance.
In cases where the phone is used primarily for companionship or access to supportive online communities, disruptions may also be significant and can affect emotional wellbeing or perceived quality of life.
Access to broader social networks may help mitigate gaps through borrowing or temporary downgrades, though such shifts can reduce functionality and continuity of use.
Managing Recurring Costs (data, airtime etc.)
Usage is likely entirely dataless and therefore airtime is more important than data and managing it represents a real cost. Even when they don’t own personal devices, using borrowed devices requires them to insert their SIMs and spend their airtime.
Rare smartphone ownership is often facilitated by pay-as-you-use credit schemes. In these cases device locking due to missed payments is a siginificant challenge and can happen often.
Airtime or data may be purchased in short-term bundles (even as little as 30 mins validity) and maximise usage during active periods, for example by downloading content for later viewing. Actively managing data costs is an ongoing concern, with provider data credit facilities extensively used.
Smartphone access may be facilitated through MKOPA or similar repayment plans. Devices may sometimes be prioritised for children’s education but shared within the household. Repayment cycles may require ongoing financial management, and missed payments can result in temporary device locking.
Actively managing data costs may be an ongoing challenge. She may look for opportunities to access free or lower-cost Wi-Fi to reduce expenses.
Charging Cycles
Charging may be less disruptive as use is limited, though dependence on shared infrastructure can still create gaps in access.
May not always have reliable charging facilities at home and may depend on neighbours or nearby charging centres. Disruptions may occur but are often short-lived where infrastructure is accessible. Older devices or degraded batteries may contribute to faster battery drain.
Likely to have relatively stable access to electricity at home.
Findings Across Personas
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
Mobile theft and device degradation appear relatively common in urban Kenya. Women using informal or mobile forms of labour may face greater exposure to damage or loss. Downgrades to feature phones or extended repair periods may lead to temporary erosion of digital confidence or continuity.
Taking data or airtime advances from providers appears to be a relatively common practice across Kenya, reflecting the need to smooth short-term gaps in liquidity.
Learnings from Interactive Voice Response Survey
Independent Intermediate,
Independent Advanced
Among the 90 women in urban Kenya who responded to questions on mobile data use and spending, the median frequency was seven times per week, at a median cost of $0.16 for 0.2 GB of data, which may suggest frequent, small-value data recharges in a relatively high-cost context.
Among the 405 women in urban Kenya who responded to questions on phone charging, approximately 14% reported charging their phones at stations outside their homes.
Among the 31 women in urban Kenya who reported using charging stations outside the home, phones were kept there for an average of 13 hours per week.
Norms
Has Internalised Domestic Violence
Has Experienced any Domestic Violence
Impact of Control and Coercion on Digital Access and Use
Use may be monitored by partners despite being limited; may not self-restrict under pressure if it is likely to impact household income.
More likely to self-restrict to maintain household harmony, avoiding conflict even when it limits use.
More likely to push back against restrictions, which may lead to prolonged friction and, at times, escalation to violence.
Norms Deep Dive
Early Digital Norms
Unlikely to have had early digital exposure. In many cases, parents may themselves have limited digital familiarity, which may reduce active monitoring even when access is available.
Unlikely to have had early digital exposure. In many cases, parents may themselves have limited digital familiarity, which may reduce active monitoring even when access is available.
Parents, who are themselves relatively capable digital users may monitor their daughters’ digital use to ostensibly keep them safe online. This monitoring and control may loosen as children grow up.
Monitoring and Coercion After Marriage/Co-Habitation
Monitoring and control can extend to offline use with husbands or partners checking messages and calls logs.
Husbands or partners may monitor social media use, sometimes linked to concerns around infidelity. In some cases, women may be “banned” from using certain apps that expose them to unknown contacts.
Husbands or partners may monitor social media use, sometimes linked to concerns around infidelity. In some cases, women may be “banned” from using certain apps that expose them to unknown contacts.
Response to Normative Control
Usage is generally basic, and partner monitoring may not always result in self-restriction, especially when phone use is connected to livelihood needs.
May self-restrict or limit digital exploration due to normative expectations, particularly in cases of shared phone use with partners. Digital use may be moderated and exploration curtailed as a way to avoid conflict or suspicion.
Some women may push back against this control and continue to find ways to engage online, including using passwords for privacy control. This pushback can create tension within the relationship and may in turn trigger partner violence.
